The Spiders go with Oxfam to help steward at Glastonbury Festival.

As part of the perks at Spider, we are allowed to have an extra day of leave to use helping a charity, and this can take a whole range of forms. For my charity day this year, I went as part of a team with Oxfam to help steward at Glastonbury Festival.

I’ve been doing this for several years as it’s a great way to attend the festival for free, while helping make a big difference to Oxfam and their causes. This year, Oxfam’s campaign centred around highlighting the issues with fast fashion – and in the UK alone 11 million items of clothing go to landfill each week. Volunteer campaigners were around the festival sharing this message, while volunteer stewards like me were at the gates to check tickets and give people help and directions if they needed it. The Glastonbury organisers pay Oxfam for the equivalent we would’ve received for our time, which means we get to enjoy a free ticket to the festival.

I really enjoyed the week, the fantastic lineup of bands, glorious sunshine weather and not to mention the showers which are much more readily available on the stewards campsite. I hope I can go back next year!

Harriet Linnell – Spider