My fiancee and I enjoying a fun photo op at the free Ben & Jerry’s giveaway at Governor’s Ball 2013
Hey everyone! My name is Tara Zee of Streetsaheadliving.com and I’m a fan of attending fun festivals in my free time. With my lower salary and high debt payoff plans, I have found a way to attend festivals of all types for free. Do you want to go to one of those beer festivals that your best friend attends but can’t justify the $60 admission? Did you miss out on going to that rock music weekend festival because you didn’t have the $300 for the 3-day pass? If you are someone who is missing out on big events because you can’t bring yourself to spend XX amount of money on the festival, I have some great tips on bypassing the costs and still having the fun, all without sneaking in through a hole in the fence!
As someone who has been to music/beer/wine/film/food festivals for free for nearly a decade, the answer to having all this fun at little to no cost is volunteering. Yes, I’ve been a volunteer at many events, even big events like South by Southwest in Austin, Tx. Volunteers are needed because many of these big festivals require so much manpower to make them successful and safe. To pay all the people need to help facilitate the events would make such events either lose money or make the entry cost-prohibitive to the average Joe. So these big festivals offer free or nearly-free admission to their events as an incentive to get free labor.
You might be wondering how you can go to the event if you also are volunteering. Generally speaking, with most large events, there are multiple shifts or multiple days for the event so you can volunteer in the morning and still attend in the evening or volunteer one day to attend the next day for free. I volunteered at two music/food festivals in the past three months: The Great GoogaMooga Festival in Brooklyn, NY and The Governor’s Ball Music Festival on Randall’s Island (part of Manhattan). With each of these events, I would volunteer a morning shift and attend the event in the evening. While this meant I had to get up earlier to do my volunteer shifts, I got to attend events that would be nearly impossible to get tickets to (GoogaMooga) or cost over $300 (Governor’s Ball).
One note about volunteering at high cost events: Sometimes these events do require you to pre-pay a deposit up front. They do this to ensure that if you flake out and only volunteer half of a required shift, the event didn’t just give you carte blanche to attend for free. If you volunteer all your required shifts, you will be reimbursed shortly after the event is over.
With both of these events I volunteered at, their websites openly solicited volunteers. You would find the volunteer link and do whatever was needed to apply. The soliciting of volunteers is not always listed on an event’s website; however, this does not always mean they don’t need volunteers. My favorite event thus far that I volunteered at was Meatopia 2012 (on Randall’s Island), a foodie’s dream. They didn’t solicit volunteers directly online but I decided to email them to see if I could volunteer. Low and behold, they DID need volunteers and I was able to get in on an early, before-event-set-up shift so I would be able to enjoy the full extent of this $140 event for free.
Now not all events will need volunteers. Traditional concerts at Madison Square Garden, for instance, are unlikely to need volunteers. Such facilities already have paid security and concession staff so rarely do they need any additional help. While you may be trying to score access to the upcoming Pearl Jam concert this fall at the local sports stadium, there isn’t a good chance you will find any volunteer shifts to get you in for free.
But if you hear about an Octoberfest happening in your area that you’ve been wanting to attend for a few years now, go check out their website! See if they are looking for volunteers. Even if they aren’t, it never hurts to contact them about needing volunteers. You’d be surprised how much fun you have working with other volunteers and then attending the event for free. Not only did you get to go to an event you’ve been dying to go to at no cost, you met some cool people in the process. Your social side of the brain and the frugal side of the brain will both be happy!
Have you or someone you know ever gone to a high cost event for free? Would you consider volunteering to get into a high cost event for free?
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Author Bio: Tara Zee is a 28-year-old trying to survive in New York City while paying down her debt and save for the future. You can read about her financial journey at Streetsaheadliving.com.
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Photos by Tara Zee
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I knew one person who did that for a number of years. Then she got close with a lot of people through networking and just started being invited as a guest to many of them. If you can be a speaker or part of the event your cost usually is taken care of as well. Nice post Tara!
YourDailyFin Thank you! Yes, when you make connections, you can start getting in for free too. At Governor’s Ball, I saw so many people getting in for free via connetions through politicians and other local people of power here in NYC.
My best friend and her husband volunteer outside of Indianapolis Colts games before the game and are given free tickets to see the games in exchange!
Holly at ClubThrifty Thanks for adding that! I haven’t yet gone to any sports games but yes, a lot of volunteers are needed for football games too so it’s good to see other people using volunteering for free fun! :)
Holly at ClubThriftyThat’s an awesome idea! I’ll have to look into that for Pats games. I could definitely see that being pretty fun to do with my son when he gets old enough.
Matt @ Mom and Dad Money Holly at ClubThrifty Another way to get into football games that isn’t full free tickets is via getting a sideline job. My step brothers while in high school worked the sidelines at Cowboys games. Basically, they would be runners to get play photographs printed for the coaches. So while you couldn’t watch the game fully (as it did involve a lot of running back and forth), you were close to the action and you made some money for the work. I don’t know how they got the connection, but it’s something to look for as well for football fans out there.
I haven’t volunteered per se, but I have worked security at a number of events. It’s usually pretty mindless, I get paid to be outside and I get to see whatever event it is. Not a bad combination.
FrugalRules Great suggestion! I definitely recommend going the paid security route if you can too, especially if there are no volunteer roles. For a lot of the big events I worked at, most of the security was actually from private firms so they were full time employees but I’m sure temp gigs like yours are common enough to find as well.
I’ve also had luck volunteering for free admission at a professional conference. By unloading a few boxes of books the first morning of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs back in ’07, I was able to attend countless seminars and see a few big-ticket author talks. Not sure how common this option is, but it may be a worthwhile inquiry, especially if you’re between jobs or fresh out of school and looking for networking/professional development opportunities.
CatieM That is a great idea! Conferences can be super expensive too, so it’s a win win for your career and your wallet.
CatieM I volunteered at an AWP Conference in the past, too! It was a great way to save $150ish with only a couple hours work. However I’ve seen some other conference volunteer ops that were pretty terrible. I had a friend volunteer at PAX East (nerd conference) and I think he had to put in three eight-hour shifts to get a free pass ($70 value). That just didn’t seem worth it to me. At some point you’re better off just paying the price and enjoying the event to the fullest.
LastLivingMember CatieM I agree… sometimes the volunteering isn’t worth it. Sometimes what you receive doesn’t necessarily equal the entire value, and in the case of PAX East, may not be worth it. Volunteering at GoogaMooga on the surface may not make sense to people, considering the event was free. But it was an event that “sold out” so volunteering got me guaranteed admission. We also did get $30 worth of food vouchers for a 6 hour volunteer shift that combined with guaranteed admission was worth it in my eyes.
Liz Lemon + Greek Yogurt + Ben & Jerrys! Your picture captures three of my favorite things! (Even though I’m not a huge fan of that Ben & Jerry’s flavor…)
Volunteering is an awesome way to get into things for free. I volunteer to usher for shows in smaller theaters and get to watch the play for free. It’s a pretty awesome deal, especially because the plays are still amazing caliber and often with big name actors.
I’ve never actually worked a festival. I need to stalk these festivals now and try to get on their lists! Meatopia sounds like my dream.
BrokeMillennial Yes, Meatopia is still my dream. I keep waiting to hear when they’ll post the date for this year’s event– last year’s it did rain a lot so it might have put a dent in profits and deterred them. I definitely want to try ushering for shows as there are so many plays I’d like to see.
I used to volunteer for sporting events in college. I sent to the superbowl in 2007 for free and it was awesome! I saw the whole game in the 100 section for free, with friends. I did the same with the daytona 500 and local baseball games. Thanks for the reminder that we can get great deals by volunteering.
Monicaonmoney That is so awesome that you went to the Superbowl! They’re soliciting volunteers now for the Superbowl here in NY so that’s a great reminder for people like me!
I did that more when I lived in Seattle and everything was closer to get to. Now that I’m in LA I’ve gotten lazier about it. But I think doing that is a great idea!
Beachbudget Yeah, it can be harder if things are spread out but still worth the effort if it’s a super awesome event that has parking. And I’m sure LA has even more great events so it’s definitely worth trying.
Thanks for the heads up! I wasnt sure how easy it was to get those gigs. On another note, Meatopia!! Wow. I might have to see if there’s something like that here that I could get in on…
Glasshen yes, it was AWESOME. I feel that stuff like Meatopia can be found across the country. Sometimes it takes a good Google search for X events near X (like search for beer festivals near Regina, Saskatchewan) and you may be surprised what comes up!
What a super smart idea Tara! And especially for something such as the Governor’s Ball which many people will never get to attend due to the cost. That must have been fun.
Volunteering in itself can be fun but when you add on all the extra benefits that you get, it just makes so much sense.
TacklingOurDebt Yes, it definitely was fun. There was some rain, but even in the mud we had a blast. Your last line is the truth: not only do you make friends and enjoy some good times volunteering, you also get to get into an event for free which makes it even sweeter.
I once volunteered at a political fundraiser for a local congressman. It was a crazy awesome event. Free food, live music etc. We even got to hang out (and drink “left over” beer) after the event was over. It was a lot of fun and totally free.
StudentDebtSurvivor I have yet to get into volunteering for political events but your experience definitely makes me want to! I’ve heard that they can be really over the top, especially if the politician has a lot of money. Who wouldn’t want “left over” beer? ;)
This is so obvious but I can’t believe it never occurred to me to do this. I just moved to a city and have a small social circle and limited money. I’ll definetly be looking into festivals I can volunteer for in the area. Thanks for sharing your tips! I look forward to seeing more.
SunnySonrisa I’m glad this idea works for you. here’s to experiencing new fun!
A friend of mine told me how she volunteered at a film festival and had a great time. After hearing other success stories, this definitely makes me want to check it out. I love saving money!
MartinV Yeah, saving money on fun events is the way to go. Film festivals can be super fun, especially if you’re in a smaller festival. I volunteered at the Astoria Film Festival two years ago and got to see some short films I’d probably never see otherwise. It wasn’t a big film festival but it was a great experience.
My friend used to be a security staff for concerts, it was awesome because he did it after a day job and got to be in pretty cool concerts, not only free but paid to be there! And unless it is heavy metal, people usually behave ok.
RFIndependence Yeah, I hear you on behavior at some concerts. As long as people don’t start moshing hard core or try to rush the stage, being paid security at a concert s a great way to hear your favorite band live.