Volunteering at Moira Canal Festival

How you can help?

Help is welcomed over the weekend, particularly for manning the gates. This duty is usually in 2 hour shifts, and volunteers get free admission over the 2 days of the event.

For further details, contact Moira Canal Festival,
56 High Street,
Measham,
DE12 7HZ,
01530 515273

The success of a Festival is often judged by whether it achieves its intentions within budget and the degree of profit it achieves to contribute towards the good cause it supports. For over a decade, the Moira Canal Festival has become a major local enhancement to the social and cultural activities within the community and has contributed through its financial success to the re-watering of the previously closed section of the Ashby Canal, starting at Snarestone in 2009. The wide variety of the programme, the facilities provided, all contribute to the visitor´s enjoyment of the festival and helps ensure they return to this annual event. But providing a successful festival does not happen by chance. A festival committee spends nine months organising the programme but ultimately they require a body of volunteers over the festival weekend to manage the smooth day to day running.

Volunteers vary in age from teenagers to the elderly, Scouts and community groups, from the fit to those who are maybe less mobile, but can contribute in a more sedate manor. Prior to the event and on the Monday following, those who are available, help with setting up the site and the subsequent packing away. Tasks might include the marking out of pitches, the positioning of services for traders and visitors, the directing of equipment arriving on site to designated place, the erection of entry points and the placing of notices to guide the visitors.

On the Saturday and Sunday, volunteers are asked to give two hours of their time, more if they choose, to direct movement onto the site, the parking of cars and to staff the eight entry points to the festival, to collect visitor´s entry fees. Without the volunteers dedicated commitment to this role, it would not be possible to run a financially successful event and to further contribute to the restoration project. Shelter and refreshments are provided to those volunteering for duty and no one is left isolated, there being a minimum of two volunteers at any duty point. It is our intention to make the festival a positive and enjoyable experience for both visitors and volunteers.

For those volunteers where appropriate, a written confirmation of their involvement is available to support their CV.