First Light Festival is a unique weekend long celebration of arts and culture taking place on the seafront of Britain’s most easterly town, Lowestoft. With free access and over 190 free events, the programme is broad and inclusive, encompassing big names acts whilst also shining a light on local talent and cultural organisations.
Volunteers are an integral part of our team. In 2024, our brilliant team of committed and enthusiastic volunteers undertook a staggering 397 hours of shifts over the course of 24 hours! Our future plans are ambitious and exciting, and we need your help to deliver what promises to be another amazing event in 2025.
There are lots of different roles and ways to be involved, but generally to be a First Light Volunteer you need the following skills and attributes:
• A positive and enthusiastic attitude
• Availability Saturday 21 and/or Sunday 22 June 2024
• Commitment to and flexibility with shifts and tasks
• To be responsible, adaptable, reliable, and punctual
• Be comfortable engaging with members of the public
• To work well as part of a team
• Willingness to develop existing skills and learn new ones
• Willingness to work outdoors, come rain or shine!
• Willingness to work in the early hours as required
• To be an advocate for First Light Festival and for Lowestoft.
We offer great hands-on experience of a festival, an opportunity to meet new people, try new things, gain experiences and be part of something special! You also get a t-shirt and refreshments throughout your shift. In return you get to be part of the UK’s only free beach festival.
We are looking for volunteers to fulfil the following roles (you may do more than one!)
1. Event Stewards
Event stewards are vital to the smooth running of the festival and offer you a great opportunity to see the site, engage with visitors and feel proud of supporting the festival’s success. This is the role we have the most spaces and doesn’t require any previous knowledge or experience of the festival. We require a minimum of 4 hours of your time, but you are welcome to do more in your areas of interest. In addition, these roles are often scheduled in pairs so if you have friends or colleagues you would like to volunteer with this is a great role for you.
You could:
• Assist with the smooth running of events and performances as directed by the Venue Manager.
• Welcome and interact proactively with the public/audiences.
• Checking tickets and helping to distribute headphones where required.
• Work with the event team to manage crowds and capacities of venues.
• Ensure the safety of the crowd/audience, e.g. in the event of an emergency evacuation.
• Complete light lifting and manual tasks if you are willing and able to do so.
2. Festival Ambassadors
Our ambassadors are key to connecting with festival visitors to support their experience and gain feedback for future events. As an ambassador you will be passionate about the local area and the festival.
You might be:
• Helping us to distribute programmes prior and/or during the festival.
• Supporting audiences with finding events, facilities and venues.
• Provide information about Festival activities.
• Talking to audience members to complete surveys about the success of the festival and how it can be improved upon in the future.
3. Festival Wardens – Environment
Our festival wardens are vital to supporting First Light’s commitment to the local environment. We are looking for volunteers to ensure that the site remains clean and clear and help to promote our environmental commitment to our audience members.
Tasks involve:
• Proactively support First Light Festival’s efforts to look after our environment
• Assist with keeping the site clear of litter and ensuring audiences know which bins to use, where to refill water bottles etc.
• Assist with the smooth running of the site as directed by the Site Manager.
4. Festival Production Assistants
These roles involve supporting the festival team more closely and with defined roles which are open to those who have specific interests and/or want to gain more hands-on experience. There are fewer of these roles and will often require taking on a longer shift and volunteering on more than one day if possible.
You might be:
• Helping with admin prep at the festival offices in the run up to the festival.
• Supporting artist liaison and running of the green room, welcoming artists to the venue.
• Supporting stage managers or technicians helping to set up and pack down for events and activities.
• Supporting the box office and information point, including selling tickets and merchandise.
5. Campsite Stewards
Many of our audience members enjoy the opportunity to camp on the beach! And to make that experience one they want to return to we have some volunteers support in setting up pitches and helping our campers on the Friday evening.
Tasks may involve but are not limited to:
• Assist with the smooth running of the campsite as directed by the Campsite Manager
• Welcome campers and issue wristbands
• Support setting up tents
• Ensure the safety of campers, e.g. in the event of an emergency evacuation
6. Artist Parking Stewards
This role involves supporting our many artists (musicians, performers, speakers, DJs etc) to get to their designated parking spaces. Specific car parking is set up close to the site for artists only and this is organised before the event.
Tasks involve:
• Registering artists upon arrival at the car park
• Directing artists to their designated area
• Ensuring admission to the car park is only for those who have been designated space.
• Offering support and information about the festival and access to the site from the car park.
Whichever roles you wish to apply for, do remember that working on an outdoor festival can be unpredictable and you may end up doing something that you didn’t quite expect, but enjoy all the same.
We welcome applications from volunteers of all backgrounds and abilities. Roles are allocated on experience and availability, however due to the terrain of the festival site there may be some roles and/or locations which are not suitable for everyone. We are more than happy to discuss access requirements with volunteers and will strive to make reasonable adjustments where we can.
If you have any queries or questions regarding volunteering at First Light Festival, please contact Kate at volunteer@firstlightlowestoft.com and we can help! To apply please complete the online form at: firstlightlowestoft.com/volunteer