Volunteer Opportunities
Could you help us steward the 2026 Lichfield Festival of Music?
We always value the wonderful team of Festival Stewards who help the Festival run smoothly each year. Stewarding is a friendly, practical way to support local music-making and play a vital behind-the-scenes role.
As the Festival continues to grow - this year expanding to three days - we are looking to recruit additional stewards.
There are a variety of roles available, including:
• Welcome desk stewards
• Door stewards
• Adjudicators’ stewards
• Venue managers
Why become a Festival Steward?
• Be part of a friendly Festival team
• Support musicians in our community
• Meet performers and fellow volunteers
• Play a vital behind-the-scenes role
• Give just a few hours of your time
The minimum commitment is usually just a half-day session on one Festival day.
Festival Stewards’ support is also recognised with BIFF long-service awards at 10, 25, 40 and 50 years. In 2025, we presented three 10-year and a 40-year award.
If you’d like to get involved - or simply find out more - we would love to hear from you - email vice-chair@lichfieldfestivalofmusic.co.uk or contact us via our website here: http://www.lichfieldfestivalofmusic.co.uk
The 2026 Lichfield Festival of Music will take place on Saturday 12th, Saturday 19th and Saturday 26th September.
The Southend Festival of Performing Arts is a competition held annually during the last two weeks in November. The festival consists of 5 sections; Speech & Drama, Singing, Piano, Woodwind & Brass and Strings. Throughout the festival we will require a number of volunteers to help ensure its smooth running.
Roles include:-
• Reception – welcoming competitors and checks them in
• Tickets – sells admission tickets and programmes
• Refreshments – sells hot/cold drinks and snacks
• Door – controls entry seating and exit of attendees
• Numbers – announces classes and competitors and displays their numbers
• Adjudicators Clerk – assists the adjudicator with paperwork, procedure, timing of classes, records marks
• Recorder – logs marks in official Programme, prepares certificates for presentation to competitors
This role is ideal for someone who enjoys teamwork and working within the vibrant music and performing arts community of Southend.
Commitment during the festival is very flexible and can range from a few hours to the whole fortnight, depending on how much time the volunteer can give.
If interested, please get in touch with Dave Patterson at stewards@southendfestivalofperformingarts.com or 07885 422139 by 1st October 2026
Website
https://southendfestivalofperformingarts.com
https://www.facebook.com/SMFestival/
We are looking for an organised and detail-oriented individual to support the administration of applications for our annual festival.
Key Responsibilities:
- Collate all online applications and transfer data into a spreadsheet
- Summarise expected payments, reconcile against Treasurer’s records, and confirm all entries are fully paid
- Check for and resolve duplicate applications
- Ensure all required PDF copies of music are submitted; track and follow up on missing files
- Prepare and manipulate spreadsheet data into the correct format for programme planning
- Collate, check, and rename PDF music files for distribution to accompanists.
Requirements:
- Strong skills in Excel skills, knowledge of Google Forms and WordPress forms
- High attention to detail and accuracy
- Good organisational and communication skills
- Ability to work quickly and meet agreed deadlines.
About the Festival:
- A small, friendly, annual festival featuring Vocal, Piano & Guitar classes
- Held once per year, typically with around 100 applications and 150 entries.
For more information or to register interest please contact burtonvocalfestival@gmail.com or call 07881 821367.
Dates needed: From 1st November 2025
We are looking for someone to take over the role of Public Secretary. The key responsibilities are:
- Maintenance and updates to the website and posts to social media
- Assist with sourcing potential sponsorship
- Assist with leaflet creation via CANVA
We are a relatively small festival, running one day per year for Vocal, Piano & Guitar classes.
We hold our meetings via Zoom and the successful candidate would not necessarily be required to live local to the Festival.
For further information or to register interest please contact burtonvocalfestival@gmail.com or call 07881 821367.
Dates needed: Immediately
The Harrogate Competitive Festival for Music, Speech & Drama urgently needs someone to take over as Secretary, following the retirement through illness of Linda Wilson. This is a voluntary position but expenses can be reimbursed.
The main responsibilities currently include:
- liaison with the Federation and attendance at regional and national meetings;
- arranging Committee meetings & preparing the minutes of those; -
- arranging the AGM and preparing the minutes of that;
- booking adjudicators (issuing letters of engagement and contracts etc keeping three years in advance);
- the ongoing management of the adjudicator panels (keeping them up to date about the Syllabus Programme etc);
- the preparation of the outer pages of both the Syllabus and the Programme (everything except for the sections containing the actual classes);
- attendance at all the festival sessions in March & being the first point of contact for people with queries.
Please contact Alan Connell at treasurer@hcfmsd.co.uk