Festival Staffing
We’re a Temp Staffing Agency Providing Comprehensive Recruiting Solutions to Festivals Across the UK
Welcome to the wonderful world of Arc festivals! Our centralised festival team manages the full UK operation, providing comprehensive staffing solutions to some of the biggest festivals across the country, including Creamfields, The Long Road Festival, Download and Tramlines. From our six strategically-located hubs in Liverpool, Manchester, London, Leeds, Birmingham and Glasgow, we utilise our online recruitment process to recruit in any location across the UK.
We will become a trusted partner, who will support you and your operation from start to finish, allowing you to focus on delivering an exceptional and enjoyable experience to guests. We ensure the most efficient of deliveries at each and every event, with one point of contact, an established check-in process that ensures watertight compliance checks and a system that ensures we will deliver on your allocation with a quality team.
We focus on quality and consistency, providing highly skilled team members to replicate an in-house team that understands your vision, mission and values that are so intrinsically linked with guest experience. As a high-performance business, we work to ensure quality is monitored throughout our operations, we’re both ISO 9001 & ISO 14001 certified. Our commitment to high-quality standards is an integral part of our company ethos and informs the nature of the work we undertake, the way it is undertaken and our operational policies.
Our Festival Roles:
We select the highest-quality candidates and screen for attitude, reliability, and communication: people who bring fantastic energy, great teamwork skills, and, above all, can handle working in the fast-paced environment of festival bar work.
The Roles On Offer:
- Bar Staff
- Bar Backs
- Ticketing
- Challenge 21 Roles
- Baristas
- Cocktail Bartenders
- Bar Managers
- Bar Supervisors
- Stock/Logistics
- Catering Assistants
- Chefs
How We Recruit & Train
We use a robust and thorough applicant tracking system (ATS) and have worked with the developer to create a bespoke onboarding process.
Vacancy
We can place vacancies on our website which links to Indeed and other job boards. These can be targeted to various geographies. Vacancies meet all legal requirements including job roles and rates of pay.
Application
There are two routes to apply for Arc, the first is by applying online before being invited to an assessment session. The second allows candidates to submit a video application, should their geographic location or circumstances mean they cannot attend in person.
Assessment Session
Our assessment sessions cover all things Arc, from our story, vision, type of clients and code of conduct to practical training for various positions. We look for individuals who are friendly, engaged and confident in interacting with others.
Training
All candidates are given training on COSHH, Manual Handling, Food Safety & Allergens. Hospitality skills are assessed from induction level (3 plate service/5 plate clear, tray service etc) and additional skills are noted (e.g. Barista)
Compliance
Compliance is at the centre of what we do, which embodies all three of our values. We ‘care’ about all our stakeholders and protecting them. We’re ‘honest’ and face up to the facts of having water-tight compliance as we recognise the necessity of it. We ‘deliver’ this level of compliance throughout our business.
To further enhance our compliance, our Senior Payroll Manager authorises all new hires in line with the rigid processes as established by our ISO 9001 management system. Led by our Head of Operations, Elizabeth Wright, this quality management system aids us in implementing clear, repeatable processes to maintain a quality operation.
These checks take place not only considering all legalities but also taking into account an in-depth knowledge and understanding of all our client SLAs, therefore ensuring contractual compliance. Copies of all training and certificates are held on the team member’s file. These can be exported as entire documents, or we can provide certificate numbers/expiry and/or issue dates to suit your needs.
Both our ATS system and our staffing system hold this information so depending on requirements, we can produce any data or details required before the shift, during the shift or post-shift.
Recruiting in Remote Locations
We want to create social value within our communities and feel strongly about creating employment for local people. In 2023, we staffed over 30 festivals and recruited in remote locations, some of which are over 80 miles from the nearest Arc hub, including:
- Oxford
- Northampton
- Bristol
- Portsmouth
- Dundee
- Darlington
- Pitlochry
- Norfolk
- Cheltenham
With our fully remote recruitment via our online application process, we can recruit across locations but still retain our quality. We’re experienced in undertaking successful recruitment campaigns in remote areas, not only providing locals with employment in the area but enhancing sustainability by cutting down on commuting and lowering our carbon footprint.
It should be noted that many of our team members are able to move around the UK and continue to work with Arc due to the number of hubs across the country. In particular, we have a large proportion of students who take advantage of this throughout their studies, from relocating home during summer break to returning to their university lodgings during term time.
Our On-Site Festival Management Team
We have a consistent on-site festival management team to assist with all aspects of the operation including:
- Accreditation
- Signing-in/Signing-out
- Management of Staff Breaks
- Welfare Issues
- Team Member Performance
- Team Member Presentation
We come fully equipped with our own infrastructure and resources including branded gazebos, flags and telescopic flag poles. This makes it really easy for the staff to see where they are going, what area they need to be in and helps us to manoeuvre large groups of people around efficiently and effectively.
Our on-site managers are present throughout the entirety of the shift to manage any welfare issues and assist with check out. It also helps us with quality assurance as we can see team members in action for ourselves
Our Commitment to Leave No Trace
Did You Know UK Festivals Produce an Estimated 23,500 Tonnes of Waste Each Year?
We’re on a mission to do our part in reducing that figure by leaving no trace at all of our UK camping festivals. We pledge that we will leave no trace at festivals, meaning that you will find our camping or staffing areas exactly as you found them.
Our Leave No Trace campaign involves:
Arc Sustainability Champions
These team members go through a selection process whereby we identify people who are passionate about sustainability. They are then given an induction about how we can best leave no trace. In return, we pay them a higher rate for encouraging green practices on site.
Green Pledge
All team members are given a sustainability guide we require as part of our pre-event communication and asked to pledge to leave no trace while on site.
For Creamfields 2023, we delivered a carbon neutral operation by offsetting our carbon footprint across the festival including travel and waste.
Specific Waste Recycling Stations
We are initially focusing on providing team members the ability to dispose of clothing, vapes, and food packaging in a responsible way which we will then recycle post-event. We will also support on site with the collection of general waste and normal recycling procedures.
Re-using Equipment to Preserve Value
We provide tents to any staff to borrow free of cost to anyone who already doesn’t have one to prevent single-use purchase. We then collect the tents, get them professionally cleaned, and re-issue for future events as a demonstration of the circular economy in practice.
Site Clear Down
On the last day, our sustainability champions will work with the rest of the team to ensure the fields we camp in are completely clear when we leave and also any equipment left behind (e.g. tents) is recycled or donated to charity.
Carbon Emission Tracking
We survey all our team members to find out the nature of their journey to and from the site so we can track performance year on year and understand more about how we can lower our carbon footprint moving forward. Any emissions are offset as part of our annual impact strategy process through accredited schemes.
We are ISO 14001 Certified
ISO 14001 is the internationally recognised standard for environmental management systems. It provides a framework for organisations to design, implement, and continually improve their environmental performance.
This system reinforces our vision and commitment to being a sustainable business, legally accountable for creating triple-bottom-line value: people, profit and planet.