Grænseforeningen Ungdom at Roskilde Festival

Our agreement with Roskilde Festival states, that every volunteer has to work for a total of 32 hours. We chose to use 8-hours-shifts, which means that everyone will work 4 shifts of 8 hours each.

We are staffed at all hours, though with a smaller number during the night. All volunteers should expect to work one nightshift. This does not apply to volunteers under the age of 18, though. They will not work during the night.

Typically, two of your shifts will be during the warm-up period and two in the music-period. Of the latter, at least one will be while concerts are on – afternoon / evening from Wednesday to Saturday.

No and yes. We want to achieve a fair distribution of shifts, which is why we distribute the shifts among our volunteers. This means that there is no “first come – first serve”, and we cannot guarantee that you will be able to see all of your favourite acts.

HOWEVER: Of course, we still try to do everything we can to accommodate you as much as possible. Around the end of May, we will send out a form to everyone, in which you will have the chance to prioritize some days and hours you prefer to work and some on which you really don’t want to work. At the same time, you can tell us which people you would like to work together with. We will do our best, and usually we are able to accommodate almost all of the wishes.

We are responsible for a refund station and a large-scale reverse vending machine right next to the refund station. Basically, it’s quite similar to the job the reverse vending machine in your local supermarket is doing, just on a larger scale. People at the festival come to us to exchange their empty cups and bottles for credit, which they in turn can exchange for money. We accept all kind of beverage containers, count them, and sort them. The festival then makes sure that they are being either reused or recycled.

Most of the volunteers work inside or behind the refund station in order to take in the containers, to sort them, and to fill them into bags and boxes.

There is a small group of shift leaders, who are more experienced volunteers. They are making sure, that the work is distributed evenly and that everything is being documented correctly. There are always at least to shift leaders on a shift.

As a third group, the working group is made up of a few veterans, who are preparing, organizing, and evaluating our effort year-round. The working group stays in contact with the festival representatives, organize our daily breakfast, write the shift schedule, and take care of all the stuff in between.

Yes! However, we might be forced to turn you down if there already are too many volunteers under 18 years signed up for our team. For instance, volunteers under 18 years are not allowed to work during the night, and this can be a challenge when writing the work schedule when too many under the age of 18 already are registered.

You need to be at least 16 years old in order to volunteer with us.

We absolutely want as many different cultures and languages to join our team. However, we too are bound by the Danish rules regarding the right to work and the rules made by the festival. As a starting point, you need to be an EU-citizen or have the right to work in Denmark through other means.

Check www.roskilde-festival.dk/en/volunteers/volunteering-as-an-international for more details.

People is the volunteer database operated by and for the Roskilde Festival. All volunteers at the festival need to register in People in order to join their respective team. You will receive your wristband, meal-vouchers and your shift schedule through People.

Our refund station is located in CityEast. There are several other refund stations distributed across the festival, but only the one in CityEast is manned by our association.

You will get meal vouchers, which you can use freely at most of the food stalls on the festival. We also serve a simple breakfast each day for all our volunteers, and there will be a fun welcome reception in our volunteers lounge during the festival week.

We are a little bit crazy about languages, culture, diversity, and caring for our volunteers, which is one of the reasons why we´ve been nominated Roskilde Heroes in 2017. We will push your boundaries a little and we love to be challenged in return. Being together and sharing a community is what we value most, and we use the refund station to come together for a common project.

The Danish Border Associations Youth (Danish: Grænseforeningen Ungdom - GFU) is a youth association under The Danish Border Association (Danish: Grænseforeningen). The Danish Border Association is one of Denmark’s oldest associations. We are an independent group within GFU, who loves to take part in Roskilde Festival together. Our roots lie in the Danish minority in Southern Schleswig and we are a danish-german network for people with and without a minority identity.

You can read more about the Danish minority and the Danish Border Association at www.graenseforeningen.dk.

You don't need any special know-how. We´ll train you as a group and we will make sure that you are well prepared for all the different tasks.

We make a great deal out of being social and fostering our community. Though, it's just an invitation, not an obligation.

All volunteers are self-responsible to make sure they have a place to sleep and to get to and from the festival.

You are more than welcome to join us a our camp a Common Ground.

All volunteers at the festival have access to a dedicated volunteer-only camping area. However, for that specific area, special conditions about reservations, payment etc. apply. You can read more about the offer on People.

Yes, of course! ☺ Every one of us knows how it is to visit Roskilde Festival for the first time and that it can be a challenge to find one's way on northern Europe’s biggest festival.

Take a look at www.roskilde-festival.dk/en/volunteers

For many years, the festival has outsourced individual tasks to non-related associations. Which means, that we are just one partner association of many. In refund alone, for instance, there are 4 other associations beside us.

The aim of the festival is to support non-profit ends and efforts for the common good, and they need many volunteers to make it possible. The associations, on the other side, are interested in visiting Roskilde Festival as a group. On top, each association receives a small sum for every volunteer they bring to the festival. And the volunteers have the chance to be on the festival together while at the same time supporting their association and contributing to the festival and its aims. Which means it's a win-win-win situation for everyone involved.

Yes, we will always try to make it possible for everyone to join us. We discuss many cases individually. You can either contact us directly or wait until we send our form for the shift schedule preferences to all our volunteers in May, in which we also specifically ask about special individual circumstances.