An evening to remember

It all started about a year ago, when me and a friend decided to try out the "Loftas Fest" event... That time was unsuccessful, to say the least, and ended up as a reference for further things that were unlucky...

This August, as I was scrolling through "Facebook", I noticed a post searching for volunteers for the "Loftas Fest" festival. I screenshotted that post so fast and sent it to the same friend. That's when we came to the agreement that it was time to change our memories about this event.

Although it wasn't all bed and roses at first, the first volunteer meeting made us feel as if we were in a place where we didn't belong. (To be honest, I'm not sure if that feeling ever went away.) Moreover, we waited for a long time and, in the end, still didn't get any useful information. Therefore, instead of volunteering for 3 days, we decided that 1 would be enough (although at this point I didn't even know if I wanted to volunteer for the festival at all)...

Me working in the merchandise store

As Friday evening came, none of the feelings had changed, and I was very sceptical about this volunteer job... When we entered the area, the first people who greeted us looked pretty tired, annoyed, and even distracted, preoccupied with other stuff, so that only confirmed my thoughts about not fitting in... Then we went into the volunteering lounge, where I met some other people I knew and finally could get along. However, the first jobs that we needed to do were so useless and practically given to us just so we wouldn't get in the way, aka sweeping the ground that hasn't been swept in about 20 years, sweeping sand from the concrete, watering the flowers, getting some zip ties, etc.

At this point, we were just getting tired of doing "stupid" stuff, but then we got an opportunity to work at a merchandise store, and that was the turning point. This job actually required some attention, precision, and responsibility. At first, it was so stressful, but the people that helped us were so different from the first volunteer coordinators that it felt as if you were together at all times. Moreover, as our shift came to an end, we met even more people that we could finally find some common interest with, as well as go on short but fun breaks.

The view from the volunteer lounge

Finally, after all of that, we got to experience the event from another point of view: the visitors, point of view. That's when we could visit all of the different stages, take really awesome photos, and "vibe" until we dropped.

Myself next to the entrance piece "The Eye"

All in all, this volunteering experience was very different from the other ones and brought a lot of challenges, overthinking or even doubting a lot of things, but in the end, it was all worth it for the connections and once-in-a life time experience that I got, as well as a changed point of view for this event.