Calling Volunteers for NOW Northwich 2024!
27th April 2024, 10am to 10pm
Now Northwich is an international dance and street arts festival that’s returning to Northwich, Cheshire, on Saturday 27th April 2024. The event will host a series of outdoor street performances from a number of companies at site specific locations around the town centre of Northwich from 12pm to 10pm and there is a special headline parade, Herbert’s Dream in the evening from 20.15 – 21.30.
The key aims of the festival are to:
- Showcase the town in a positive light – locally, nationally and internationally.
- Programme exceptional work which is surprising, engaging and extraordinary.
- Inspire, involve and invigorate audiences, participants and artists.
- Act as both a showcase and a springboard for the town’s year-round cultural achievements and ambitions.
- Work with local people to create a sense of community ownership, and to build a model for the future.
Volunteer Roles for 2024:
We are looking for a number of local volunteers to help make the festival a success. If you can spare time between 10am and 10pm on Saturday 27th April and would like to help with one of Northwich’s most anticipated events, we want to hear from you!
As a volunteer, you are key to a successful event by being an ambassador for Northwich and helping people to enjoy both the programme and the town itself. You will be given a briefing prior to your shift and allocated one of the following roles:
- Street Ambassador – this will mean working in pairs at some of the key locations in the town centre, either at a performance space or at one of the local venues. You will be our eyes and ears on the ground. As part of this role, you will need to answer questions about the festival and the town centre – and generally be helpful to visitors.
- Artist Runners – You will be extra hands (and legs!) of support for our artist liaison team; helping to ensure artists get to the right locations on time, and ensuring the artists have a great time at the festival themselves as well!
- Street Evaluators – This role is super important to the festival as we need to collect and collate people’s information and opinions of the festival. You will be equipped with a tablet and will need to engage people in answering a few questions about the festival. This will help us to plan and develop the festival for next year.
- Production/Arts, Craft and Workshop Helpers – arts and crafts activities will be taking place at various locations in Northwich and we need extra pairs of hands (and eyes) to help smaller festival visitors get stuck in with a variety of activities.
What’s required from you as a volunteer?
- All roles require people to be friendly, enthusiastic and helpful. You may be given a specific role but might need to help out in other ways. We are one team so ‘teamwork’ is essential.
- You need to be 18 years old and above.
- Most roles will require a good level of mobility including being on your feet for long periods of time – a good pair of comfy shoes is a must! However, if you do have concerns about this, we can ensure you are positioned in roles and locations that are not too demanding. Please let us know!
We are asking people to commit to the following dates/times:
- A Pre-event Briefing: Monday 22nd April. (Essential; Time TBC).
- Event: Saturday 27th April, 10am to 10pm Barons Quay Northwich – or part of the day. If you can help for the whole day, that would be fantastic!
- Possible support in the set up and de-rig.
If you’d like to be part of NOW Northwich 2024, please complete the following Google Form here.
For more information, please get in touch with Cheshire Dance on: 01606 861 770 / nownorthwich@cheshiredance.org.
Now Northwich is brought to the community thanks to support from Arts Council England through a National Lottery Project Grant and is also part funded by the UK government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund administered by Cheshire West and Chester Council. Now Northwich is produced by Cheshire Dance in collaboration with and additional investment from Northwich Town Council, Northwich BID and Members Budgets. Now Northwich is a partner in Without Walls, a network of organisations bringing innovative outdoor arts to towns and cities across England.
Please note: Both the Now Northwich website and social media pages will be updated as we move closer to the date of the festival.