Cookies disclaimer

I agree Our site saves small pieces of text information (cookies) on your device in order to deliver better content and for statistical purposes. You can disable the usage of cookies by changing the settings of your browser. By browsing our website without changing the browser settings you grant us permission to store that information on your device.

The Oxjam Bee

Oxjam Beeston

Music Festival

Join the team!

Oxjam Beeston Takeover cannot happen without volunteers - find out how you can help here

WHAT HAPPENS ON TAKEOVER DAY?

Beeston becomes one multi-venue Music Festival. During the afternoon, many pubs & cafés offer free music to kick off the day. After 6pm the activities intensify and access to all music venues is by wristband only; these are purchased in advance or on the day. All these activities are carried out by volunteers (this means people like you!)
To coordinate this the Oxjam Beeston Project Team operate from a central hub taking responsibility for ALL aspects of the day. This includes ensuring all volunteers know what is expected of them and dealing with any queries. The volunteer coordinators – Steve Barton and Darren Bailey - will be on hand all day to help all the volunteers know where they are needed and when; this includes asking volunteers to take on another role or be at a different venue; flexibility on the day helps us all!

WHAT DO VOLUNTEERS GET ASKED TO DO?

The main activities we need volunteers to sign up for in advance are:-

  • Coordinator – Coordinator roles are essential to help plan and run the event. Coordinators attend monthly Oxjam team meetings during the year and lead on activity in key areas such as finance, volunteering, production, marketing, design and logistics. No experience is necessary although finance or technical skills would be desirable for relevant roles.
  • Venue Management – This is all about ensuring all the different activities go to plan at your venue, however large or small. It’s vital to liaise with the venue owner or landlord and the sound engineer to ensure all the artists get to perform at their allotted time. You’ll also need to ensure the “Oxjammers” get welcomed, ensure they have tickets at evening events, and make sure everyone remembers that it’s all about raising funds for OXFAM. So, you may need to get on the microphone yourself to keep the everyone up to date. You’ll also need to be in contact with the Hub Project Team and with the event security team to ensure everything runs smoothly. In larger venues we also need venue assistants to support the venue manager to ensure “Oxjammers” are catered for, so it’ll be a great opportunity to team up with a friend for the event!
  • Kiosk staff – This really important job during the day and the evening involves selling wristbands, exchanging paper tickets or online purchases for wristbands, giving out programmes, monitoring cash or processing card payments (training will be provided). There will be a number of kiosks in different parts of Beeston throughout the day. These will be close to some of the venues; so once again you can team up with a friend.
  • Sound Managers – Ideally, sound managers have some experience in running a sound booth, to the extent that you can work from the technical rider of the artists, which will be provided by the production coordinator at every venue.

NONE of the volunteers needs to act as a security guard – we hire experienced security team to cover that. If you're interested and would like to know more about any of these roles, please contact us

WHAT SKILLS DO VOLUNTEERS NEED?

The main things we need are your time, being flexible and approachable and some local knowledge. Any previous experience of helping out at a similar local event will be ‘icing on the cake’.

HOW LONG WILL I BE NEEDED?

We need to be flexible to fit the final program which will only be finalised a week or so before the event. Experience tells us roughly 4 time slots allow volunteers to not only fit around their other commitments, but also allows you to go to listen to other bands in other venues (your volunteer wrist band gets you access to all venues). Last time around many volunteers did one earlier and one later session – and some did most of the day!

WILL I GET TRAINING?

Yes indeed! There will be a training session for you to attend shortly before the Oxjam Takeover Day. You’ll also be given some form of ID to ensure the public know it is an official event.

Register to volunteer!

Write down any comments you think are relevant for your application, e.g. if you need more flexibility with the shift schedule

Please note that we will collect and use your personal data only for the purposes as set out in our privacy notice.