The Big Issue

This week saw another first for Pier32 - our debut appearance in The Big Issue magazine. The idea was first suggested to us by the delightful and charming Jenny Bryan who came to visit us at UK Aware earlier this year (another Pier32 debut event). As anyone who has seen the article will already know, we have an excellent relationship with The Big Issue Foundation and have supplied them consistently for over 5 years now. In fact, we had a quick check through our archives and discovered we did our first Big Issue job back in 2004. At the time of writing this entry, our Big Issue article and advertisement is still in the current issue available from your local vendor, the Big Issue week runs from Monday to Sunday. You can find us on page 34 (although we may not appear in all regional variations).

Now for an introduction. Rob Wickings - you can find him on Twitter as @Conojito - will be joining the Pier32 team and writing regular blog entries for us on a wide range of varying and relevant issues. Over to you, Rob...
 

Festival Volunteering - Guest Blog

Today's entry has been kindly provided by Hotbox Events and DC Site Services - two great customers of our ethical clothing range which they use as uniforms for their staff, stewards and volunteers...

The festival season is one of the highlights of the British summer and no other country provides such an eclectic mix of events. The festival industry is growing from strength to strength with new events arriving on the scene and established festivals increasing capacity. Large festivals need a lot of staff to keep the cogs turning and the growth in the industry is great news for event staff and volunteers.

If you've never been to a festival before - or even if you're a seasoned veteran - working or volunteering at a festival can add a whole new side to the experience. Our friends at PAAM have put together a comprehensive guide to working and volunteering at festivals. So, what's it all about?

Festival Volunteering.

If you choose to volunteer at a music festival you’ll typically work a lot less hours than the paid staff and you’ll also receive a host of other benefits. It’ll probably come as music to many festival goers’ ears that volunteers get to camp in a dedicated staff area with separate toilets and showers! Although you don’t get paid you’re free to enjoy the festival when not working a shift. Hotbox Events provides volunteers to festivals including Latitude, Reading, Leeds and Big Chill. In return for a ticket, staff camping and all the other benefits you’ll need to work three eight hour shifts. You can apply for festival volunteering positions with Hotbox Events.

Festival Staff (Paid Positions).

Working at Festivals with a company such as DC Site Services means you’ll earn money by working at some of the biggest music festivals in the UK. DC Site Services provide stewards and staff to the majority of music festivals in the UK including Glastonbury, Latitude, Reading, Leeds, T4 On The Beach, Green Man Festival, Electric Picnic and Proms in the Park. With such a large range of events on their calendar there is a real opportunity to work for pretty much the whole summer. Job roles include stewards, car park attendants, fire marshals and more. You can apply for festival stewarding and staff positions with DC Site Services.

Finally, if you're heading to a festival this summer check out PAAM's festival survival guide for some great tips on getting the most out of the season. Enjoy the summer!

A Brand New Website

In all its glory, the new Pier32 website is up and running for all to see. This is only the beginning though as many new features and products are still to come. A surprising amount of work goes into a website, especially one that has over 400 pages yet is still only in an initial launch stage! I won't babble on in techno-speak about 'slugs' and 'metatags', suffice to say that a lot of effort went into every little detail and we hope you like the end result (or at least, the beginning of the end result). I'm keeping this post deliberately brief because I still have several hundred pages of products to add and I must get back to it as soon as possible!