Volunteer Opportunities

It takes a lot of work to put together a festival like the Fairhope Arts and Crafts festival. Especially during the festival a large number of volunteers are needed to make sure artists and visitors have the best experience. Each and every volunteer becomes an ambassador for the Festival and for Fairhope.

But it is also a lot of fun and a great way to meet people. Check out some of the volunteer opportunities.

Sponsorships

Help to solicit sponsors and work with sponsorship chair to determine the potential and value of in-kind sponsorships. Help assemble sponsor gift bags and deliver to sponsors.

Artist Hospitality

The Artist Hospitality volunteers provide participating artists with our Southern Hospitality during the festival.
Volunteers deliver breakfast to artists, take cold drinks to the artists, and booth sit for bathroom or lunch breaks. You can volunteer for two hour shift(s) or the whole day! It’s easy and fun to meet the artists and interact with the visitors to the festival.

Information Booth

The central information hub of the Festival, volunteers here provide Festival attendees with festival maps, festival tabloids, directions and general information including schedule.

Artist Breakfast

We offer a complimentary "grab-and-go" breakfast to participating artists at at the Visitor Center on Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings. Volunteers are needed for setup, pickup of food and to help during the breakfast hours.

Artist Dinner

The Artist's Dinner is Friday night immediately following the close of the Festival at the Fairhope Civic Center. During the dinner the Student Murals are judged by the artists and Festival awards are announced. Guests include: Artists, committee volunteers, judges, special guests, board members, mayor and city council members. Help with decoration, set-up of serving areas, break down and clean-up.

Logistics / Storage

Provide help with the setup and breakdown of the festival information booth, the entertainment stage, the set-up and take down of signage and, the set-up and take down of barricades for the festival.

Provide help moving the student murals from the artist dinner to the festival head quarters for placement in store fronts the next morning.

Streets

The street crew helps with the marking of the streets before the festival, the load-in and load-out of the artists and vendors, the post festival- cleaning of streets including place cards and tape.

Merchandise Tent

Sell Festival merchandise at the merchandise tent. This volunteer job can be fast paced and require multi-tasking but it is a great way to interact with Festival visitors. Volunteers need to be comfortable handling money and credit cards. There 2 shifts each day of the show and help is needed with the setup the Thursday night before the show starts.

Registration

Help assemble Registration Packets. Assist with the registration of all accepted artists on Thursday afternoon: Provide them with tent set-up guidelines, load-in / load-out procedures, tax forms, instructions, promo material, parking guidelines, maps, schedule of events, both placement cards, specialty card.

Children's Tent

The Children's Tent provides different Arts and Crafts activities for children. Volunteers assist with the different activities in the Children's Tent.

Judges/Jury - spotter

Walk the show with one of the judges during jurying process on Friday. You will assist the judge using the ZAPP application to record judging scores and make sure jurying is completed on schedule.

Entertainment

Help with setup and break-down of entertainment area - stage, tent, chairs, tables, decor, sound equipment and supplies and help during entertainment hours.

Special Events

Help coordinate plans for special events for the festival: Artist Reveal Party, Volunteer Drive, Christmas Party, Volunteer Wrap Party and potential Art Walks etc. as needed.

Student Art Murals

Volunteers are needed for a variety of tasks before, during and after the Festival:

Bring mural boards to participating schools and collect the finished murals from the participating schools. Create signage and ballots.

On Friday transport the mural to the Civic Center for the Artist dinner and hang them. During the the Artist dinner assist with the judging of the murals. Transport the murals to the Festival HQ after the dinner

On Saturday morning bring the murals to the various Downtown locations for display during the rest of the Festival.

After the festival bring all murals to the location where the murals will be displayed throughout the year and help hang the murals.

Adopt an Artist

The merchants of Fairhope have provided this unique service for Fairhope’s Arts and Crafts Festival by matching artists with local participating businesses which will provide “Southern Hospitality” for this special weekend. Through the Adopt An Artist Program, artists are invited to utilize their adoptive shop for general information, refreshments, rest rooms (when available).

Volunteers are needed to help to communicate, promote, and organize the participation of the downtown merchants and collect commitment forms from all participating merchants.