Volunteer Registration Opens for National Folk Festival

Approximately 1,200 volunteers needed for 2016 Festival, running in downtown Greensboro from September 9 – 11, 2016

Online Volunteer Registration opens today for the National Folk Festival, a FREE, three-day event, running in downtown Greensboro from September 9 – 11, 2016.

As event organizers learned during the 2015 Festival—the first year of the National’s three-year residency in Greensboro—volunteers are key to a successful event. Building on the success of last year’s Festival, and based on projected audience growth to 130,000 or more (up from 102,000 in 2015), organizers hope to secure approximately 1,200 volunteers for the 2016 event—about 20% more than in 2015.

Led by National Folk Festival Local Director Amy Grossmann, the Festival Volunteer team has improved the online Volunteer Registration process for 2016. “We’ve added a great deal of functionality to the ArtsGreensboro Volunteer Information Center (VIC), which is where those interested in volunteering for the Festival will register,” Grossmann said. “This year, volunteers will be able to create individualized profiles and schedule themselves for exact time slots and specific roles. They will also be able to make changes to their schedules directly. This should make managing their Festival volunteer experience much simpler.”

Volunteers may sign up individually or with groups of friends or colleagues at nationalfolkfestival.com/volunteer. Average volunteer shifts are three to four hours; volunteers may sign up for more than one shift during the three-day Festival. There also will be opportunities for volunteers to promote the Festival at other events throughout the summer.

All volunteers will be asked to attend an orientation session; depending on their role, some volunteers will also participate in training sessions. Each volunteer will receive a National Folk Festival t-shirt and create lasting memories.

To learn about volunteer roles and to register, prospective volunteers should visit nationalfolkfestival.com/volunteer. For more information on the Festival, visit nationalfolkfestival.com and the Festival’s Facebook page (Facebook.com/NationalFolkFestivalNC), and engage with the Festival via social media: