Richmond Folk Festival Volunteer Roles and Descriptions
From beverage sales to safety escorts to the bucket brigade, each volunteer makes the festival better. It’s also a great opportunity for groups who are looking for fun ways to contribute to the community.
This is how you can help support Richmond’s amazing arts and music community – sign up to volunteer for a 3-4 hour shift.
Bag Check– Help attendees securely store their belongings in a designated area near the Center For Cultural Vibrancy Stage at the new Allianz Amphitheater at Riverfront. Volunteers will assist with clear bags hand-out, collecting items for storage, arranging bags, and returning them later. Responsibilities also include setting up the bag check area, maintaining organization, and ensuring a smooth process for participants.
Beer/Wine Sales – Always wanted to be a bartender? What outdoor festival would be complete without beer and wine? Beer and wine sales volunteers will be in an ideal location to enjoy the music, watch the festival, and meet a lot of people. We’ll take care of ID bracelets. Volunteers will pour drinks and must be at least 21 years old.
Bucket Brigade – Want to help keep the Festival free? HERE IS YOUR CHANCE! We need energetic, smiling folks roaming the site with our signature orange buckets looking for "drops in the bucket". These donations to the festival will help with production of the next festival, so here is your chance to keep this wonderful event going! We are looking for outgoing volunteers that are comfortable asking for donations. This is a fun assignment where you can chat with festival patrons and hear some music all at the same time! Great assignment for groups to work together.
Bucket Brigade Shift Captain - We are looking for enthusiastic and motivated volunteers with several years’ experience to help the Richmond Folk Festival run smoothly this year. Shift Captains will work with our Bucket Brigade Team Leaders to coordinate and execute our performance stage donation collection efforts. You will help rally the Bucket Brigade Teams to work in an organized and fun way to help Festival-goers “make a drop in the bucket” to help keep the Festival free. Please email Jamie Thomas directly at jamierichmondfolkfest@gmail.com if interested!
Family Area – Check back this summer for more Family Area information.
Festival Desk - Festival Desk volunteers are responsible for welcoming Richmond Folk Festival participants, including Festival artists, Folklife artists, crew, and presenters, upon their arrival at the Hilton. The Festival Desk is the central hub of information and interaction; it is here that festival participants are first greeted, welcome materials are distributed, and questions are fielded. Arriving festival participants can sometimes be travel-weary, so it is important that we offer them a warm, helpful welcome. A key aspect of our role is distributing Welcome Packets and Tech Books, which contain items such as itineraries, meal passes/tickets, credentials, stage plots, festival performance schedules, etc. Most importantly, our job is to make our visitors feel welcome and comfortable here at the Richmond Folk Festival!
Information Services – Welcome. Direct. Assist. Recommend. These are just some of the things you'll do as an Information Services volunteer. Whether you're handing out schedules at Festival entrances, or manning one of the Info Services booths, you act as an Expert Ambassador to the Richmond Folk Festival. Help festival-goers get what they need, where and when they need it. What could be more important than that?
Marketplace – Love to shop? Meet interesting people? Volunteers will help set up, resupply and offer breaks to the retail folks so they too can take breaks. Get a great opportunity to see all the cool stuff before anyone else does.
Merchandise and Music Sales – A fun and fast-paced job. Assist the Plan 9 team in selling performer CDs and festival merchandise to the Richmond Folk Festival crowd.
Safety Escort – Always wanted to be a member of a secret service motor escort? Give it a test drive at the Festival. Most of the traffic at the festival is on foot, but performers are transported to the stage by vans and golf carts. Walk alongside the artists’ vans clearing pedestrian traffic with a whistle (and a smile). Wear comfortable shoes, you’ll be doing a lot of walking. This is a great assignment for groups or organizations to work together.
Site Setup/Tear-down – Here’s your chance to help make the Festival happen and still get to relax once the music starts. We need much assistance to make the site ready for the crowds and cleaning it up after they’ve gone home. Setup experience (construction, carpentry, engineering, etc) is ideal but not required. Volunteers must be: ready, willing, and able.
Soft Drink Sales - While enjoying the music from the nearby stage, sell ice cold bottles of water and soft drinks; a great way to interact with many festival attendees! (Suitable for youths 14 and older, or as young as 10 if accompanied by an adult volunteer for the full shift.)
Virginia Folklife Area – Want to meet and work with Virginia’s finest artisans? Assist the demonstrators at the Virginia Folk Life Craft Demonstration area. Help with set up, keep an eye on their booth or bring food and water. Get a close look at what others will be watching from afar.
Virginia Folklife Tear down – Help the tired but grateful artisans pack up their wares on Sunday. Must be willing and able to do light lifting and moving.
Volunteer Check In – The Richmond Folk Festival has more than 800 volunteers. A warm welcome is a very important part of the volunteers’ experience. You will greet volunteers as they arrive for their shifts, check them in for their shifts, and give them the volunteer tee-shirts.
Volunteer Parking – Volunteers will be stationed at the volunteer parking lot to greet and assist our volunteers enter their free, reserved parking areas. Listen to the music from a relaxing and beautiful vantage point of the Festival. Great assignment for school organizations or individuals.