Event Volunteer
August 20th, 2013
What is an Event Volunteer?
“Many festivals and events depend upon volunteers to make them possible. Volunteers put the community into community events.” Steven Wood Schmader, CEO of the International Festivals & Events Association speaking about the important role of an event volunteer.
New South Wales has hosted some of the biggest and most successful events in Australia. Part of the secret of the success of these events has been the dedicated volunteers who’ve helped make them happen.
What does being an event volunteer involve?
Many of the biggest and most successful events depend upon event volunteers, as do numerous awareness-raising and fundraising activities conducted by not-for-profit groups. These include Red Nose Day, Daffodil Day or the Red Shield Appeal. Event volunteers also get involved with public events like festivals, forums, seminars, street fairs, parades, and all sorts of sporting, cultural and art events.
To make sure these events run smoothly, event volunteers are usually recruited by not-for-profits, councils or government bodies and event organisers to undertake a wide variety of roles. Volunteer roles in events include just some of the following:
- Spectator services
- Marshalling
- Drink station attendants
- Logistics
- Pre-event office assistance
- Registration
Anyone who volunteers or wants to volunteer can be an event volunteer if they have interest, a useful skill and the time.
We only refer our event volunteers to events supporting local government, community groups and not-for-profits, to ensure volunteers are not exploited or involved inappropriately in raising money for the private sector.
Events The Centre has supported
The Centre for Volunteering has made its mark and referred on potential volunteers to a wide range of events in Sydney, including:
- The Royal Easter Show
- Zombie Walk for the Brain Foundation
- Schools Spectacular
- Multiple Sclerosis’s MS Gong Ride
- Memory Walks for Dementia Australia
- Willoughby Council’s Street Fair
- Byron Bay Readers Festival
- City of Sydney NYE
- City of Sydney’s Lunar Festival
- Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games
- VIVID
If you would like to look for an event volunteering opportunity conduct a search on our website.