Woman who works at Glastonbury shares 'incredible' staff perks they get during festival

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to work at Glastonbury? Well, you’re in for a treat.

After a volunteer who works at the festival came out on TikTok to brag about her excellent work perks, loads of people suddenly decided they wanted to join the team too - and to be fair, it's pretty impressive.

The Somerset event provides nearly a week of insane performances, with the likes of SZA, Charlie XCX, Dua Lipa, Coldplay and Little Simz set to take to the stage over the next five days.

But what would it be like to work there instead of attending as a guest?

According to Stef Smith, who works at The Occasional Kitchen which provides catering to Glastonbury, it’s the bees knees.

Posting to her account @stef_smith_af, she explained to jealous viewers that her perks range from free food to free access to festival shows.

She said: “I'm basically helping to serve the crew... kitchen support... and things like that.

“I'm basically doing three shifts. Tomorrow from 7.00am until 4.00pm, and then my next shift is on Wednesday from 12.30pm until 9.30pm, and then I've got a final shift on Thursday which is 7.00am until 4.00pm.”

But it’s not just a good shift pattern that she’s been blessed with, it’s her exclusive freebies.

Stef explained: “I get one meal a day when I'm working, access to the crew camping, I get to go to all of the crew bars, as well as any of the shortcut routes that only the crew can go on.

“I also get access to the crew showers as well, which are a lot better than the ones in the general camping. Toilets are better. Lots of stuff is better.”

As well as better accommodation and amenities, she also is allowed to finish the night off in the crowd to watch the last of the acts (totally free).

She said: “In return for doing that, I get to enjoy the festival. I was really lucky, actually, because I originally did try and get tickets and I didn't get them.

“It was the lady who owns this company that saw my TikTok, and she reached out to me and asked if I want to volunteer with them - obviously I'm going to say yeah!

“I've been so anxious because usually, I would want to come with a group, but I'm not going to pass up on an opportunity like this to come on my own.”

People under her comments who were currently volunteering or were former volunteers understood that her shift pattern was a lucky steal.

One person wrote: “What a sweet deal.”

Another said: “Oh, you got lucky with your shifts!!!!”

Meanwhile, someone else commented: “Well done you, what a thing to do on your own – amazing.”

The most iconic Glastonbury moments

2000: The year that nearly killed Glasto

While Glasto has always had people attempting to gatecrash, 24 years ago gatecrashers descended the infamous festival in record numbers.

It was so bad it resulted in the festival being cancelled the following year as ticketless punters swarmed the site, with fears at the time the chaos could kill off the festival altogether.

Luckily, as we know, Glasto is still going strong. Speaking to the Guardian in 2020, the festival's co-creator Michael Eavis explained: "The fence wasn’t good enough, the security was crap. So I was hauled over the coals by the police, who said: "You’ve got to get someone to organise your show. You’re a nice bloke and all that, but you couldn’t arrange something in a brewery, you know the saying?

"I said: ‘Fair enough. At least I can be guaranteed to get 150,000 people at the drop of a hat – I did get the knack of that!’”

The set that turned Coldplay into megastars

Back in 2002, the ‘Fix You’ hitmakers won fans over as they played tunes from their upcoming second album.

Apparently, the band’s agent didn’t feel they were ready for it at the time, but Eavis insisted they headlined.

And I’m sure they’re glad they listened seeing as they’ve now got nine studio albums under their belt and millions in the bank, with their A Head Full Of Dreams Tour having grossed more than half a billion dollars in its two-year run. Impressive.

Jay-Z playing Oasis on the Pyramid Stage

It was the feud no one saw coming, but in 2008 rapper Jay-Z responded to Noel Gallagher slagging off having ‘hip hop at Glastonbury’ in the most hilarious way.

The star opened up his infamous headlining set on the pyramid stage playing his own version of ‘Wonderwall’, which went down a treat with fans and spawned one of the most iconic moments in Glasto history.

The muddiest year ever

Britain isn’t exactly known for its glorious sunshine and I think that’s especially the case when it comes to festivals, which often see punters squelching through mud in their wellies, pint in hand.

Glasto in particular has become synonymous with being pretty muddy, but 2016 really took the biscuit. Even the festival’s boss said ’in all 46 years, it hasn’t been as bad as this’ as things became an absolute logistical nightmare after weeks of rainfall beforehand.

The scenes were chaotic, to say the least. Festival-goers were filmed diving into the mud and struggling to wade through gloop in such a way that made going for a pint like climbing Mount Everest. Generally, everyone was just really trying not to fall on their ars*s.

It wasn’t a pretty sight, but of course Brits still managed to embrace the music and the photos and videos have since gone down in the Glasto history books.

The Killers' secret set

The iconic band decided to take a more chilled approach to festival life by taking over the secret act slot on the John Peel stage in 2017.

However, as is usually the case with 'secret' gigs, word spread quickly as fans flooded to the stage in their droves to catch the band in action.

It was a far cry from their previous Glasto performance, which saw their headline show become marred with serious technical issues which majorly affected the sound.

Kylie's long-awaited headline set

In 2019 Kylie Minogue set the pyramid stage alight for her headline set, but she was actually meant to grace the stage much sooner.

14 years earlier, the pop princess was forced to cancel her slot after being diagnosed with breast cancer, making her appearance on the stage even more special for both her and fans.

Her set ended up being crowned the most-watched in Glastonbury’s history, raking in 3.9million watching at its peak, beating the likes of Ed Sheeran, Adele and even Beyoncé.

Alex from Glasto

That same year, rapper Dave created probably one of the most meme-able Glasto moments when he brought a bloke called Alex on stage to perform ‘Thiago Silva’ with him, which he absolutely nailed.

Safe to say the moment went viral, with the then 15-year-old becoming known as 'Alex from Glasto'.

It's no surprise really given his unreal rapping skills and the fact he was donning a bucket hat, FILA bag and Paris Saint-Germain shirt. Brilliant.