Essential for the festival
VOLUNTEERS
Into The Great Wide Open works with volunteers. In fact, without volunteers, there would be no festival at all. Volunteers are therefore essential for a festival like Into The Great Wide Open. As staff members, but certainly also as atmosphere creators. Every year, hundreds of people come to the island to roll up their sleeves for the best festival of the year. Are you one of them? Awesome!
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
As a volunteer, you work in exchange for access to the festival. And because you are working hard for us, we want to take good care of you. As a volunteer, you will receive three meals on the days you work, we provide a nice spot at the always cheerful volunteer campsite, and - we can't say it often enough - a wristband for the always sold-out festival weekend.
Registering as a volunteer for Into The Great Wide Open 2026 is not possible yet, but do you want to stay informed about this? Then leave your details via the form below.
Een polsbandje voor het hele festivalweekend, zodat je ook even kunt genieten van het festival waar jij hard voor werkt.
Drie maaltijden tijdens de dagen dat je werkt bij de crewcatering.
We ontmoeten elkaar van tevoren tijdens de vrijwilligersbijeenkomst. Daar leer je je team en teamleiders (subco’s genaamd) kennen.
Tijdens je werk leer je allemaal gezellige mede vrijwilligers kennen en krijg je een leuk kijkje in de keuken van een echt festival.
Je helpt mee aan een van de leukste festivals van het jaar, voor de bezoekers en artiesten ben je net zo belangrijk als je voor ons bent!
Je kunt je werk voor een culturele organisatie op je cv zetten. En natuurlijk hebben we altijd nog wel wat extra’s, maar dat houden we nog even geheim.
WE ARE LOOKING FOR:
You are enthusiastic about the festival and Vlieland, and you enjoy interacting with both the audience and the crew and artists.
You are 18 years old or older
You are available at least from August 26 to 31, 2026. Please note, this is very important because Vlieland is quite a distance to travel. Therefore, we ensure in the schedules that you never have to work on your arrival and departure days, but you do need to have ample availability.
You take into account that you do not work on your arrival and departure day, so you will not receive crew catering from us on those days. Fortunately, there is also a supermarket on the island and there are nice restaurants. So there's plenty to eat!
What
Everything: from crew catering to behind the bar, and from the art route to setup. You can get to work everywhere. We will publish the exact roles later.
When
A festival day usually starts at 10:00, but for some functions (like crew catering) as early as 07:00. The days end at the latest at 04:00 at the night location. You work in shifts that last between 6 and 8 hours per shift; as a volunteer, you work a maximum of 24 hours spread over the entire weekend.
The volunteer coordinators create a team allocation in the summer based on the preferences you provided in the registration form. Afterwards, we start working on the schedules. That is always quite a puzzle, as we take into account your availability, friends with whom you want to work, and we ensure that everyone works different shifts. So we do our best to ensure that you don't work every night, or particularly every morning very early. But, the festival always starts early and only ends late, so that means you can count on having at least one late and one early shift.
Timeline
You have registered, and now? We select who can come as a volunteer and who will unfortunately be placed on the waiting list. We take into account your availability, your group of friends, and whether you have been there before. In June you will hear if you have been selected.
Then we will get started with organizing the teams. At the volunteer meeting, you will be informed where you are assigned and who your subco is. Can’t make it? No worries. About two weeks after the meeting, we will send everyone a briefing. It will include everything you need to know to come to the island, including your team.
You can expect the schedule about a week before the festival. At that time, you will already know the most important things: what your role is, who is on your team, and when you have the boat.
Once on the island, there is always a briefing. We welcome you and you will see your workplace. This way, you will be fully prepared. But of course, that is still a while off. By that time, we will keep you updated via email as well. First, let’s get registered!
