Rama Jalaleddin of Refugee Council, volunteering as a steward at Glastonbury Festival 2025, as part of the Volunteer Collective.
Through the festival’s Volunteer Collective initiative, Vodafone provides charity-based volunteers with free SIM cards and power banks. Here’s how the connectivity helps them keep the festival ticking over.
It’s nearing 25°C on Friday afternoon as the first few artists take to Glastonbury Festival’s iconic Pyramid Stage, bringing with them thousands of excited fans.
While festivalgoers eagerly await their favourite musicians, the weather conditions ensure a different act is in high demand – that of staying hydrated.
As security staff do their best to keep fans at the front of the stage well watered, they are supported by some slightly less experienced – but no less willing – colleagues.
“I didn’t really expect everyone to be so grateful to see a water station,” says Connie, “but they’re so friendly. I’ve not met one grumpy person yet.”
Connie is one of several volunteers attending Glastonbury Festival from Bristol-based charity Empire Fighting Chance.
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Led by Head of Fundraising, Emily Haberfield, the young staff are manning a water station to the right-hand side of the stage – providing an essential service during what is one of the warmest weekends of the year.
“Empire Fighting Chance is a sport for development charity,” explains Emily, “where we use the power of boxing to inspire and engage vulnerable young people, providing intensive mentorship as well as therapeutic and career support.”
“By the time young people get referred to us, they are often displaying distress in ways that get them into trouble, rather than getting them the caring support they need.”
“At Empire, over a 20-week period, these young people turn up, learn to trust us, and make transformational change in their lives.”
Volunteer Collective
The link with Glastonbury comes through the festival’s Volunteer Collective programme – an initiative aimed at providing voluntary opportunities for people who would not typically have access to the festival otherwise, due to social, cultural, financial or accessibility barriers.
Over the course of the week, volunteers from charities across the UK take on stewarding, water bar, catering and recycling team roles, allowing them to develop skills while enjoying the festival spirit.
As part of this, Glastonbury’s Volunteer Collective sets up a free market-store experience for the young people involved in the programme. Here, they are given the opportunity to ‘shop’, picking up a variety of products that not only serve them well on site, but after the festival comes to an end too.
Among the goods on offer are free Vodafone SIM cards, loaded with 40GB of data a month for six months, plus unlimited calls and texts, as per the company’s everyone.connected programme.
“Last night, my service cut out.” explains Connie, “so, I put the [Vodafone] SIM card in and it was 10/10. The 5G was stunning – it’s amazing”
“With work and everything on your phone these days,” adds Daron, another volunteer with Empire Fighting Chance, “you can’t really live without service or data.”
Connect and charge
Alongside the SIM card came a portable charger, which volunteers and festivalgoers alike were able to swap out at various Vodafone Connect & Charge tents dotted around the site.
Volunteers like Rama, who is originally from Syria, and was stewarding with her sister at Gate D. The pair were working with Refugee Council – a UK-based organisation dedicated to supporting refugees and people seeking asylum.
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“The SIM is a great deal for me,” says Rama. “I’m a student, and I just recently got a tablet for education, so it’s going to be really, really helpful. It’s a great deal for me.
“When we arrived, they also gave us a Vodafone power bank, which is really helpful too. And they let us exchange it, so if you re having a shift for eight hours and don’t have enough time, then you can just swap the bank out.”
For most of these volunteers, it is their first time visiting Glastonbury Festival. But thanks to the Volunteer Collective programme, and the companies that support it, it’s an experience that will no doubt live long in the memory.
And it certainly seems like the volunteers embody the festival’s famous communal spirit, as Rama explains:
“We work as part of a team here. We didn’t know each other [at first], but have built a good, strong relationship. We’ve come together and it’s a really nice time.”
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