The nature of the event and festival industry is such that across the board, regardless of your role, we work flat-out during the summertime. Despite this industry being at its peak during the warmer months of the year, we still have an obligation to ensure that all government regulations are being adhered to. This includes working time regulations.
In a nutshell, the working time regulations sets a maximum average of 48 hours for the working week and requires a minimum rest period of one day out of every seven, or two out of every fourteen. We appreciate that a lot of our crew choose to work as much as possible during the summer to allow them to travel or subsidise the winter months. For these people there is an option to opt OUT of these working times regulations which means you are not limited to those working parameters. This removes the cap on the number of hours you can work, but NOT the required rest days.
Either way, opting in or out will not affect your applications and we will be taking steps this season to record your decision. We also need to consider the following:
- We are committed to our staffs’ welfare. We not only want to avoid burnout from over-working without the appropriate breaks, but we want to ensure that you are rested enough to perform in your roles affectively.
- We are obligated to follow the law regardless of the industry we work in.
- We received feedback in our 2025 staff surveys from crew who felt they had missed out on the opportunity to work pre-show and/or post-show shifts and that this was offered primarily to the same people.
Here’s what we’re doing to address this. Over the next few weeks, you’ll receive an email formally asking you to opt in or out of the working time regulations. Again, this will not affect your applications, but if you opt in it may affect whether you can be considered for pre-show or post-show shifts. We will also be limiting these pre-show or post-show shifts to either one or the other, meaning that wherever possible we will not be putting the same people on pre-show and post-show shifts at the same event. This is to give more crew the opportunity to work extra shifts but also helps mitigate breaching the 48-hour working week (or an average of 96 hours per two weeks) for those who opt in. This is subject only to last minute cancellations and the availability of crew in these circumstances.
Once you’ve opted in or out you will not need to do so again unless you change your mind, which you can do at any time with the appropriate notice.
For further information about the working time regulations, we would encourage you to visit the Gov.UK website here. If you have any questions regarding the above, please don’t hesitate to contact the admin team.
