Start with your feet: boots, not trainers
A festival build site is mud, gravel, scaffold clips and steel pins, and trainers will get you turned away at the gate on most jobs. Sturdy boots with a steel or composite toe are the standard expectation on event build and break-down, and a good ankle saves you when you're carrying staging or walking uneven ground for ten hours. Break them in before the gig, pack a spare pair of socks, and if you're doing this regularly the boots earn their keep inside a couple of shifts. The guide on what festival build crew actually do spells out the ground you'll be standing on.
PPE: hi-vis and gloves are the entry ticket
On a live build site, hi-vis and decent work gloves are the norm, not a nice-to-have, and plenty of site managers won't wave you past the gate without hi-vis because vehicles and forklifts are moving the whole time. A rigger glove stops rope burn, splinters and cold steel, and it saves you the one blister that wrecks a shift. Check whether the job supplies PPE or expects you to bring your own, and either way pack gloves so you're never stuck waiting on a shared crate that ran dry an hour before you turned up. For a feel of who's on site and what each job needs, the marquee crew and stagehand role pages lay out the day-to-day.
Layers, waterproofs and a head torch
UK festival season runs roughly April to October and you can cook at midday and freeze at 3am on the same shift, so pack layers you can add and shed rather than one big coat. A proper waterproof matters because the build carries on in the rain, and getting wet through is how you lose a day. A head torch is the most underrated bit of kit you'll own: load-ins and break-downs run after dark and you need both hands free for the job. If you're working the cold end of the calendar, read event work in winter first, because that's where a good kit list and a miserable one are furthest apart.
Stay sharp: water, power, ear protection, sun cream
A refillable bottle is non-negotiable on a long shift; tap points are scattered and buying bottled water all weekend adds up fast. Carry a power bank, because your phone is your schedule, your site map and how the crew chief reaches you, and a dead phone on a big site is a genuine problem. Pack ear protection for anything near stages, generators or power tools, and sun cream for the days you swear you won't burn and then do, head-down in the rig. Small, cheap items, and they decide whether you finish strong or limp through the last two hours.
Crew camping kit and the paperwork that gets you paid
If the job includes crew camping, bring your own tent, a sleeping bag rated for cold nights and a roll mat; the field is yours to sort, not catered. The bit people forget: bring photo ID and your right-to-work documents, because employers have to check you can legally work in the UK before they take you on, and turning up without your paperwork can cost you the shift. Hold any tickets, like forklift, telehandler or first aid? Pack the physical cards, because a verified ticket is what bumps you onto better-paid tasks instead of general labour. For how the money lands by role, see event crew day rates and how much festival crew get paid.
Turn up sorted and the next job finds you
Crew chiefs remember who arrived with their own boots, gloves and a charged phone, and they remember who borrowed the lot and ran flat by lunch. Showing up properly kitted is the cheapest way to get asked back, and word travels fast across a site. If you're brand new to this, the guide on getting festival work with no experience covers the rest. CrewPool is a free directory: companies contact you direct and you keep your full rate with no agency cut. If you want the work to come to you, add yourself to the crew list and pack your bag.
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