Volunteering at Ilosaarirock Festival
Experience Ilosaarirock Festival from a new perspective
Ilosaarirock Festival would be so much more boring without our hundreds of volunteers: they are the ones who create the festival's super friendly and cheerful atmosphere, unrivalled in this country. This year again, we need active people to make small and large things happen.
Why?
Volunteering is another way of experiencing Ilosaarirock Festival. Volunteers get to peek behind the curtain and enjoy the privilege of belonging in the large number of people who together make the jolliest rock festival in Finland happen. As a volunteer you will meet lots of great people and make many new friends. Volunteering is a fun and fascinating way of participating in Ilosaarirock Festival, and many volunteers want to do it again year after year. Quite simply, volunteering rocks!
How?
You need to apply to be a volunteer. You can submit your application until mid-June. Fill in the application form and send it over to the Joensuu Pop Musicians' Association office in time, and then just wait for the Ilosaarirock Festival organisers to contact you.
Download and fill in the application form (PDF-file)
What?
Again this year, we need hundreds of volunteers to make Ilosaarirock Festival happen. We need folks for bar work, cleaning, and customer service at deposits, camping sites etc., to mention a few examples. There are different types of tasks, and everyone can find work that suits them. As a rule, you will cope with any kind of work with the right attitude, and a healthy amount of patience and a sense of humour constitute a large part of it. The work can be challenging, but you will not be facing it alone. Volunteers commit to working 10 to 12 hours in total during the three festival days. Your shifts will depend on the tasks. The work that takes place before the festival starts, such as construction and decoration, usually involve a bit longer shifts because the work is done during a two-day period.
The different tasks have been divided into their own areas, such as cleaning and bar work. As an example, people working in the festival bars belong in the bar work team, and each team has its own team leader. Team leaders are responsible for making sure that everything runs smoothly in their own area, which means that in their respective areas, they are the bosses. Your team leader will choose you on the basis of the information you entered in your application form, contact you, plan your work shifts, give you specific instructions concerning your tasks, and answer any questions that you may have. The team leaders will take into account your wishes regarding your tasks and shifts, but understandably enough not all wishes can be fulfilled.
Responsibilities
Volunteers are the heart and soul of Ilosaarirock Festival. In an overwhelming majority of cases, everything works wonders, but every now and then some volunteers let others down and forget their responsibilities. They may skip a shift altogether, be drunk at work or while wearing their volunteer t-shirt, or abandon their post or tasks and forget about the instructions given by their team leader. In these cases, Joensuu Pop Musicians' Association, the organisation responsible for Ilosaarirock Festival, reserves the right to send an invoice to a volunteer who failed to take care of the agreed responsibilities and charge the damage incurred.
Compensation
Volunteers make an invaluable contribution to making the festival to happen. Volunteer work is, by nature, work carried out by free will, which means that no money is paid for it. Every volunteer gets free entrance to the festival area (and wherever else your tasks require), a volunteer t-shirt to be worn during shifts, and a hot meal every day. In addition, the volunteers who are working during the festival can use cloakrooms (narikka) and bike parks (pyöränarikka) free of charge. For volunteers who do not live in Joensuu, Ilosaarirock Festival offers accommodation at the festival camping sites.
Meals
Volunteers are entitled to at least one hot meal during their shift. With a full stomach, work tastes better and you have the energy to carry out your tasks. You can always choose between a regular and a vegetarian dish.
Volunteer t-shirt
All volunteers get a special t-shirt which helps to distinguish them from the festival crowd. During the festival weekend you may wear the t-shirt only during your work shift. At the end of your shift you need to change the shirt, and it is strictly forbidden to drink any alcohol or be seen drunk while wearing the volunteer t-shirt! After the festival you can keep the t-shirt as a souvenir.
Accommodation
If necessary, Ilosaarirock Festival offers those volunteers who do not live in Joensuu free accommodation in the festival's own camping sites. You can choose between Ravileirintä Camping and Niittyleirintä Camping. You can stay in these camping sites from Thursday evening to Monday morning. Let your team leader know beforehand if you need accommodation.
Other nice stuff
Bicycle park (pyöränarikka) and clothes deposits or cloakrooms (narikka) are free for the Ilosaarirock Festival volunteers.
Download application form (PDF-file).
Please fill in this form and send it to the following address: Joensuun Popmuusikot ry, PL 240, FI-80101 Joensuu, Finland. Or bring it over to our office (Rantakatu 9, Joensuu) by Thursday June 23rd.
If you have any questions, send email to if.kcoriraasoli@otsolikneh.
We aim to inform applicants, whether or not they have been chosen to participate, by Tuesday June 28th. Please bring your driving licence or passport as an identification document with you when you arrive in Joensuu for volunteering work.
