Hotbox Events is a company that recruits and manages staff and volunteers for UK festivals such as the Leeds Festival, Reading Festival, Latitude Festival[1] and The Big Chill (music festival)[2][3][4]. Run by Mark Hatchard and Rob Smith as a trading name of animation and design company Hotbox Studios, Hotbox Events works closely with Festival Republic to provide CAT (Campsite Assistant Teams) and HAT (Helpful Arena Teams)[5], staff and volunteers to UK music festivals and events[6][7].
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After working at festivals in various roles since the early 1990s with DC Site Services Ltd (DCSS), Mark Hatchard essentially started Hotbox Events in 2003 when he was recruited by senior members of Festival Republic to supervise a small group of volunteers at the Leeds Festival in Yorkshire[8]. Hatchard’s volunteers became known as CATs (Campsite Assistance Teams) and HATs (Helpful Arena Teams) and, after the success of Leeds Festival 2003, Hatchard was appointed as the festival’s Deputy Campsite Manager and asked to develop his staffing programme further[9].
In 2006, Hatchard was asked to supply staff and volunteers for Reading Festival and in 2008 Latitude Festival was also added to the list. By 2009, the venture had become so large that Hatchard’s existing company, Hotbox Studios, decided to officially launch Hotbox Events as a sister company.
For a number of years Hotbox Studios supplied Chillfest Limited – the company responsible for running The Big Chill festival – with recruitment software programme PAAM (see below). Hotbox Events was brought in to supply staff and volunteers to the event in 2010. The Big Chill brand was purchased by Festival Republic, which chose to work with Hotbox, after the festival branch of Chillfest Limited went into liquidation following poor ticket sales in 2009.
At present, thousands of volunteers give their time at UK music festivals every year as either CATs or HATs in return for a free entry ticket[10].
As Hotbox became more involved with staffing events, the increasing admin demands of everything from recruitment to timetabling inspired Hotbox Studios to create a software programme to help manage the task. Beginning as a simple online application form in 2001, the PAAM (Personnel Application, Administration and Management) programme is now used to recruit and organise thousands of staff and volunteers over more than 30 of the biggest events and festivals in the UK[11].
The programme, which is based on Cloud computing and runs entirely over S/SL programming language, consolidates pre-event, onsite and post-event admin. It was officially launched in 2007 and is now used by its clients to supply staff and volunteers at events including:
• Latitude Festival
• Leeds Festival
• Reading Festival
• Taste Festivals
• NASS
• The Big Chill
• BBC Proms in the Park
Hotbox Events often joins with its sister company Hotbox Studios to offer sponsorship for charity events.
-In December 2010 the two companies sponsored an unpaid helper at the Global Volunteer Network in Panama. Working in the western highlands of the country, the volunteer assisted children in need by lending a hand with the daily activities and duties in orphanages, working with teenage mothers and teaching English, among other things.
-Hotbox Events sponsored cyclists in the Gore Bike Wear TransWales Mountain Bike Event in Wales in 2009 and the Nightrider12 event at Plymouth in 2007. The latter event helped raise money for the Force Cancer Charity.
-In 2007, Hotbox Studios and Hotbox Events supplied online services to a two-person team which raised money for the Laksmi Ashram School in North India by trekking to the Everest Base Camp. The pair walked across Nepal Himalaya for two weeks from Lukla (the highest point that vehicles can access at 2,800m) until reaching the camp at 5,300m. After the trek, an ongoing pen-friend link was established between Ashram School and Holt School in Wokingham.
-The company has also provided sponsorship for the Camping Club Youth (CCY) National Youth Rally. The not-for-profit organisation encourages young people to meet new friends and take part in a variety of challenges and sporting activities.