Dreamtime Festival

Dreamtime is an event held by the participants, for the participants, it takes everyone's help to make it work. Volunteering is a perfect opportunity to get involved, meet great people, give back to the community, and have a lot of fun in the process! In the simplest form, volunteering is giving your time to something that you feel is important. You can contribute before, during or after the festival and we'll find the perfect niche for you. Dreamtime volunteers are the life-blood and super-stars of the event! They are integral to every aspect of the festival.

Your involvement as a volunteer can range from a simple work trade for the price of your ticket to stepping into the organization and creating the festival from start to finish. Many people pay for a ticket and also spend several hours during and after the festival helping. We hope all of our volunteers and participants act conscientiously and proactively, take care of each other, and pay attention to what needs to get done and do it.

If you have questions or would like to volunteer, please contact our volunteer coordinator, Prima here. She will help you figure out how to get involved.

Pre-event Volunteering:
Here are a couple of things that you can do on your own to assist with the festival:

Download an application to volunteer before the event now:
.doc | .pdf
or online here.

The following paragraphs summarize each of the volunteer roles we need to staff during the event. At the bottom you'll find two links. One of them lets you sign up as a volunteer, giving us some basic info on who you are, how to contact you before and during the event, and how you want to help. After you add yourself to the volunteer list, the second link let's you schedule yourself for particular shifts. Please help us schedule at least one person in each role for each shift, or we may need to ask people to switch from more popular shifts to the ones left blank.

Regardless of which volunteer role you choose to fulfill, please try to arrive for your shift about 15 minutes early. This will help smooth out shift transition and allow for a few minutes of training.

Department of Public Works: Help with set-up and tear-down of the main public spaces and facilities. Since this role mostly works before the official start of the event and after the event is over, you won't see it on the schedule. Just let us know in the main volunteer sign-up form when you can arrive and/or how late you can stay, what kinds of construction skills you have, and how much time you can commit. If you would like to volunteer as part of this team, please contact our volunteer coordinator, Prima here. She will help you figure out how to get involved.

Clean Up: Help us Leave No Trace at the end of the event. No special skills are needed, but the interpersonal ability to get people to clean up after themselves is key in this role. Volunteering for this crucial position will help with the all-important goal of returning our site to it's original condition.

Info Booth: Sit in the shaded info booth, inside the Center Camp Plaza and answer people's questions, and call on the radio for any needed Ranger or 1st Aid help. The radio (and answers to many common questions) will be provided. Those who are familiar with the event layout and logistics will be most comfortable in this role, but anyone is welcome to take on this role and meet a whole new set of friends. Feel free to have friends join you at the booth.

Mate' Bar: Dreamtime will be running a fundraiser mate' bar during the event in the center plaza - help serve up yummy iced and hot mate' to fellow dreamers during the event. If you would like to volunteer as part of this team, please contact our volunteer coordinator, Prima here, and include in your message what kinds of cafe skills and experience you have, and how much time you can commit. She will let you know if there is availability for on the mate' team.

Placement: As usual in Colorado, we have lots of space at this site, but little of it is level. If we're going to find comfortable space for everyone, we'll have to use that flat camping space efficiently. That's where the Placement crew comes in - you'll help people who are arriving find a good place to set up, make sure our space is used efficiently, and help park cars so that access isn't restricted. We'll need several patient people with good spatial skills beginning Thursday afternoon and continuing through Saturday night.

Greeters: In many ways, this is the most important role to be filled at Dreamtime. It's also one of the most fun! Greeting is all about helping new arrivals make the transition from the hassles of their work week and the long drive into that fabulous magical world that brings us together. There's plenty of information to give out at the gate, but the most important part of the role is, well, funkadelic vibe induction! If you think your groove is contagious, we'll need a good sized reception crew all the way into Sunday. Costumes highly encouraged. Consider enlisting your campmates to work the same shift as you do - team greeting is a blast!

Floater: Sometimes you just don't know what's going to come up. This is the role that handles that - you'll be doing whatever is needed just then. That could be filling in for another role that's short-handed, taking care of odd jobs, or three different things over the course of the shift. This job is perfect for you Jack-of-All-Trades types.

Emergency Services: If you have real-world certification as a First Responder or higher, we could use your help. We want to have professional Fire/Medical response coordinators on call at all times, 'cause you never know when someone will cross the line from happy to broken. Since this is an on-call role and there are relatively few people who are qualified, we're scheduling longer on-call shifts to stretch the resources to cover all 24 hours, all weekend long. You won't have to stay in one place – you'll just need to stay sober and carry a radio. If you are interested, please sign youself up in the schedule and contact our volunteer coordinator, Prima here.

Rangers: Anyone with a level head and positive spirit can make a large difference in how fun and safe the event is for others, and a little bit of preparation can go a long way toward focusing those skills and improving communication in this often-delicate work. You will be roaming the site, keeping an eye out for problems and helping to spot and avoid crises. This is your chance to make a truly huge difference in someone's day. Common sense and humor are the best traits to bring to the job. If you have a mountain bike you can bring to the event, it will come in handy.

Stage Hands: The stage managers and sound techs need help and the various stages at Dreamtime. You can be part of the stage team by helping greet artists and performers, setting up acts, loading and unloading, keeping the backstage flowing and the stage schedule on time.

Ok... there it is... which position calls to you? Thanks for your participation. This couldn't happen without you!

1. Sign up in the volunteer database. (link opens in new window)

and then...

2. Schedule yourself for a shift or two. (link opens in new window)

[If you have trouble with either form, please contact our volunteer coordinator, Prima here.]

3. For those that would like to volunteer in exchange for tickets:
Sign yourself up for two shifts on the same team, and then send us an email here letting us know that you have done so and would like a work trade ticket. You will be required to leave a photo ID as collatoral and may need to leave a deposit for a radio. When you have completed two 6 hour work shifts (one work shift per day), you will be returned your ID. You must attend one training.

4. Finally, show up sober and with a fun attitude for the shifts you've volunteered - flaking hampers us all and undermines the festival

Download an application to volunteer before the event now:
.doc | .pdf
or online here.

"Being there as the need arises" unconditional service - a simple definition of Seva by Sri Ravi Shankar.