Volunteering at a beer festival is great fun and there is always plenty to do - before, during and after. This page may give you a flavour of how you can get involved in 2008.
Pre Festival Planning
We have a number of planning meetings where we try to sort out all the things that we need to do before the festival. If you would like to come along, you will be more than welcome.
Pre Festival Publicity
We need to get the message across to the good people of Ealing and surrounding areas that we are holding a festival. We have found that one of the best methods is to target the local pubs and clubs. We therefore need help distributing festival publicity material around the area. Most landlords will put up a couple of posters and stock our flyers in return for a complementary ticket. If you would like to help in your local pub, please let us know.
Setup
The main work starts on the Saturday before the festival with a visit to St Albans to load a couple of lorries with all the equipment that we need. This includes the bars, cooling equipment, tills, products and many other items. We need people to go with us to St Albans to help with the loading or even driving one of the lorries
On the Sunday the lorries will need to be unloaded and the contents put into position or in one of the various storage huts on site. The stillage for the beer will be put up, and preparatory work on the cooling will take place. Refreshments are normally provided in a local pub at lunchtime.
The beer arrives on Monday. We need to unload it from the dray and roll it onto site, get it in the correct order to be put on the stillage. Each cask will then be lifted onto the stillage and chocked into position, the cooling equipment attached, and the jackets put over the casks. The Marquee Company will start to erect the tent. We then put some fencing up to secure the site
On the Tuesday the bars will need to be assembled along with the membership / products stand pub games cider bar and the fruit wine stall. The food and other concessions will also be setting up there own stalls. The real ale bar managers will be venting and tapping the casks and preparing the beer for opening time on Wednesday.
On the Wednesday Morning it is time to put the final touches - setting out glasses and admissions, the tables and chairs ready for our midday opening.
Jobs when the Festival is Open
Bars
The main business of the festival – selling the beer. We need plenty of staff to man the real ale, foreign, cider and fruit wine bars. No previous experience required but some basic numerical skills would be an advantage! This is a great opportunity to get to know the beers that we are selling and maybe taste a few yourself and even interact with the customers.Admissions
We need people to help at the entrance with admissions and glasses, handing out programmes, washing returned glasses, and paying back refunds on returned glasses (but hopefully not too many).Finance
The Finance team make up the tills, and ensure there is sufficient change available throughout the day. They keep track of all income.Clean Team
In 2008 will be having a team keeping the site as clean and tidy as possible ensuring that the bins don’t get over full, keeping the chairs and tables in good order, and generally keeping the festival in an acceptable condition.Stewarding
We need people to help to keep the site safe by keeping an eye on what is going on making sure that any broken glass is cleared up immediately and that members of the public don’t stray into places they shouldn’t, ensuring that emergency exits are kept clear at all times, you may even get to wear on orange tee-shirt! Trained first aiders are always useful.Membership/Products
We need people to actively encourage the non-CAMRA visitors to join CAMRA and also help sell our products such as Good Beer Guides, West London and other local guides, T-Shirts, etc.Pub Games/Tombola
Volunteers are always required to help with pub games such as shut the box, nine man morris tombola and even some long alley games
Takedown
Once we have closed to the public it all needs to be put away again for another year, most of the takedown is done is done on Sunday. Any beer left needs to be disposed of, the stillage taking down, the cooling equipment packed, the bars dismantled and the lorries loaded and returned to CAMRA head quarters at St Albans.
If you could spare some time, however little, and would like to help, please click here and fill out the form or you can call Graham Harrison, the festival organiser, on 07971 547738 for any further information.
In return for working at the festival either on setup, while the festival is open or takedown, we give you beer tokens for each session you work, free entrance to the festival for the days that you do not, vouchers for discounts at the food outlets. You will also be invited on a free trip for festival volunteers normally to a brewery in the Autumn.