The Working Traveller
Working Holiday Ideas For March And Beyond
IN THIS ISSUE=>
* English Language Summer Camps In Europe
* Same, But Workaway
* All Expenses Paid Canada Road Trip
* Hello Peace Boat. Russian Warship, Go Fuck Yourself
* Summer Childcare Work
* Neilson Are Still Looking For Summer Staff
* Free Festival Tickets
* Volunteering For Larger Music Festivals In The UK
* Paid Work At UK Festivals
* Smaller Music Festivals In The UK
* European Festivals To Volunteer With This Summer
* Summer Music Festivals In America Looking For Volunteers
* Tourism Businesses In Europe That Seem To Have Ridden Out Covid And May Be Hiring This Year
* Help Exchanges For Gardeners
* Fruit Picking Round Up
* Workers Of The World
* At The End
| Wadi Musa, Jordan |
English Language Summer Camps In Europe
Summer camp season in Europe is nearly upon us with some vacancies still to be filled. The high season is June and July but some positions will begin a month earlier and end a few weeks later.
Roles can be split into three: English teaching, activity instruction and background positions. Whatever your role, the main task will be maintaining a safe environment for the children and young adults in your care and making learning English fun.
Since the UK’s departure from the EU, we note most of these organisations have adapted their recruitment requirements from native English speakers to close to native speaker level.
The following organisations may still be hiring for 2022.
Village Camps have work for a month or so this summer in Switzerland, Austria and Portugal. Vacancies aside from activity instruction include camp photographer and lifeguard. Positions in Switzerland are available to holders of passports from New Zealand, the USA, Canada and the UK.
American Village Camps (France) mostly recruit North Americans tasked with recreating an American camp environment and making it fun to speak in American English from the moment the campers arrive. Camp counselling, childcare or teaching experience is required but not French.
English Summer (Spain) is a family business founded in 1980 in the small town of Vallclara, on the Costa Blanca. Since then they have been growing, incorporating new camps and, most importantly for us, more staff. Along with native English teachers they take on monitors, who should have a high level of English.
Bell Beyond tutors travel around the country from camp to camp after their three day training on the Adriatic coast of Italy. Their camp programme revolves around the ethos of edutainment, where activities, games, songs, dancing, acting and performance go hand in hand with learning English.
Alpadia Language Schools (France, Switzerland, Germany & UK) run English camps in eight varied locations, from the banks of the Seine to the Alps, from mid April to mid August. They also run German and French language camps.
Sunflower Sprachcamps (Germany) are held in youth hostels in Bavaria, where English instruction is combined with rock climbing and film projects. English speaking instructors to teach English in an interactive and fun way. They are also looking for inspirational and creative outdoor instructors to join the team for the 2022 season.
Fokus Camps (Germany) are seeking people passionate about language, sports and nature. They are looking to fill English camp counsellor and leader positions in their camps in Chiemsee, Bodensee, Amersee, and Berchtesgaden.
Altitude (Switzerland) tend to begin recruiting around now for mountain adventure and sports leaders, language teachers, pastoral leaders, duty managers and chefs for their camps in Verbier.
The Village (Spain) hold their summer camps in a hotel resort and sports campus, ten minutes from the beach, where an international group of coaches have the opportunity to work in Spain for four weeks in July.
The English Camp Company (Italy, Austria & Germany). Most tutors working here are university students from English speaking countries. They should be over 18, outgoing, organised, energetic and responsible and preferably able to stay the whole summer, from June to August. All meals, accommodation and transport between camps are provided.
Lingue Senza Frontiere also runs English language summer camps in Italy, though it took a bit of a hunt to find information in English on working there. We thought for a moment they might have gone the way of ACLE, who ceased operating last year but their Facebook page says they will be returning in February (when we are writing this so perhaps later in the month).
| Altitude Camps |
Same, But Workaway
We also found a number of summer camps on the Workaway website, for which membership will be required to apply. We assume these are smaller camps and unless stated we believe these to be voluntary gigs.
Help with improving communication skills during a teenage summer camp in Wólka Milanowska, Poland (Paid) - As a native speaker your job will be to talk for the majority of the day in many different forms from one-on-one conversations, group activities, workshops, games to relaxing over a meal or a drink. For every two Polish participants there is one native English speaker. This sounds a little more like the hotel English immersion programmes that, hopefully, we’ll cover next month.
Help at home and in the summer camp in Algeciras, Spain (Paid) - Organises a summer camp in a farm close to their house. They need someone for the whole of July and duties also involve sporadically looking after their daughter at home.
Looking for help with our summer camp in North Italy (Paid) - Organises a summer camp every summer, when they need English speakers to help with creative activities and games.
Help us with teaching English in summer camps 2022, Lithuania (Paid) - Seeks native or near native level English speakers that love nature and think teenagers are more interesting than annoying. They’ll pay €80 pocket money per week along with food and accommodation.
Volunteer at our children's English club in Provence Alpes Azur, France - Seek energetic native English speakers to volunteer at a small English club by the beach. They have camps in Spring, July and October, or go at the end of November until their Christmas party.
Come and learn how to get in touch with kids and help us in the kid's camp, south of Italy - These guys are looking for a handful of volunteers to help their summer camp tutors with different activities such as swimming, tennis, basketball, hip hop dance, chemistry, English and Spanish, drama, and more.
A wonderful team is waiting for you, help organise free activities for kids at a summer camp in Transylvania, Romania - Join 30 international volunteers at this week long summer camp in Transylvania. If you have a good idea about an activity that the kids might enjoy, you are invited to be an activity team leader.
(Editor’s note: I recognised some of the photos on this listing and am pretty sure this is the Happy Faces Camp that we have on our Free Volunteering in Romania page. Head over there to apply directly if you want to weasel out of Workaway’s reasonable membership fee).
Creating a mindful food forest and organising language camps for local children in Waldbröl, Germany - Mitigating a lack of opportunities for local children to practice foreign languages and share different cultural customs, these hosts have created a place where they can learn and practice speaking English, French and Spanish while playing in the forest and taking care of animals.
Volunteers with language skills to help in our Summer Camp / Drop-in centre in Drogheda, Ireland - Providing advice and support on rights and entitlements to support new communities in Ireland, this centre is currently looking for volunteers with skills in such as drama, arts & crafts, digital photography, computer coding, cooking, makeup artists, to support a multi-activity camp in July and early August.
All Expenses Paid Canada Road Trip
We were immediately drawn to this Workaway listing while researching a short piece on activity work exchanges for our blog and made a note to check on it again when we came to write this newsletter.
If you don’t know Workaway or websites of a similar ilk, you pay a fee, €39 for one year in this case, to connect with thousands of hosts around the world needing help with their projects, enterprises or chores. In return for your help for a few hours a day, the host will provide food and accommodation.
It’s the host doing all the activity here. He is planning to cycle 6,000 kilometres across Canada next year, from Victoria to Halifax, and has need of a support team. This is a great chance to see the county over three or four months with all your accommodation and food paid for. The role entails driving support vehicles, setting up camp each night and preparing meals. This will suit two friends, a couple, possibly even a small family, or two strangers if necessary. More details here.
Hello Peace Boat. Russian Warship, Go Fuck Yourself
Peace Boat's language training programme, GET, is now accepting applications for volunteer English and Spanish language teachers for their 112th Global Voyage, due to embark August 20. There is a nuclear power plant on fire as I type, so this is perhaps not a moment too soon. Interpreters are also hired (though current information relates only to past voyages).
Peace Boat’s voyages aim to create a unique environment in which people can live, learn and relax together while visiting around 20 countries. On the agenda for each voyage is a range of educational activities, including lectures by guest educators, workshops, language classes, and cultural programmes.
April 21 is the application deadline for volunteer teachers, who should be highly advanced speakers (though not necessarily native speakers) of English or both English and Spanish, with 18 months of relevant full time English and/or Spanish teaching experience. Applicants must also be able to obtain all relevant visas required to participate in the voyage for which they are applying.
Interviews will be conducted online May 9 to 13. Download their application pack for more information or shoot send them an email to getprogramme@peaceboat.gr.jp. One more global voyage in 2022 is scheduled to leave on December 13.
| Peace Boat |
Summer Childcare Work
Children like having everything done for them, require constant attention and have the attention span of a flea. If you have some experience in keeping them safe, happy or occupied then throughout Europe and America you will find parents willing to entrust their sprog to you.
Au Pairing in Europe
Taking on an au pair job is a good way to experience a foreign culture and learn a language. The job is seen as a cultural exchange rather than a good wage earner. An au pair in Europe can expect about £80 to £120 a week, living as a member of the family, depending on which country they work in.
While a money saver, some au pairs report that living with the family can make you available to child or parent virtually on a 24seven basis and that privacy can be difficult.
Pre-Brexit it was fairly easy for British girls to find placements in Europe but now UK au pairs are now treated no differently from any other ‘third country’ and, unless a replacement au pair scheme centred around cultural exchange is negotiated, placements won’t be as easy as before.
Most likely British au pairs working in Europe will do so for up to 90 days on the Schengen tourist visa. Au pairs have often been given money for language lessons. For longer term work, enrol in a language school and apply for a student visa.
For European au pairs looking to be placed in other EU countries, nothing much has changed. The cultural element is still there and though families will still want their children to have the advantage of learning English, near native level Europeans and the Irish will take those jobs instead. Before the EU opened its membership to its eastern neighbours, an Irish girl working in Europe in childcare was the standard au pair cliche. The Irish editor of this website worked as one in Belgium and France.
Au Pair in the USA
The USA has a long standing au pair programme. Here, you should be an 18 to 26 year old, non-smoking driver with childcare experience to qualify for the Au Pair in America scheme. Childcare International is another agency that can arrange placements in America.
Earnings are around $200 per week, living with a family, return flight and insurance. In return, you put in 45 hours of childcare and light household duties.
Au Pairing in the UK
Since the UK chose to leave the EU, things have become decidedly different for au pairs from Europe. Though there was some optimism little would change, once the transition period ended agencies have reported incoming business is virtually non existant. Other nationals can work as an au pair in the UK on the Tier 5 Youth Mobility Scheme visa, but most choose to work in other sectors.
Nannying
Qualified nannies are significantly better paid and qualified. Educated Nannies list vacant positions in the USA. Short term positions are the speciality of Adventure Nannies. For travelling nanny vacancies globally try My Travelling Nanny. Longer term there’s Simply Private Staff.
Tour Operators
Mark Warner are also a good bet for employment in the summer. TUI recruit both qualified and unqualified kids reps both locally and to work abroad.
Try Sunsail for nanny/nursing jobs on yachts in the eastern Med, Canvas Holidays, Club Med, and Eurocamp for a position as a children’s courier. A European language is usually essential. The wages for these posts are generally grisly but compensated by a fun social life.
Neilson Are Still Looking For Summer Staff
Neilson Active Holidays are still looking for activity instructors for their beach club resorts in Croatia, Greece and Italy. In the last three or four days they have posted advertisements to Season Workers for a bike guide, tennis coach, windsurfing, wakeboarding, water skiing, sailing, and dinghy instructors. More details can also be found at https://jobs.neilson.co.uk/summer-jobs
Free Festival Tickets
After a couple of summers of disruption, music festivals are back. Tickets for the most popular music festivals can be sold out in a few hours in a regular year but with so many people longing to sleep in a tent in a field expect tickets to go faster than normal in 2022.
One way to bypass the hotlines and jump the long queues is by volunteering and working your way at a festival. And with ticket prices running into the hundreds of pounds or dollars it’s a money saver too, though there is an argument that getting a minimum wage job and paying for your own ticket is more cost effective.
Each of the hundreds of festivals that take place each year in Europe and the USA requires a huge amount of organisation and many are willing to offer free tickets, separate staff campsite facilities and other perks to those wishing to lend a hand. The Glastonbury website suggests that volunteers are normally required to work three eight hour shifts to earn their tickets.
While some restrict volunteering to the local community many open up their roles to volunteers from further away, including from abroad, though visa restrictions may apply. In the UK they do.
On the downside is paying for tickets upfront, refunded for showing up, and non refundable admin fees when applying to volunteer.
Stewarding and the post festival clean up operation - which every year seems to agitate the Daily Mail and other tabloid newspapers - are the main roles for volunteers. These tasks are often contracted out to outside operators and charities. In 2017 Glastonbury’s clean up operation tied up a thousand volunteers and cost nearly £800,000.
Bar work and security is also in the remit of outside contractors and is sometimes paid. Traffic management, concierge, stage production, in the box office, runners, setting up and dismantling all the festival facilities are other roles available. For those of you wanting to make a career in event management try out for artist liaison.
Campaigning is another way to get involved. Many environmental and other lobbying groups use the large festival crowds for direct or indirect fundraising or to get across their messaging. Dairy farmers and Glastonbury organisers Michael and Emily Eavis have helped raise over £2.5 million towards clean water through a long standing partnership with WaterAid, begun after a trip to Mozambique, while Oxfam (see below) is well established at many UK events.
Other groups with a festival presence include Shelter, Greenpeace, Viva, Samaritans, Child Bereavement and ActionAid. Mind has teamed up with My Cause UK (see below) for their activities.
Volunteering For Larger Music Festivals In The UK
Smaller festivals tend to take on their volunteer team directly but most of the larger festivals (dates for 2022 are given in brackets) rely on a range of organisations and charities for some or all of the essential services needed to put on a show right here.
Oxfam provides stewarding for a number of festivals including Glastonbury (June 22-26) and Womad (July 28-31). Priority is given to past stewards and regular supporters of Oxfam, with unfilled positions opened up to the public in March. Stewarding roles vary from festival to festival but could involve working the gate, showing people where to camp or looking out for fires. Oxfam stewards are able to get away from the muck and mess of a festival, they have their own camping area, toilets and showers, and receive meal tickets. Alternatively consider campaigning for Oxfam, reaching those large festival audiences.
Festaff supplies volunteer bar staff to over 20 events each year, including Creamfields (Aug 25-28) and Isle of Wight (June 16-19).
The deal with My Cause UK is you give your time at a festival and My Cause will make a donation to a charity of your choice based on the fee received from the event organisers. They work with numerous festivals, including Outlook UK (June 30-July 4), Shindig (May 26-29) and Shambala, and you can volunteer for as many of these as you like.
| My Cause UK |
The main aim of the Oasis Carnival Club is to produce an entry for the Somerset winter carnival circuit. They fundraise this via a curious mix of community centre bingo and providing stewards to Glastonbury, one of the world’s largest music festivals.
Festival Medical Services (FMS) is a charitable trust that provides doctors, nurses, paramedics, first aiders and other trained medical and administrative personnel to music festivals throughout the UK, including Reading (Aug 26-28) and Glastonbury.
Volunteers doing bar work through the Worker’s Beer Company at Glastonbury help to raise funds for the labour movement and grassroots campaigns.
Beginning at Leeds (Aug 26-28) with six volunteers in 2003, Hotbox Events recruits and manages thousands of staff and volunteers every year to provide assistance at the campsites and arenas of UK music festivals and events. Download (June 10-12) is another of theirs.
Charity Concierge raises tens of thousands of pounds for Child.org by proving volunteers to festivals such as Latitude (June 21-24) and Camp Bestival (July 28-31 & Aug 18-21)). You'll be doing things like providing waiter service, putting up tents, or driving festival taxis.
Someone needs to pick up the rubbish after all those smelly hippies/yummy mummies have gone home. Festivals such as Shambala (Aug 25-28) task Green Box Events with finding those someones. According to Robert Kearle, who organised the recycling and the after clean up for Glastonbury, around 3000 tonnes of rubbish are left behind and if that doesn’t sound appealing consider this: anything that can be identified, like a wallet, is handed in to lost property while rolls of cash are finders keepers. One litter picker found a kilo of hash in the hedge. The same day cash to the value of £8000 was also found. Unsurprisingly, less pleasant things are also found.
John met Mike while volunteering at a festival. Between them they founded Fest Buddies to help fill various festival staffing roles.
Paid Work At UK Festivals
DC Site Services take care of the campervan and caravan fields at Glastonbury. They also supply checkers at vehicle gates and staff the onsite vehicle chaperone service. They provide other services, including litter picking and stewarding to other festivals and events.
Sister company to My Cause UK, Ethical Staffing provide site stewards, security and bar staff for events across the country.
CTM are experts in traffic management. Glastonbury, where they manage traffic equivalent to the population of Aberdeen, and Isle of Wight are among their clients. Register with their staffing portal if you’d like to work an event.
Peppermint supplies bar staff to over 40 events every year, including music festivals like Bestival. They used to have a dedicated website for volunteer festival bar staff but seems to have gone by the wayside in the past couple of difficult years for the industry.
SEP Events organise the car parking at Creamfields.
Smaller Music Festivals In The UK
We’ve listed a small number of the festivals in the UK needing volunteers but there’s so many more. Wicked Stewarding provides staff to some of the lesser known UK music festivals and other events.
The Great Escape
Where and when: Brighton, May 11-14.
Line-up includes: Miso Extra and Gustaff.
Volunteer work: Around 300 volunteers are needed to fill roles including venue representatives, technical production support, festival runners and delegate and artist registration.
Ticket saving: Up to £90.
More information: https://greatescapefestival.com/info/volunteer/.
Green Man Festival
Where and when: Nr Crickhowell, in the Brecon Beacons, Aug 18-21.
Line-up includes: Bicep, Kraftwerk, and Michael Kiwanuka.
Volunteer work: You can volunteer to be a steward, litter picker, accessibility steward or member of the camp kitchen team. Bar staff with at least six months bar experience and eligible to work in the UK are also required.
Ticket saving: Up to £210.
More information: https://www.greenman.net/information/work-with-us/.
Doune The Rabbit Hole
Where and when: Port of Menteith, Stirling, July14-17.
Line-up includes: Belle and Sebastian, Patti Smith and Band, and Teenage Fanclub.
Volunteer work: Delve into the workings of a small, boutique family friendly festival. During the festival volunteers are needed for artist liaison, helping on stage production, litter picking, stewarding, in the box office, driving and car parking. There’s also work before and after in construction and deconstruction of the event.
Ticket saving: Up to £195.
More information: https://www.dounetherabbithole.co.uk/volunteer.
Watchet Festival
Where and when: Somerset, Aug 26-28.
Line-up includes: Scouting for Girls, Belinda Carlisle, Sleeper, and The Wurzels.
Volunteer work: Stewards are required for numerous tasks including providing festival information, helping to build and dismantle the layout of the festival, car park marshalling, bar staff and rubbish collecting.
Ticket saving: Up to £95.
More information: http://watchetfestival.co.uk/about.php. We couldn’t find volunteer information on the site for 2022 so email volunteer@watchetfestival.co.uk.
Gottwood Festival
Where and when: Anglesey, June 9-12.
Line-up includes: Unknown at time of writing but the last event, in 2019, included Andrew Weatherall, Radioactive Man, and Skeptical.
Volunteer work: Volunteers are taken on as part of the art & decor team, general event production and stewarding teams, plus site crew.
Ticket saving: Up to £220.
More information: https://www.gottwood.co.uk/info/.
Boomtown Fair
Where and when: Winchester, Aug 9-15.
Line-up includes: Secret until just before the festival
Volunteer work: At the time of writing applications were still closed. They also use Oxfam for stewarding.
Ticket saving: From £209.
More information: https://www.boomtownfair.co.uk/get-involved/volunteers/.
2000 Trees
Where and when: Upcote Farm, Nr Cheltenham, July 7-9.
Line-up includes: Jimmy Eat World, Rolo Tomassi, and Idles Thrice.
Volunteer work: Traffic, site stewarding, bar work and packing the festival away on the Sunday Breakdown Team.
Ticket saving: Up to £140.
More information: https://www.twothousandtreesfestival.co.uk/volunteering-and-stewarding/.
Wilderness Festival
Where and when: Oxfordshire, Aug 4-7.
Line-up includes: The line up in 2021 included Jamie XX, Rudimental, and Bicep.
Volunteer work: See https://www.jobsabroadbulletin.co.uk/jobspy-fancy-volunteering-at-wilderness-2021/ for last year’s requirements.
Ticket saving: TBC in 2022 but from £175 in 2021.
More information: https://www.wildernessfestival.com/apply-to-volunteer/.
European Festivals To Volunteer With This Summer
Roskilde Festival (Denmark. June 25-July 2) - Northern Europe’s largest culture and music festival has been around since 1971 and is run by a non profit organisation with the assistance of around 30,000 volunteers. Most volunteers work for societies and organisations that recruit their own volunteers, but around 7,500 work directly for Roskilde Festival. Foreign residents in Denmark, regardless of their employment status, can volunteer with the festival.
Melt (Germany. June 9-12) - Volunteers have been part of the Melt Crew since 2011 and no doubt they will need them again this year to make sure the festivals goes off without a hitch. Recruitment usually takes place in May.
Meadows in the Mountains (Bulgaria. June 2-5) - According to The Guardian, this festival is “Set in the lush environment of the Rhodope Mountains, mornings are blessed each day with a mist that glides over the landscape. The discerning line-up will pique the interest of anyone with an eye on the underground scene.” Doors are always open to like minded people who wish to experience the festival as a volunteer. They’ll cough up a festival ticket and three meals a day per working shift. Positions include build and decor crew, artist liaisons, runners, production office attendants, info point crew and gate stewards. Accommodation is free to campers or help is arranged to stay in a house in the village.
Træna Festival (Norway. July 7-9) - They look for good mood in all kinds of weather before previous experience when volunteering here. The pick of the jobs when we last checked out this remote island festival was being a part of the Smiling Crew but this title doesn’t seem to exist now. Try out as a vibe checker instead - we suspect it’s the same role. Other jobs that need doing include runners, food service, security, setting up the facilities, and driving. At the time of writing, registration hadn’t yet opened but the deal in other years was to work at least two sessions of six to eight hours during the weekend and in return you’ll get a free festival pass, some food and good karma.
Oya Festival (Oslo, Norway. August 9-13) - As I know one (swear) word in Norwegian it was a little difficult to summarize the requirements for volunteers here until recently. We thought distribution, pizza and burgers played a part somewhere, but now they have an English version of their site we can see what they really want in their volunteers. Cooking for artists and other volunteers do play a part but they want good organic food, not the junk we assumed. Popcorn sales, security, bar tending and furniture assembly are other needs. Fontaines DC, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Gorillaz, Florence and the Machine are playing this year.
Electric Picnic (Loais, Ireland. Sept 2-4) - At the time of writing neither event nor volunteer information had gone live, though all being well the festival does appear to be happening in 2022. Past line ups have included Leftfield, The Horrors, Massive Attack, Seasick Steve, and The Fall.
Spraoi Festival (Waterford, Ireland. July 29-31) - Started in 1993 this street theatre and outdoor music festival attracts over 80,000 visitors to Waterford. Though the festival is free many volunteers donate their time simply to enjoy the craic. Volunteer roles include crowd control, act liaison and construction.
Exit (Serbia. July 7-9) - Three Novi Sad University students started the Exit Festival in 2000 to protest against the nationalism and xenophobia of the Slobodan Milosevic regime, Exit quickly grew to attract over 200,000 people from all over Serbia, neighbouring former Yugoslav countries and the rest of the world. The application procedure for volunteers seems to change a little each year but applications are open for a couple of weeks in either May or June. The most recent volunteer information we could find dates back to 2017, so ignore the dates given there.
Greenfield (Interlaken, Switzerland. June 9-11) - Native German speakers only can volunteer at this rock festival.
Summer Music Festivals In America Looking For Volunteers
We found so many festivals in the USA alone looking for volunteers in 2022 that we had to cut this piece short or this newsletter would never have got sent. Perhaps around this time next year we will do an updated and expanded standalone festival volunteering issue of JAB.
You may already have seen it but I suspect we’ll list a few festivals that didn’t make it here in JAB Issue 101 and on our website too.
Most festivals in the US accept direct application from volunteers but we keep seeing Clean Vibes’ name crop up for the after show clean up detail. They provide a list of upcoming festivals at https://cleanvibes.com/about-us/upcoming-events/.
Another event services organisation is Austin based Fahntoosh Enterprises. Founded by live music enthusiasts at the time of writing they weren’t accepting applications but we expect this to change soon. They list their current events here.
Below are some of the festivals coming up that have provided information for potential volunteers or will soon.
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (Apr 29-May 8) - The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival would not be possible without the help of the hundreds of dedicated volunteers who donate their time, energy and creativity every year to produce this authentic and world-renowned event. That, and a link to an application form and a phone number, is their website’s volunteer page.
High Sierra (Quincy, California. June 30-July 3) - There’s a limited number of volunteer positions available, where you can get involved before the festival as a street team rep or during the festival with shifts in the merchandise tent, beverage booths, or box office. Clean Vibes handle the clean up. Miller Event Management deals with traffic and parking.
Electric Forest (Rothbury, Michigan. June 23-26) - Volunteering is done through the FanStaff program, an opportunity to get music industry and work experience in live events.
Joshua Tree (California. May 12-15) - Here’s a chance to get involved in a work exchange on the edge of the Mojave Desert. 16 hours earns a four day pass. Healers, bodyworkers and yoga instructors can also join in. A small number of unpaid production apprentice positions are available for those interested in learning the ins and outs of festival life.
Maha (Omaha, Nebraska. July 29-30) - Volunteer registration to be a beer rover, thirst quencher, Ferris Wheel concierge or laughs & snaps tent monitor will open in the spring.
Savannah Music Festival (Georgia. Mar 24-Apr 9) - Artist or patron hospitality and ushering are the main jobs assigned to volunteers during the festival.
BeachLife (Redondo Beach, California. May 13-15) - We couldn’t find any information on what the role entails but links are given to apply to the Beachcomber Crew.
Imagine Festival (Kingston Downs, Georgia. Sept 16-18) - We couldn’t find work exchange information for 2022 but the deal last year was in return for an event pass, camping and a jersey, volunteers put in shifts totalling 16 hours. You’ll pay for that jersey with a $25 non refundable application fee though. We suggest keeping an eye on this Facebook group for when 2022 information becomes available.
Huichica (Sonoma, California. June 10-11) - Huichica is a micro festival built on the concept that wine, food, and music are best shared in beautiful, intimate settings with a warm and friendly attitude. Volunteer for at least one four hour shift to receive a two day festival pass, complimentary parking, and a Huichica festival tumbler.
Sonic Bloom (Hummingbird Ranch, Colorado. June 16th-19) - Applications to join the Street Team end March 15.
Lollapalooza (Chicago. July 28-31) - We couldn’t find any information about volunteering on their website but last month they were advertising for volunteers to manage guest services and hospitality. A post we wrote on our blog many years ago suggested volunteers must live in Chicago or the surrounding area but this could have since changed.
Northern Nights (Cook’s Valley Campground, California. July 15-17) - The festival grounds feature deep swimming holes, the largest Redwood grove used for camping, and plenty of space to stretch out. They advertised last month for guest services and crowd management.
Great Blue Heron (Sherman, New York. July 1-3) - They were still working behind the scenes to get a new volunteer system up and running to take applications when we visited but it should be ready by now.
Rooster Walk (Martinsville, Virginia. May 26-29) - Their volunteer information dates from 2019 though they’ve linked to it more recently from their Facebook and last month from there suggested signing up to their newsletter for volunteer info. Work additional shifts and you can earn a day pass for a friend.
Bonnaroo (Manchester, Tennessee. June 16-19) - Uses Clean Vibes for during and post show volunteers.
Life is Beautiful (Las Vegas, Nevada. Sept 17-19) - Their volunteer programme is named Inside Beautiful. A beautiful attitude is required. A $20 non refundable volunteer application fee is required to apply. Also uses Clean Vibes.
XpoNential (Camden, New Jersey. Sept 17-19) - Volunteer information is yet to be published for 2022.
Nelsonville Music Festival (Ohio. Sept 2-4) - No information yet for 2022 but in previous years 12 hours of volunteer work earned a free weekend pass and a free camping pass.
Americanafest (Nashville, Tennessee. Sept 13-17) - Volunteer applications open up in the spring.
We went through the excellent Music Festival Wizard to research many of the festivals above so we could have kicked ourselves when we found they already have a section on festival volunteering. There are many more mostly US festivals listed there.
Tourism Businesses In Europe That Seem To Have Ridden Out Covid And May Be Hiring This Year
Many small tourism businesses in Europe have made use of the Jobs Abroad Bulletin down the years. We’ve checked out a few of the advertisers that pre pandemic used JAB in March or April to look for staff, double checking review sites and social media to confirm they are still around.
The indications are that the bars, cafes, restaurants, villas, yacht clubs, guest houses and other hospitality venues below have survived two seasons of reduced tourism and look likely to reopen for 2022. Their proprietors will need someone to pull pints, pour coffees and cook meals for what we hope will be a busy season.
Most of them, we’re sure, used our publication to hire Brits so it is too early to say what their staffing requirements - if any - are for this year but we would expect native level English speakers with EU passports will win the positions that used to be taken by the English, Scots, and Welsh before December 31, 2020. Northern Ireland? As you were.
If you think you fit the paperwork requirements above and the job description needs below, a polite enquiry may reveal that, yes, they do need someone and would welcome your CV.
Greece
Summer Memories Hotel Apartments (Pefkos, Rhodes) have in the past wanted kitchen, bar and housekeeping staff with some experience. Greek and other foreign languages will be appreciated. A valid work permit is needed for applicants from outside the EU. Accommodation not provided.
Sound of the Sea (Karpathos) sought a capable person to work in the kitchen and help out behind the bar as needed. Accommodation provided including one meal per day.
Vliho Yacht Club (Lefkada) wanted a chef to join their pub/restaurant. Their international menu offers a combination of British classics, Mediterranean favourites and some spicy numbers.
Naxos On The Rocks Bar needed a reliable, hard working and highly motivated wait staff, a bartender and a barista.
The Old Captain Bar, a lively beach bar on the island of Sifnos, in the Cyclades, wanted waitresses and bar help for the summer. Accommodation is provided. Their Facebook page hasn’t been much used recently - though we’ve seen TripAdvisors reviews for last season - but they did use it to recruit in 2019 after a cancellation.
Apollon Hotel (Paleocastritsa, Corfu) required a waitress/bar person with previous experience in the hospitality industry for their cafe bar and restaurant from mid May until mid October. Another language besides English would be an advantage. Accommodation provided.
Tambouros Boutique Villas (Vassilikos, Zakynthos) required a hard working, experienced hands on housekeeper to take sole charge of the day to day operation of this luxury Villa for the summer season, May to October.
Castello Village Resort (Sissi Crete) needed a fluent English and German speaking entertainer to perform for children from four to 12 years old.
Cyprus
Fat Mama’s (Paphos) were looking for kitchen and wait staff for their show restaurant. They used their Facebook to recruit last April so keep an eye out in case they do so again.
France
Le Pub (Argenton sur Creuse, Centre-Val de Loire) is a rural bar serving traditional English food. They’ve had need of a bar person/ kitchen assistant with basic French and good English. Accommodation and food is also provided.
Le Fleuray Hotel and Restaurant Le Colonial (Loire Valley) recruits restaurant and kitchen seasonal staff. Full board and accommodation available.
Hotel Au Bon Accueil (Alpe d'Huez & Les Deux Alpes) Tasks divided over the summer season team include cleaning rooms, running the bar, serving evening meals and doing the dishes in the kitchen. Most of the guests come from the Netherlands, Belgium and the UK, so speaking English is a must. Room and board also provided.
Plage La Pinede, a private beach restaurant in the South of France, was looking this time last year for a head waitress and a bartender for their sister brasserie. Experience and French are required. A contact email and phone number for job enquiries are helpfully given on their website.
Tri-Topia (Ingrandes) is a holiday venue for triathletes. They required a sporty couple to work as a chef, who should have cooking experience, and a host Speaking French wasn’t necessary. Accommodation is provided. They have another venue in Lanzarote.
Spain
Relish Ibiza (San Antonio Bay) has a jobs page for those that want to join Team Relish. They want a chef with flair, passion and consistency, and waiters and bartenders with a positive outlook and strong communication skills.
Frankies Bar (Menorca). Basic Spanish would be a help but not essential for waitressing. A good level of English is required.
La Cantina/Sol’s Bar (Cala Llonga, Ibiza) were looking for someone with some experience in pubs and restaurants to work in this family business in a family resort. Accommodation in a shared apartment and meals when on duty is also provided.
Bakers Bar (Nerja) was looking to add a chef/cook to their team.
The Last Drop Bar (Murcia), in La Manga Club, sought a chef versed in traditional English pub grub.
Portugal
Mayer Luz Beach Apartments (Praia da Luz, Algarve), a regular advertiser in JAB usually need an outgoing, hard working individual this time of year to work in their busy poolside snack bar from May to October.
Casa Fajara is a small, rustic boutique hotel in the Algarve. They may need professional people to cook and work reception. Languages would be beneficial especially Portuguese.
Tempomar Apartments (Algarve) may need apartment cleaners plus cooks and bar/waiting staff for their snack bar.
Italy
Agriturismo Mulino Marghen (Massa and Carrara) were looking for a cook/housekeeper for April to October, to cook traditional Italian dishes. You need to have excellent Italian and English and a driver’s licence. Accommodation is provided.
Bulgaria
The Sport Pub is a British pub in Sunny Beach with live entertainment every night with karaoke from resident DJ Stu. They used JAB to look for entertainers/promoters whose main duties would be hosting entertainment in the pub in the evenings, mainly karaoke and games such as bingo, open the box etc. There’s also a bit of street hustling work to get tourists into the bar. Now we think about it, DJ Stu may have got this job.
Switzerland
Hotel Pension Gimmelwald is a small family run hotel with a bar/restaurant in the heart of the Berner Oberland. They wanted an all rounder that isn’t fussed about partying as the job is in a remote village high in the Alps. Most guests are from English or German speaking countries and your first language should be one of these.
The Tells Brewpub, an Irish pub in Interlaken, has been known to look abroad for staff.
Austria
Gasthof Hochalmspitze (Malta Valley, Carinthia) wanted someone on an internship/work experience basis, mainly helping with serving evening meals and drinks to their guests, who are mostly motorcyclists. In return, they offer accommodation, meals, some pocket money and a share of the tips, plus use of the company bicycle. The position would suit someone whose interests are in outdoor pursuits.
Albania
Merluc is a small restaurant close to the beach run by a Swiss chef and Albanian fisherman in Himara. It’s open from July to September. They wanted a cook who is able to alternate between having fun and being professional.
Help Exchanges For Gardeners
If you think the carrot has mystery, (though not so much that flowers are essentially tarts; prostitutes for the bees), then check out these help exchanges - ranging from stately homes to alternative lifestyles - for green fingered volunteers.
There is no shortage of work for gardeners listed on help exchange websites. In fact, it’s fair to say a great many listings have an element of garden work to them. Applications to the projects below will require paying a small membership fee.
Help us rebuilding our house in an oasis at the edge of the Sahara desert, Morocco - Gardening plays a minor part in the help needed here by Said but we thought many denizens of the soil may enjoy both the cultural experience offered here and the challenge of growing organic vegetables and fruits in a challenging environment on the edge of the Sahara. Said’s family recently settled down in a village, in a 200 year old mud house, after living a nomadic life in the desert. Brick making, dog walking and donkey care is other work needing doing.
Non-profit, sustainable market and pedagogic gardens in Montcenis, France - Returning from hitch hiking around the world for four years, including stints volunteering in Africa, Asia and South America, this host helped to create an eco village hosting ten volunteers a year. His latest project is a non profitable association centred around a hectare of land to teach children and adults gardening, using wild plants and living an ecological lifestyle with minimal money.
Help build a tiny home from reclaimed materials and establish permaculture gardens in an off-grid community in Tasmania, Australia - Travellers will get to experience the unique joys of living in a remote, beautiful, off-grid community where Arana and Nick are finishing their tiny house, building a little cob cottage and establishing a new garden and orchard in line with permaculture and syntropic principles. They expect four hours’ work a day leaving plenty of time for leisure activities when white water kayaks, sea kayaks, bikes and bushwalking equipment may be available to borrow.
Stay in a nature reserve in Cirali, Turkey, and help with my homestay and garden - The garden needs to be watered every day and knowledge of organic greenhousing would be advantageous to volunteers at this Turkish homestay, in a nature reserve that gave rise to the chimaera myth. Other tasks include sometimes preparing breakfast for guests, and feeding the ducks and chickens. Nearby are ancient city ruins and the scenic Olympos Beach.
Sustainable garden and forestry in Habach, Germany - If there’s trouble at mill it will be no concern of yours - employed farm workers take care of that - but help is appreciated by this simultaneously cosmopolitan and rural family in their small subsistence vegetable garden. Draft horses will be your co workers here.
Fruit Picking Round Up
Chilly Europe still has little to offer the agricultural itinerant for the next couple of months, but in Australia it's business as usual in fields and farms and work is available for those with strong backs.
In Queensland, bananas are grown all year in Cardwell and Innisfail, while the Sunshine Coast can provide work with nuts for a month or so. Bundaberg and Childers are two particularly fertile areas of the State with work available picking tomatoes, cucumbers and citrus for the next four to five months. In NSW, try apples in Batlow and bananas, as usual, in Coffs Harbour. In Victoria, Red Hill and Main Ridge are good for apple picking.
Riverland and Adelaide Hills, in South Australia, still have a month or so left of bringing in apples, pears, grapes and peaches. Across to Western Australia, jobs may be picked up in the apple and pear orchards surrounding Pemberton, Bridgetown, and Donnybrook. Otherwise try Geraldton, for rock lobster, or Merredin and Northam for oats and barley. Prawning and scalloping work may be possible in Carnarvon until October. Travellers in Tasmania should visit the Huon Valley, Tasman Peninsula and West Tamar for apples and pears. Or head for Scottsdale, New Norfolk and Devonport for hops picking around the middle of March.
Australia Backpackers Guide provides addresses of 400 farms on a map while current fruit picking jobs are advertised in Backpacker Job Board.
Workers Of The World
Working travellers past and present share their ideas and experiences working abroad:
So there was Akaisha Kaderli, house sitting just outside Antigua, Guatemala, speaking to a ghost.
While Melody Mukute, a Zimbabwean mother of three, had many good experiences working in China as a black woman, many of her students’ parents believed an English speaker was supposed to be a white person.
Enikő spreads the word about the travails affecting au pairs in the UK post Brexit.
If you’re looking for a great way to make money online, either to earn a little extra cash from home or transition into the digital nomad lifestyle, Mia Hargrave recommends proofreading and editing.
After spotting an advert in the Daily Mail travel classifieds - don’t judge, it wasn’t hers - Steph sails a tall ship in the Balearics with the Tall Ships Youth Trust, a UK-based charity dedicated to youth development through sail training. (Bursaries and volunteer options are available).
More posts on working abroad by bloggers and YouTubers can be found at https://www.jobsabroadbulletin.co.uk/work-abroad-articles/workers-of-the-world-profiles/.
At The End
Having only heard of it about a week ago, the Wordle craze seems to have passed us by. Worldle, where we have to guess a country by its shape, is much more our bag.
That bit of hippie slang would have been as likely to pass the lips of the patrons of Lale Restaurant as one of their famous puddings before they crossed the Bosphorus for points East. Thanks to Nomadic Notes for both these shares.
From another newsletter edited by an Australian exile in Southeast Asia, we found an interview with The Man in Seat Sixty-One and Thailand’s attempt to wrest the Most Ignored City Name Change Cup from Saigon.
Last, but certainly not least, here are some ways to help Ukraine.
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Red Tape
JAB is thrown together quickly on a shoestring and contains information and advertising that we believe is authentic and currently available. However, we recommend checking things out for yourselves as we could be wrong about everything. We remind our readers that there are many scams on the internet aimed at people looking for work abroad and suggest reading our Warnings, Safety and Spotting Scams pages.