Outdoor Events Programme Volunteers

We are looking for enthusiastic volunteers to help with the staging of large-scale outdoor shows in and around Newbury.

You can come and be part of a great team of local volunteers and be behind the scenes of these fantastic events. It is an opportunity for people with an interest in events in their local community, or in large scale outdoor theatre shows and events, or for people looking to gain experience in these types of events. All volunteers must be over the age of 18.

The Corn Exchange, Newbury programmes a variety of exciting large scale outdoor events over the year. The programme is funded by Greenham Common Trust and the Arts Council England. The events range from spectacular international shows such as Periplum’s The Bell and exciting home grown shows produced by the Corn Exchange, first of which was The Berkshire Giant in June 2012. We also organise family friendly events such as our annual Festival of Light; on average we have 4 events a year, but this does vary.

The exact role for the volunteers ranges from event to event, but the following are the usual opportunities we have. We provide you with a full briefing of what you will be doing before each event and you will be part of a supportive team of staff and other volunteers.

Technical Volunteers

This involves setting up the equipment at events and helping with the operation side. You don’t need to have technical theatre experience (although this is a bonus!), but an interest in that side of events would be useful. This does usually require volunteering for a longer amount of time as we need your help from the very start to the very end – although when we can we try to split this up into shifts for people.

Volunteer Stewards

As these events are outside and are all free for people to attend, we require a lot of help with managing the crowds - we can get crowds of up to 5,000. As our staff can’t be everywhere at once we need volunteers to be our representatives, information points for the general public and assist with crowd management. Again no specific skills required, but an interest in working with the general public and being able to give clear information to people is useful.

Volunteer performers

Some of the events we programme require some local volunteers to perform. It is usually a group of local volunteers performing together, so you shouldn’t expect a starring role, but you will be part of the action and will help to make the event what the Director envisages it being. No acting experience required, but confidence when in front of a crowd of thousands is a must.

As with all events the roles may adapt for each show, but we would keep in regular contact with you to let you know what opportunities we have for each of the events. Another thing to bear in mind is most of these events will be evenings and/or weekends, but we will only be asking for your valuable time about 4 or 5 times a year.

We really hope you will consider being part of growing team of outdoor event volunteers and being a part of this exciting aspect of the work we do.