Become a Volunteer
Volunteer Sign-Up Form: Click Here!
General Volunteers
We are currently seeking volunteers! We need volunteers for many tasks throughout the day, including helping with Photo and Video documentation, facilitating our Culture Tent, Main Stage, and Artist Check-in, and especially during set-up and breakdown. We rely on volunteers to help the festival run smoothly! Volunteers are needed from 7 am through 5 pm. Students, parents, seniors, faculty, staff, artists, and community members can all be part of our volunteer team.
Documentation Team Volunteers
Photo/Video Volunteer Needs: An important specialized volunteer role is that of our Documentation Team Volunteers. We depend on our photo / video volunteers to help provide as wide coverage as possible for our event. We welcome all skills levels who are interested in photography, videography, and audio documentation to be part of our Documentation Volunteer Team. Our resident Audio/Visual Student Intern will be leading our photo/video team. We want to ensure coverage of the following, in order of importance
- Archival video footage of all main stage performances (continuous camera full stage view)
- Still photography of main stage performances
- Still photography of Workshop stage and Culture tent activities and craft vendors
- Still photography of audience interactions, backstage activities, staff, and volunteer participation
- Close-up video footage of main stage performances
- Archival video footage of workshop stage
- Close-up / B Roll video footage of workshop stage and interactive demonstrations in the Culture Tent
Photo / Video Style: Our first priority is to produce bright, interactive, people-focused visuals that are consistent with our brand identity and our communication, educational, and archival needs. However, if you have a style you want to experiment with that produces a different vision of our festival, we welcome your interpretation!
Audio Volunteer Needs: We have a professional sound production company who provides our sound for the main stage. However, we also have a podcast: https://www.njfolkfest.org/podcast/ and are interested in sound pieces, audio recordings, in-depth interviews, and on-the-street interviews that might contribute to our podcast series.
Time Commitment: We accept volunteers all day long, from set-up to tear-down, 7am to 5pm. However, we know you might have a more limited schedule. We ask for a minimum 2 hour commitment, and we hope you might consider a longer stint throughout the day.
Equipment: Photo/ Video / Audio Volunteers must provide their own equipment. We would love to know in advance what you might be using. We do have a limited number of Zoom audio recorders that may be borrowed for the day.
Use of Materials: Photos, Videos, and Audio that you provide to us may be used in our promotional, educational, and archival materials. Depending on the likely use of your materials, we may ask you to sign a permission form for deposit in our archives
Volunteer Sign-up: Sign up through our online form to let us know your time commitment and your specific interests. In the “Special Skill” section at the end, please let us know what specific photo/video/audio work you would be interested in doing from the list of needs above, or if there is something else you would like to offer. Based on your time commitment and availability, we will put together a documentation team schedule. We’ll reach out with an opportunity for a zoom or in-person meeting to discuss more!
Questions? Contact the Alumni/Volunteer Coordinator here: njfolkfest@amerstudies.rutgers.edu