Get involved

Would you like to experience the festival from behind the scenes?

Wokingham Festival is run by a not-for-profit organisation, and wouldn’t be possible without the help of our amazing volunteers.  

If you’d like to help make it happen, why not come and volunteer with us? Meet new friends, enjoy the music and atmosphere, and be part of a friendly and supportive team who make a wonderful event run smoothly.  Maybe you’ll even learn some new skills?  All we need is your time, enthusiasm and commitment … and a big smile.  

In return you’ll earn our undying gratitude, a sense of pride in contributing to one of the best run festivals around (see the testimonialson our home page), and our crew perks. 

Unlike some festivals, we recruit our volunteers directly, so we won’t ask you for a deposit, and we look after your welfare.  Everything is done on a trust basis.  

During the Festival itself (on Sat / Sun / Mon), we ask for a minimum of 5 hours of your time in a day, in blocks of 1, 2 or 3 hours at a time.  For the rest of the day, you are free to enjoy the festival.  We’ll even ask you which acts you most want to see, and do our level best to schedule your shifts around them.  

For other duties (i.e. setup, takedown and flyer deliveries), we have no minimum time requirements - just do what you can.  For more details, please see our Volunteer FAQs and Volunteer T&Cs.

We have a range of roles (see below), whether you fancy helping in the car park, on the ticket desk, on the merch desk, in the bar, litter picking, or a number of other tasks.  And if you love assembling and disassembling fencing, erecting gazebos, or building a bar, we’d love to have you with us for setup and takedown before and after the Festival too. 

We’re a friendly, helpful bunch, and will never ask you to do anything beyond your capabilities.

During the Festival, duties can include

• Ticket desk at the gate - sell on-the-day tickets with a till that does all the arithmetic, or check in pre-paid ticket holders and people on our guest list.  Welcome all our visitors with a friendly smile, and fit their wristbands
  (may be seated when quiet, but mostly standing / walking when busy: 2-6 people at a time, depending on time of day)

• Merch desk - sell Wokingham Festival merch (T-shirts); assist / direct the people manning artists’ own merch desks
  (can be mostly seated: 1 person at a time)

• Bar - serve beers, ciders and soft drinks, using a pictorial till that does all the arithmetic; take cash and card payments
  (standing / walking: 3-12 people at a time, depending on time of day)

• Litter - use litter pickers to clean the field, and empty wheelie bin bags into the skip
  (walking and carrying: 1-2 people at a time)

• Car Park steward - direct Festival attendees and artists who are playing on the Marquee Stage to suitable parking spaces.  Maximise the number of vehicles we can fit in
  (very occasional sitting if quiet, but mostly standing / walking: 2-4 people at a time)

• Artist Gate steward - check for Artist passes; direct Main Stage artists to parking area and backstage entrance
  (a mix of sitting and limited walking: 1 person at a time)

• Housekeeping - ensure that the toilets are kept stocked up with loo roll, and that hand sanitiser dispensers are restocked
  (walking: 1-2 people at a time)

• Silent Disco steward (supported by Security) on Saturday and Sunday evening - clear chairs from the WMC marquee after the last live artist, and then hand out and help people to work the headphones, and check headphones back in again 
  (requires strong communication skills, and confident, firm but friendly interaction with the public; active standing after chairs are cleared: 1-2 people for an hour or two in total)

• Miscellaneous - other tasks as need arises

Some of the volunteer duties that we typically need before and after the Festival include

• Flyer deliveries to local residents (a month or two before the festival)

• Setup (Thursday - physical, heavy construction and lifting; approx 15 people)

• Setup (Friday - mostly physical; approx 15-20 people)

• Take down (Tuesday - mostly physical; approx 15-20 people)

We need far more volunteers during the live Festival (approx 40-50 per day) than for setup / take down or for flyer deliveries.  Saturday is usually our busiest day, so if you can only offer one day, we’d love it to be Saturday.

If you are interested in joining our friendly team of volunteers, we will be inviting people to register an interest in volunteering for the 2026 Festival shortly. The core team of organisers are volunteers too, and we typically need around an additional 50 people to help us to run the festival smoothly each year. Our aim is to make the festival an enjoyable experience for everybody - including the volunteers themselves!

Closer to the festival, we’ll follow up with all registered volunteers to confirm your availability and preferences.

Please add volunteer@wokinghamfestival.co.uk to your contacts list, so that you don’t miss any messages from us.

Thank you!