Volunteer Roles

Details

One of the way that you can get involved with the Southampton Maritime Festival is as a part of the Festival's team of volunteers. There are a range of roles that are available to suit everyone. The perks of being a Festival Volunteer are that you will receive a free lunch whilst on shift, a festival wristband, and entry into our fabulous volunteer prize draw. If you would like to apply to be a volunteer, please see the volunteer registration page.

For more information, please contact:

Chris Whiley

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02380 593290

Pre-Event Volunteer Roles

Event organisers: Working closely with the Federation's events staff, volunteers will assist in the event orgnisation. A great opportunity for students of event management to gain work experience. 

Marketing Volunteers: Working closely with the festival staff, marketing volunteers will assist in targeting the festival to local and national companies. This role will include visiting local companies to discuss potential sponsorship or event booth rental.

Promotion: Outspoken and dedicated people are needed to help inform the public about the festival.  Your role will be to distribute information (posters, leaflets etc.) to local businesses and on the streets of Southampton. Great for people who are able to commit for short periods of time over a longer period of time!

Grounds Keeping: With the festival site located within a busy commercial port, volunteers are needed to help with cleaning the area before the event.  The job would include cleaning vegetation off steps as well as some general lifting, moving and painting. 

Site preparation: Help with setting up displays, tables, chairs, tents and bunting the evening before the event.  Ideal for those who are unable to help during the event itself but want to get a feel for the site!

Specialist Event Volunteer Roles

Lead Area Volunteers: The festival site will be divided into several areas, each of which will have a lead area volunteer to help coordinate the roles within that area and act as a point of first contract for volunteer questions.  You will have the opportunity to be involved in the planning of the festival from an early point and receive specific training sessions on all aspects of your role.

Face Painting: Artistic people are needed to face paint during the festival.  No experience necessary, but some confidence and willingness to paint new things is.  Paint and patterns will be provided.

Stage Hands: Do you have experience working in a theatre or gigs for a band? The SMF will have a stage running and will need knowledgeable people to assist acts with equipment and other needs.

Volunteer Hospitality: Nearly 150 volunteers will be on site during the event and it is essential that the volunteers are happy, well fed, and know what they are doing.  The dedicated volunteer area will be a home base for the event and requires volunteers to staff it.  Responsibilities will include making sandwiches, registering volunteers and informing them of roles, liaising with staff, general cleaning of the area and collecting tickets for the volunteer raffle.

Program and Ticket Sellers: People with experience handling money are needed to sell tickets at the gate and programs within the site itself.  This is an ideal role both for people with limited mobility and those who want to explore the whole site while working as a volunteer. 

Costumed Bus Assistants: Volunteers with 1940’s style clothing are needed to help distribute information and answer questions on the heritage buses used to transport the public to and from parking lots.

General Site Volunteer Roles

As well as specialized roles, there are a wide variety of more general volunteer roles within the festival that are essential to its success.  Jobs covered by this role include checking tickets at the gate, gathering statistics and visitor feedback, staffing information points, helping clean the site, blue badge parking assistants and manning the lost child tent. General volunteers will have the opportunity to rotate through jobs over the course of a shift, making this the role with the greatest variety.