BARAC UK at Glastonbury 2025

A report from BARAC UK Team Member Natalia Levene, about their second year volunteering for us at Glastonbury Festival for Workers Beer Company. We are grateful to Natalia, team leader Leroy and the entire team for all their hard work raising funds for us while enjoying Glasto.

This was my second year attending Glastonbury as part of the BARAC UK team, volunteering with Workers Beer Company and it felt so good to be back.  One of the things I was most looking forward to, was being reunited with my teammates from last year. We were an inter-generational team aged between 20-60, and we travelled from Birmingham, Brighton, Edinburgh, London, Manchester, and Newcastle. 

A gorgeous blend of accents, from all walks of life united in our love for music and our commitment to fundraising. It was also great to see some of the volunteers from other organisations returning to the festival.  As volunteers we had a dedicated campsite, and the feeling of being surrounded by new and familiar faces, excited about what the week will bring is quite hard to put into words. There is a real sense of pride and purpose in the small roles we all play in contributing to the Glastonbury experience for over 200,000 festival attendees.

 This year the BARAC team worked at the Solstice Bar, which was next to the Other Stage. Positioned perfectly to listen to the live performances and catch a glimpse of the stage on our breaks. Although being so close to a main stage meant that we were put through our paces in between acts with lots of thirsty customers queuing at the bar. You don’t find out your shifts until you arrive at the farm, so we prayed to the festival gods that our rota would align with the acts we wanted to see. There was some heartbreak for our team missing out on Charlie XCX, but I was so grateful to be able to see Busta Rhymes, Fabio & Grooverider’s history of drum & bass set with a live orchestra and the performance I waited all weekend for, The Prodigy. I still get goosebumps when I think about the atmosphere during their performance of Firestarter. 

This year it was also great to see the Black at Glasto presence in Silver Hayes, a hub of connection for festival attendees of black heritage. I had the honour of facilitating an African-centred healing circle in the space and another teammate Jodie, led a yoga session. It was such a gift to share our skills and offer a moment of solace and connection to our community. 

Glastonbury really is the festival of all festivals, and to be able to enjoy it with a great group of people whilst fundraising for an incredible organisation like BARAC UK made it even more special. Thank you, BARAC UK, for the opportunity and thank you to Amos, Ettie India, Issy, Jodie and our team leader Leroy for being the team of dreams.

BARAC UK at Glastonbury 2024 - A Great Time Was Had and Big Thanks to Our Brilliant Team

For several years BARAC UK has been pleased to work with Workers Beer Company to send a team of volunteers to Glastonbury and other festivals to raise funds for our work. Many thanks to our team for 2024 for volunteering this year.We appreciate you. 

Report by Isobel Abatan, first time volunteer on the BARAC UK team for Workers Beer Company at Glastonbury  2024

Isobel Abatan

 I was thrilled to be given the opportunity to volunteer at Glastonbury festival this year but a bit nervous going on my own. I didn’t need to worry, because as soon as I got on the coach at Clapham Junction everyone was very friendly and happy to chat. I was regretting overpacking and it is   definitely a lesson for the future to not overpack but the organisers were very good at making sure that the staff were looked after.

I thought working five shifts at Glastonbury Festival would limit my ability to enjoy the music and events, but the shifts were fun and went by quickly. The other BARAC UK volunteers were extremely welcoming and always happy to help when I was unsure of something. Everyone was so friendly, it hardly felt like work. I was nervous about having to pull pints as my bar experience was limited, but the bars had machines that pulled pints for you. This meant that all I had to do was pour the spirits and place the orders on an easy handheld device. The organisation for workers at the festival  made the whole process very easy and stress free for volunteers.

Being part of the crew at the festival meant that I had access to crew bars dotted around the festival site. The crew bars had toilets for staff to use, our own bar, comfy seating areas, DJs and our own pizza van. This meant that when the acts finished and the queues for the toilets were getting longer, staff had an area they could go to without having to wait. This alone has made me want to pick volunteering over getting a normal ticket as there are  so many perks! Not to mention the two free meals  per day at the campsite, which felt like luxury waking up to a full English breakfast and a cup of tea whilst my friends with normal tickets woke up to stale, squashed chocolate brioches. The campsite also had lots of toilets and hot showers which were frequently cleaned. 

I don’t think anything could have quite prepared me for how big Glastonbury is and the sheer amount of walking. Although my feet are still recovering, the 45 minute walk back from the South East Corner at 5 o’clock in the morning was merely character building. 

When I signed up, I made sure not to get my hopes up about seeing certain acts as I didn’t know what the rota would be. This actually made the experience more carefree and relaxed as I was open to seeing new people and enjoyed wandering around different stages. However, I was very happy that I was able to see Coldplay, as I’ve never been able to secure tickets for their concerts. Their set was amazing and everyone there was enjoying themselves, including Stormzy who passed me in the crowd. 

Thanks to BARAC UK, I got to experience Glastonbury, which is a memory I will cherish. I met amazing people volunteering for BARAC UK and couldn’t have asked for a better group to experience the festival with. Volunteering at Glastonbury Festival allowed me to have fun whilst raising money for a good cause. BARAC UK have been such a valuable support to my family so it was nice to have the opportunity to help them raise money. I would love to volunteer again… once i get the feeling back in my toes.

BARAC UK team, from left to right: Leroy Boateng, Team Leader, with India Smith, Amos Walker, Cameron Brown, Isobel Abatan, Ettie Smith, Natalia Levene

Donna Guthrie, BARAC UK Women's Officer and our Workers Beer Company / Festivals coordinator says:

Teaming up with Workers Beer Company to provide volunteer servers at Glastonbury Festival allows us the opportunity to raise much needed funds for BARAC UK to campaign and challenge racism and injustice.

Our volunteers are able to build relationships with other social campaigns and trade union groups in camp and are very well looked after by the WBC staff and infrastructure at the festival.

It is extremely rewarding to provide this fundraising opportunity to our volunteers, who may not otherwise have experienced one of Europe's largest music festivals, and their feedback is always positive.

It's literally a win win for BARAC and our supporters.