Behind The Scenes At Glastonbury 2011 With Oxfam

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Glastonbury? The iconic Pyramid Stage, the fields of mud, the chart-topping artists... Oxfam? Since 1993, the charity has been part of the very fabric of Glastonbury. I set out to find out how.

My first encounter with Oxfam at Glastonbury is some stewards I meet at the Oxfam campsite before the start of their eight-hour shift on site. There are 2,000 of them and in return for their work, Oxfam gets a substantial donation from the festival’s organisers. Queuing for a morning fry-up, they explain the different roles they have: from checking tickets and welcoming festival goers at the entrance gates to monitoring crowds and chaperoning vehicles as they move through parts of the festival. Through pouring rain or scorching sun, they are those smiley faces that help you out, ensuring that the biggest festival in the country runs smoothly – and tell you the way to your tent if, after your favourite band’s performance and a few drinks, you get lost in the massive fields of Worthy Farm.

I spend good part of the second day trekking through knee-deep mud visiting the three Oxfam shops on site. All the stock has been hand-picked before the start of the festivals season from shops around the country and the volunteers have been here since Monday setting up and putting the donated stock up on the rails. So far it’s been rainy and quite chilly and the shops have already broken all previous records, raising more than £36,000 by selling festival essentials like waterproofs and warm jumpers. A volunteer who’s been doing the night shift (the shop is open until 2am) tells me that there are only a few pairs of wellies left from the hundreds they had in stock, before rushing off to help a customer with a denim skirt: it’s hard to try it on without covering it in mud, so a bit of old-style sartorial measuring should do the job. The changeable weather forecasted for the rest of the weekend makes me think that those pretty vintage frocks and funky fancy dress items at the back of the shop will also have their moment.

The big Oxfam tent on the left side of the Pyramid stage is where I meet some enthusiastic campaigners on day three. While most people are still asleep in their tents after last night’s performances – one especially, that of Oxfam’s long-term supporters Coldplay – they start their shift day by mixing green paint powder and water in about a dozen big buckets. Every day they go around the festival talking to people about Grow, Oxfam’s biggest ever campaign aimed at fixing the broken food system: by getting their hands dirty with paint, festival goers show they want to do something to ensure everyone has enough to eat. It’s sunny and hot today... is it the prospect of not getting wet today that makes them particularly happy? Matt Jackson, the coordinator, says that they are always full of energy and reveals a nice little story: on Wednesday, while people were arriving at the festival in the pouring rain, the Oxfam campaigners put their buckets of paint down and really got their hands dirty by helping people to carry luggage and put up tents – if this isn’t setting a good example, I don’t know what is…

So this is Oxfam at Glastonbury over the last eighteen years: whether selling jumpers, showing punters the way home or using paint to talk about world hunger, Oxfam is as much a part of the festival season as music, camper vans and cider.