The Birmingham Jazz & Blues Festival will return for the 40th year from 19th July to 28th July 2024. It takes place in venues across the city and West Midlands, in bars and clubs, parks and libraries, shopping centres, streets and squares, bars, restaurants, clubs, hotels, art galleries, markets, railway stations, canal boats, and sometimes even on buses and trains!

We want volunteers who are: Good communicators; Computer literate; Resilient; Reliable and committed to the success of the team; Self-motivated and proud to be part of the experience; Often music fans - not just jazz and blues, but all types.

• Festival liaison - You will be out and about, visible to the public as part of the festival in your t-shirt. You’ll be doing a variety of jobs: Liaising with the audience, musicians and venue; Providing information about the festival; Handing out festival programmes; Conducting audience surveys. Wherever possible we get festival liaison volunteers to work in pairs, as it’s more fun with a buddy.

• Drivers - You’ll use your own car to transport equipment, musicians and volunteers. The festival pays expenses of 0.45p a mile; please make a note of your journeys and mileage, and keep petrol receipts where possible.

• Technical support - The technical support volunteers will have experience of setting-up pa equipment, and will often travel with the same band or artist, as they play at a number of venues across the festival. When everything has been set-up and the performance is underway, you can also help out your festival liaison colleagues.

• Marketing and Social Media - We are looking for people with experience of marketing and social media, to help get the message out, both before and during the festival. You will be based in the festival office with the full-time staff, which some people prefer; but others like to get out and hear some music as well, and that’s fine – you can combine marketing with festival liaison.

• Site management - Ensuring all runs smoothly at a particular site. You will be assigned to a particular venue, and need to be there up to an hour before the performance starts. Your job is to make sure the musicians are able to get in and set-up successfully, in good time. You will help them unload, get their equipment to where it’s needed, liaise between the musicians and venue if required, then help them pack up and be on their way. During the performance you will undertake the role of festival liaison.

• Admin - Based in the festival office, before during and after the festival, you will be undertaking general office duties, including answering the phone, taking messages and data input from survey forms (using excel).

• Other - If you have any specialist skills that you think will be useful for the festival, e.g. photographer, fundraiser etc., please let us know.

Volunteers will get the chance to meet like minded music enthusiasts and musicians, get a discount off food and drink at the festival information point, receive a special festival t-shirt, and of course get to hear a load of great music.
For more information contact Charlie Moore on 0121 454 7020 or email [email protected]