Brighton Festival 2016 – volunteer here!

Celebrating its 50th year, Brighton Festival is back in 2016 with ‘Fifty years on the edge’, 7-29 May – an eclectic mix of arts, performance and creative events happening across the city. Get involved in one of the UK’s biggest arts festivals!

Brighton Dome and Festival – Performance Steward: for Belongings
– working as part of the performance team for the preparation and staging of Belonging(s)
– representing the Festival and welcoming members of the public
– Time commitment: Sat 14th and Sun 15th.

Brighton Dome and Festival – Heritage Ambassadors: for Dr Blighty
– Working as a team to greet and assist the audience around the Pavilion Gardens
– Giving information to audience members (You will be briefed and supplied with materials)
– Time commitment: afternoon shifts 24th-26th May, and ideally to attend a rehearsal on 21st May.

Brighton Dome and Festival – The Last Resort Performance Stewards
– On site to help guide audience members through the performance
– This opportunity would entail taking on a deeper role within the work and the chosen person would be able to spend time with the company post show learning more about the company’s practice and the creation of the show. There is also the added possibility that this person might get the chance to tour with the work in the future
– Time commitment: flexible shifts throughout May.

Brighton Dome and Festival – Marketing & Promotions Ambassadors
– Getting out and about to our venues to update our branding – banners, flyers, posters etc.
– Conducting market research by asking audience members to fill out short surveys
– Giving out flyers and chatting to the public around town to generate excitement about the events
– Exit-flyering before or after our own and external events
– Time commitment: flexible shifts throughout May.

Brighton Dome and Festival – Brighton Station Info Booth Representatives
– Chatting to the public – Promoting What’s On that day
– Generating excitement about the events
– Time commitment: flexible shifts Fridays-Sundays throughout May.

Brighton Dome and Festival – Children’s Parade Assistants, Sunday 7th May morning shift
– Setting up banners and bunting – Handing out schedules, flyers and masks etc.
– Time commitment: Sunday 7th morning shift.

ONCA Gallery and St Nicholas’ Church Invigilators
– On site to welcome visitors and answer questions at these Visual Art exhibitions
– Time commitment: flexible shifts Fridays-Sundays throughout May.

Brighton Fringe Festival – Information and Participants Hub Assistant Volunteers
Brighton Fringe is the largest arts festival in England.  It sets out to stimulate, educate and entertain a wide audience by providing a showcase for diverse art forms. It is a completely open access festival, which means anyone can put on an event.  No artistic judgment or selection criteria are imposed on participants, enabling the development of both new and established work to attract fresh audiences, press and promoters. Information and Participants Hub Assistant Volunteers help give out information to the general public, answer general enquiries and assist at the Participants’ Hub; a drop in space for anyone involved in putting on a Brighton Fringe event. There are several Brighton Fringe Information hubs located throughout Brighton including the pop up Box Office on New Road and another at Brighton Train Station.  Positions are available on weekdays and weekends. Volunteers will be fully briefed and trained before assisting. Time commitment: flexible, across the duration of the festival.

Brighton Fringe Festival – Fringe City Event Team Volunteers

Fringe City is an outdoor public event with two stages which showcases free performances from Brighton Fringe events; this takes place on New Road Brighton. Fringe City takes place every Saturday and Sunday in May, and the Brighton Fringe Family Picnic happens in Pavilion Gardens on Sundays 7 and 14 May. Brighton Fringe seeks volunteers every weekend in May to help produce these events. Event team volunteers will help to set up and take down the Fringe City kit before and after shows, provide assistance to sound engineers during shows, help keep show times to schedule and liaise between performers and the event management team. Volunteers will also help with stewarding and general liaison with public or performers who are performing at Fringe City. Handing out flyers, brochures or giving out general information may also be required. Volunteers will be fully briefed and trained before assisting at Fringe City. Time commitment: flexible, across the duration of the festival.

Lighthouse Art and Training – Volunteer Gallery Assistants

Lighthouse is looking for volunteers to assist with the invigilation of The Sprawl exhibition as part of Brighton Festival 2016. The Sprawl, a potent work of propaganda about propaganda, created by award-winning Dutch artists Metahaven, will be presented as a multiscreen immersive video installation at Lighthouse in May 2016. Duties include Assisting with front of house, Greeting visitors, Talking to visitors and giving them contextual details about the work, Distributing evaluation sheets and gathering information from visitors using evaluation forms and Ensuring that the venue is safe for visitors and the work is not tampered with. Time commitment: a morning or an afternoon session which lasts 3.45 hours, potentially twice a week during the festival.

HOUSE Festival – Event Volunteers

HOUSE is Brighton & Hove’s annual curated and commissioned visual arts festival, 30 April – 29 May 2016. HOUSE 2016’s curatorial theme is Home and brings together three commissioned projects presented in various locations throughout Brighton and Hove. HOUSE, now in its eighth year, is a key part of the May Brighton festival season, and takes place in various locations across Brighton & Hove. Celia Davies is HOUSE Curator. Key areas in which volunteers support HOUSE Festival are through invigilating the exhibition spaces, talking with visitors about the artists’ work, providing information about HOUSE, collecting audience feedback and ensuring the security of all exhibited works. Volunteers can also get involved in assisting the commissioned artists in installing their work, helping out at events and documenting our activities. Our volunteers gain first hand experience of putting on exhibitions and events and have the opportunity to develop a wealth of new skills. We would also like volunteers to assist us with documentation, to film, photograph and capture audience responses. So, there are lots of ways volunteers can get involved depending on their area of interest. Time commitment: three shifts during the festival period (each shift is three hours long). 

Carlton Hill Primary School – ‘Big Make’ Scene Planning and Making Volunteers, Puppet Making Volunteers and General Volunteers

This is an exciting opportunity to be part of this fantastic and diverse event. For over 25 years the Children’s Parade has opened the Brighton Festival, with 5,000 local schoolchildren stepping into show-stopping costumes they have helped to design and make. Almost 80 local schools, infant to secondary, take part and enjoy a real sense of pride as their hard work turns into a vibrant procession of dance, drama and fun for the whole city to watch. Around 10,000 people come along to see the parade and be part of the largest annual children’s event in the UK.The Children’s Parade is always a fantastic event and we are very proud to be involved. The theme for this year’s parade is ‘Brighton Celebrates’ and our section has a focus on famous people who have lived in Brighton. Carlton Hill School’s famous person is the world renowned author Rudyard Kipling. Our concept for the parade is to recreate a scene from his original work, ‘The Jungle Book’. The scene we have in mind is the iconic fire scene featuring Shere Khan the tiger as the central big make, the children as animals from the jungle, carrying fire sticks and big jungle leaves. The possibilities are endless and we welcome passion and creativity. Time commitment: dependent upon role, with various sessions April (not during the Easter vacation).

Know My Neighbour Project – encouragaing neighbourliness through sharing creative ideas to get to know those that live or work closest to us

Active Student, the University’s Volunteering Service for students and staff, and Community Organisers at the Students Union have teamed up to promote and support this project. We are passionate about getting to know the people around us and would like to invite you to hear more about how you can get involved in the Know My Neighbour project. This is a simple idea to encourage neighbourliness through sharing creative ideas to get to know those that live or work closest to us. This May, as part of the Brighton Festival ‘Home’ theme, there will be a week of activities across the City that will help us all get to know our neighbours. To find out more please contact Active Student.

Interested in taking part? To apply for any of the above roles or find out more, please contact Active Student, the University’s Volunteering Service.