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Volunteering

York Beer and Cider Festival 2024 needs YOU

Plans are well underway for another exciting York CAMRA Beer & Cider Festival. This year it’s the 50th anniversary of the first ever York Beer Festival – we want it to be special and we want YOU to be part of it!

The festival will again be held in the majestic setting of St. Lawrence church and grounds, building on the success of last year’s event to offer an even better customer experience. And that’s where you come in – it’s time to recruit the volunteers who will deliver the event itself.

The festival runs between Wednesday 18th and Saturday 21st September 2024 – and on each day, unlike last year, there won’t be “gaps” between session. Festival set-up starts on Thursday 12th and take-down completes on Tuesday 24th September, and we need volunteers to help on all these days.

York Beer and Cider Festival is only made possible through the generosity of our volunteer staff of CAMRA members. We invite you to apply to come and ensure a successful and enjoyable festival.

Please read the information on this page, including the three linked documents below) carefully as there are a number of important changes from our previous festivals and updates from our 2023 experience. Please then fill out our 2024 Volunteer sign up form.

We have a wide range of roles available, before, during and after the festival and need people with a diverse range of skills. No experience is necessary as full training will be provided.

Setup and takedown

It’s not just whilst we are open (Wednesday 18 – Saturday 21 September), before and after is what makes the festival happen! There are no ‘shifts’ on these days but we work from 09:00 to 18:00 and it is particularly helpful if you can spare us at least five hours on each of the days you volunteer.

Setup is from Thursday 12 – Tuesday 17 September with the main activity from Friday 13 September as the beer is delivered. We need a lot of help to turn an empty church into an amazing festival! Take-down is on Sunday 22 to Tuesday 24 September.

Festival Open Days

There are three working shifts for volunteers: 11:00 to 15:30, 15:00 to 19:30 and 19:00 to 23:30.

T-shirts are available for all staff who sign up for at least two sessions during the festival and who register before 15th August. We will aim to provide a T-shirt for those who register after this date but cannot guarantee this.

Drink and food allowances are available during setup, takedown and festival open depending on the shifts worked.

We will have fewer volunteers working at our new venue and we need to ask everyone to please be flexible and be prepared to work in other areas besides bar work for at least part of the time. For example, most bar staff will be needed at the entrance to help get the initial influx of customers through the door for the start of each session. It may even be that we will need to decline some volunteers, especially if they have specified that they are only prepared to carry out a single role which then becomes over-subscribed. That said, please assume your offer of help has been accepted unless we let you know otherwise.

All volunteers MUST read these documents: 

By completing and signing the staffing form you are agreeing to adhere to the health and safety and hygiene rules within the Handbook and other festival rules.

Important Note re camping at the Festival

We regret that we do not have the space afforded to us when the festival was held at the racecourse. So, we are unable to offer camping at the festival except for a very small number of staff in key roles who have already been notified separately.

There are some commercial campsites located around the city, but please be aware these do tend to get booked up well in advance, so you are advised to book early.

Finally, please remember that capacity limits when the festival is open may cause us to have to decline volunteers for certain roles/sessions.

So, if you are ready to join our team of happy festival volunteers, please complete the 2024 Volunteer sign up form.