Last Thursday Gwen and I attended the Oxfam steward training. Gwen will be volunteering at 4 festivals this year, and together we'll be volunteering again at Summer Sundae Weekender.Gwen and I should have already attended the training last year, but all training sessions were booked out when we tried to sign up. So this year was our first one.
The training was 3 hours long. The material that was covered would have normally put me to sleep within seconds. (Especially with the lack of sleep I had.) However, the trainer turned out to be a really good entertainer.
We learned lots about what to do if someone comes running out of a festival tent and is on fire. (Depending on how bad the burns are and if the person is still able to follow advice, one option is to kick the persons feet off the ground and role them over. Breaking a leg might be the least to worry about in that situation.)
We were also given lots of fun examples of how to communicate with those under the influence of hallucinogenics. We saw videos on how to not help an ambulance drive through a crowd, and generally learned a lot about various potential dangerous related to crowds.
Btw, Oxfam are still looking for volunteers for this year.
