Volunteering

Come and join us to help make the Festival happen!

Every year Buxton International Festival offers a number of Festival Intern placements to young people who would like to work in the arts and events industries.

In 2025 the placements will run from 7th – 30th July in Buxton.  While the placements are unpaid we do provide accommodation in Buxton and £500 towards your food and travel expenses.

Being a Festival Intern can be a hugely rewarding experience that will help you on your way to a great job in the arts.  Past Festival Interns have gone on to work in a variety of settings including Wembley Arena, the Lowry Theatre and Buxton International Festival!  We are looking for enthusiastic, friendly, motivated people who will thrive on the long days, variety of roles and pressures of the Festival.

Festival Intern duties may include some of the following:

• operating the Festival opera surtitles (potentially attending some additional rehearsals in early July)
• page-turning at recitals
• front-of-house duties
• venue set-up
• general ‘running’
• admin in the Festival office, including some support to the Marketing team
• Assisting with tech set-up for events

You will have the chance to see as many Festival events as you can get to from world-class opera, to the best of UK chamber music to the famous faces of our book series.

Competition for these exciting and rewarding roles is strong and places are limited.  If you would like to apply please send a CV and covering letter outlining any relevant skills and experience you think you could bring to the role to the Festival Administrator Lee Barnes: lee.barnes@buxtonfestival.co.uk 

Closing date – 7th April 2025

Interviews are likely to take place, week commencing 28th April.  Please notify us of any availability issues for this week, on application.

Calling all potential Book Festival Interns!

We are looking to appoint a Book Festival Intern to assist the Book Festival Director and Assistant to the Book Festival Director to deliver a successful and professional BIF Books.

The Book Festival Intern will enjoy all the comradery of the other eight Festival Interns, but the day-to-day work will concentrate on supporting BIF Books.

Tasks include -assisting with the hosting of authors, preparing the stage prior to events, liaising with the BOH Technical Team, book festival administration including compiling day sheets and acting as microphone runner during events.

Candidates should be articulate with excellent book knowledge. Candidates should be physically fit and be available to work between 7th July- 29th July.

Independent self-catering accommodation is provided with a contribution of £500 towards living costs. Travel to the festival will be paid.

If you would like to apply please send a CV and covering letter outlining any relevant skills and experience you think you could bring to the role to the Festival Administrator Lee Barnes: lee.barnes@buxtonfestival.co.uk 

Closing date – 7th April 2025

Be part of bringing live performances to Festival audiences

Buxton International Festival is a celebration of opera, music and books committed to delivering high quality live performances in the beautiful spa town of Buxton each July.

The Buxton International Festival uses 5 venues in the town centre to host over 100 events – up to 10 per day.  BIF has always enjoyed the support of volunteers, particularly during the Festival period to help us welcome and look after our audience.  To deliver the Festival we need more volunteers than we have ever had before.  Can you help?

Benefits of being a BIF volunteer:

• Enjoy the buzz of the Festival
• Grow your social circle and meet new people
• Access free training and enhance your personal skills, knowledge and experience
• Volunteering is good for your mental and physical health
• Get to see some of the BIF events
• Work as part of the awesome BIF team
• Be able to say “I was part of that”

BIF volunteers are asked to:

• Provide a friendly and welcoming face for visitors
• Treat people with respect and courtesy
• Provide information about BIF to our visitors, answering queries and giving directions
• Seating the audience when venue doors open
• Working the microphone during Q&A sessions
• Sitting in on events
• Turn up on time (including training sessions)
• Commit to at least 5 event shifts (roughly an hour longer than the show)

Are you interested in being part of something special?

Please fill in the online form here and you will hear back from BIF to let you know the next steps.  Even if you have volunteered for BIF in the past, please fill in the form.  Our preference is to contact you by email, but where no email address is provided, we will telephone you.  If, when all your questions have been answered you are happy to join the BIF24 team, you will be sent an event rota to identify the shifts that you are available for.

We provide a festival briefing on Tuesday, 8 July 2025, coving a range of issues including health and Safety and festival procedures, which all volunteers need to attend.

Buxton International Festival is recruiting for committed people, full of creativity and initiative, to act as District Community volunteers for us, helping to promote our events both in person and via social media, and helping us to reach deeper into local communities.

As a community volunteer you will spread the word about our upcoming Festival to your networks and throughout your local community and have the opportunity to offer your own ideas for improving our marketing.

Although this is an unpaid position, being a volunteer for BIF comes with some perks including invitations to our launch event and post Festival thank you party. If you would like to work with one of the country’s finest festivals and become part of the BIF family, then this is for you.

Role description– To distribute brochures/posters/flyers– To promote BIF’s events and exclusive offers on your different social media platforms, this mainly involves reposting what BIF posts. To promote BIF’s events and exclusive offers through word-of-mouth– To come up with new exciting marketing ideas to promote the Festival as a DCV.

What we are looking for– Confident, articulate people, willing to take on new challenges, who are skilled at working on their own initiative– Enthusiasm for music/books/opera and the work of Buxton International Festival – Potential interest in learning more about marketing and promotion

There is no age limit on this position, and we are happy to be flexible to fit in around your commitments elsewhere.

What’s in it for you?– Unique work experience, working directly with BIF’s marketing team

– The opportunity to learn more about marketing, develop your creativity in this area, and put your ideas into practice– Invitation to a BIF event– Opportunities to meet the BIF team and attend a Team meeting focused on marketing

We are currently looking for volunteers in each of the following areas:

Derby

Sheffield

Manchester

London

Liverpool

Birmingham

Stoke on Trent

Bakewell

Glossop

Ashbourne

Matlock

Leek

Baslow

New Mills

Marple

Chapel-en-leFrith

Whaley Bridge

Macclesfield

Stockport

Altrincham

Sale

Knutsford

Wilmslow

To apply, please send an email to James Fairclough at james.fairclough@buxtonfestival.co.uk outlining your interest in the role.