The festival presents a variety of volunteer roles without which the festival couldn’t operate. This page outlines some of the roles you may not have considered. You may already have skills which lend themselves to these roles or you could learn a new skill which could add to your CV.
Set-up & Take Down
The festival takes several days to set up and over a day to take down, all of which is carried out by volunteers – many of whom who go on to work on other teams when the festival is open. Although much of the work is physical lifting and carrying there are other jobs on these days too.
Foyer
Ensure that queues are kept to a minimum, Customers are welcomed on arrival, directed to the Glasses team and pay the appropriate entrance fee, and we maintain control of the numbers inside the festival to ensure we meet fire regulations
Glasses
Issue Festival glasses to all Customers and take the fee for the deposit, refund the deposit fee on departure if Customer doesn’t wish to purchase the glass, load/empty dishwasher
Stewarding
A physical presence to supervise all areas and keep order, to ensure that all Customers have a pleasant experience. Many first time CAMRA Stewards have gone on to obtain Security Industry Association (SIA) badges which allow them to work professionally in the security industry.
Membership & Information
Providing general answers to enquiries about the festival.
Advise enquiring customers of the benefits available by joining CAMRA, complete paperwork with them if they wish to join whilst at the festival, and assist with general enquiries on behalf of CAMRA
Games
Assist with the assorted games available, ie. Shut The Box, to ensure the Customer has fun! (and hopefully win a prize!)
CAMRA Shop
Assist customers with any purchases of CAMRA products that they wish to make ie. Festival T-Shirts and books.
Corporate Hospitality & Events
MBCF runs a variety of special events from tutored tastings to talks by leading names in the beer world. Alongside these will be services for groups of varying sizes who have arranged corporate packages at the venue. Volunteers are required for these sessions for a variety of tasks – e.g. directing visitors; setting up PA; serving beer;
Bar Staff
Last but not least of course is serving on the bars during open sessions. MBCF has a variety of bars with different styles and formats:
- General beer bars – may involved a mix of serving cask ales through handpumps or direct from the casks and keg / KeyKeg beers through fonts
- Brewery bars – often working alongside brewery staff serving a mix of cask and keg beers.
- Dedicated Keg & KeyKeg bar
- International beers & lagers from fonts & bottles
- Cider and perry bar
- Bar experience is not necessary and first time volunteers are often surprised how quickly they pick it up.
Now you’ve seen the variety of roles that you could help with click here to go to the volunteer form.