Ultimate Guide to Festivalling on a Budget in 2015

We are teetering on the brink of summer. You can almost taste the late evenings, the high hanging sense of energy, and that feeling that something big is about to happen. And nowhere are these sentiments more condensed than at one of the brilliant festivals that now populate the hot side of our calendar.

However, if you don’t have the right financial planning, you could well be frozen out of the fun and left twiddling your thumbs in front of the same old rolling social media feeds. That’s why we’ve decided to save you from a fate worse than Facebook with our top tips for saving money whilst still attending those madcap masquerades.

Work your Way Round Festivals

If you’re the type that doesn’t mind a little bit of hard graft then the opportunities for working your way round festivals are plenty. Some of these will require a few skills, but most are simply looking for workers that are enthusiastic and positive enough to do a shift in the demanding atmosphere without shirking the load.

You don’t always have to work for the man at festivals. Instead you can put a little bit of your soul into the mix and volunteer for a number of the organisations and roles within a festival. Some of the most popular include:

Oxfam Stewardship

From car park attendants through to stewards and litter collectors, there are a wealth of roles and festival locations available through stewardship schemes. One of the most popular is the Oxfam stewardship program where you can help festivals help people and help yourself to an entrance. That’s a win, win, win in anyone’s book.

Bar Staff

Every festival is awash with alcohol, with the old and young alike carried away on a raft of boozy bliss. Of course, there has to be a good line of people waiting to serve the happy juice or the public will get sober in the wait. Bar work can be a great way to meet people and get the best out of an event.

There are tons of companies out there who will find you work at festival bars and one of the best places to start is Festival Volunteer alongside Festaff and Peppermint Bars.

Working for Money

The really clever people out there will actually manage to make money from the festival circuit. With enough skill, drive and effort to get in front of the right people you can not only see your favourite bands, artists and attractions, but get paid for the pleasure too. We took the time out to look at some of the most popular professions on the circuit.

Promotional Person

Festivals are now often used to promote various products, whether this be demos of products, inflatable point of sale displays or good old fashioned flyering. Like talking to people? Then you could have an entertaining time beguiling the carefree crowds at one of the many bigger events in the UK.

This kind of work is normally found with an agency rather than by dealing directly with any events. Start your road to employment at Yes People.

Part Of An Events Team

Behind the scenes at every festival there’s a host of people making the cogs whirr and the wheels tick over. These include all kinds of technical people, lighting crews and sound engineers – so if you have a technical expereince then you can become part of the machine.

If you have the right skills, you would do best to start with an agency that can find you the right roles to match your particular expertise: try Tarren Production.

Festival Work Experience

If you think you’d like to develop your talents into the start of a career working in the festival industry, there are some good opportunities available for those with the right attitude. Make the most of these chances to get a foot on the ladder for a real job.

Artist Liaison

With the workings of each and every festival there are a number of vital roles that can be filled by individuals looking for a foot up in the industry and a bit of work experience. Who knows where these opportunities could lead in the future, one thing’s for sure, they could get a hard worker a ticket in the right now.

To get involved with artist liaison work check out individual festival sites where they’re looking for volunteers. A good place to start is Festival Republic and if you fancy having a go with the biggest in the business there’s always Glasto.

Festival Media

There is now a burgeoning support network of blogs, vlogs and online magazines that support the festival industry. All of these need fresh, new, individual content that can make their publications stand out. You’ll often find these organisations are hungry for talent – and will pay you in tickets, often gilded with a VIP edge.

Some of the more popular places to try your hand at this kind of creative work include Gigwise and the NME as these organisations are often looking for help with the load.

Saving Money on Festival Tickets

With a little ingenuity and one eye on the web it’s possible to save quite a bit of cash on the regular ticket prices published by festivals. Amongst our favourite techniques for cutting off a few quid are the following:

Good Value Festivals: You can find smaller festivals out there that won’t break the bank with their ticket prices and still deliver blisteringly hot line ups. Around the £100 mark are Gottwood, 2000Trees, Farr Festival and Blissfields.

Competitions: Lookout for ticket giveaway promotions that can land you free tickets. Secret Garden Party and V are currently running competitions.

Early Bird Tickets: A specific number of early bird discounted tickets are placed on sale early for the first bookers. These usually sell out quickly.

Group Bookings: The more you buy of something, the less each individual item should cost. That’s the philosophy behind group purchases of tickets. Many festivals, including the Wychwood Festival, Blissfields, Farr, The Great Escape and Croatia Rocks will give you a reduced rate if you have a group of friends looking to attend.

Double Bubble: With companies putting on more than one event in the calendar, you can now buy linked tickets to two of their festivals at a discount. This can be good if you like a particular brand as you will get a very similar crowd across both parties.

Family Tickets: Take the whole tribe to some of the friendliest parties in the UK where all ages are made to feel welcome. With a bit of research you can find festivals with free entry for all under-12s making them very attractive for families. Try the Isle of Wight Festival, Bestival, WOMAD and Brownstock for starters.

Student Discounts: Those in further education can ease the pressure of loans and finance with concessions on many tickets. Some of the UK’s top festivals are willing to drop a fair few quid on their entrance prices including the Isle of Wight Festival and the popular Bestival.

Sell Tickets: You can always save a considerable amount of money if you think you can sell a few tickets to your event of choice. Sites like We Represent allow you to earn entry to festivals including Latitude, Leeds and Reading for flogging a few tickets. There’s even more at The Physical Network — Bestival, Wireless and Standon Calling.

Voucher Schemes: Keep one eye out on sites like Groupon as you might find there are last minute deals you can grab on festival tickets if you have the flexibility and lifestyle that allows you to jump up at a moment’s notice.

Transport: some usfull sites:  Money Saving Expert,  Megabus, Big Green Coach,  National Express,  The Train Line.

The Final Word

There’s a huge array of festivals on over the summer, with literally something for everyone. Why limit yourself to one or two events when you can have a summer calendar of non-stop rock with a few secret money saving habits? You can have your fill of summertime fun, being at one with the Friday night faceless crowds and at the same time avoiding those Monday morning cash machine queue blues.