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 therefore receive three meals on the days you work, we will ensure a nice spot at the always joyful volunteer campsite, and - we can't say it often enough - a wristband for the always sold-out festival weekend.
Whether you are coming for the first time or have been volunteering for years doesn't matter. The only thing we ask from you is a minimum availability from August 27 to September 1, 2025.
A wristband for the entire festival weekend, so you can also enjoy the festival you work hard for.
Three meals during the days that you work at the crew catering.
We will meet each other in advance during the volunteer meeting. There you will get to know your team and team leaders (called subco's).
During your work, you get to know all the nice fellow volunteers and get a fun behind-the-scenes look at a real festival.
You are helping with one of the most fun festivals of the year; for the visitors and artists, you are just as important as you are to us!
You can include your work for a cultural organization on your resume. And of course, we always have some extras, but we'll keep that a secret for now.
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 from August 26 to September 1, 2025, at a minimum. Please note, this is very important because Vlieland is quite a distance to travel. We ensure in the schedules that you never have to work on your arrival and departure day, but therefore you need to have a wide 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 can I do?
Everything: from crew catering to behind the bar, and from the art route to set-up. You can get to work everywhere. Want to know what the roles involve? Then read the descriptions for each role here (You can find a full overview of all available volunteer functions here).
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 division in the summer based on the preferences you provided in the application form. After that, we get started on the schedules. That's always quite a puzzle because we take into account your availability, friends you want to work with, and we ensure that everyone works different shifts. So we do our best to make sure you don't work every night or very early every morning. But, the festival always starts early and ends late, so you can expect to have at least one late shift and one early shift.
Timeline
You have registered, and now? The registrations remain open until May 17, 2024, at 17:00. After that, we will select who can come as a volunteer and who unfortunately will be placed on the waiting list. We will take into account your availability, your friend group, and whether you have been there before. By June 15 at the latest, you will hear if you have been selected.
Next, we will work on organizing the teams. At the volunteer meeting, you will hear where you have been 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 moment, you will already know the most important things: what your role is, who is in your team, and when you have the boat.
Once on the island, there is always a briefing. We will welcome you and show you your workspace. This way, you are fully prepared. But that is still a while away, of course. By that time, we will also keep you updated via email. First, just register!
