DFF 2026 - Volunteer Application

  • Volunteer Application Form

    Thank you for applying to volunteer with Dublin Fringe Festival

    • Dublin Fringe Festival will run from the 5th to the 20th of September 2026.

    • Please read the Guide for Applicants at the bottom of the page and the Notes for Applicants below.

    • You must be 18 years of age or older to apply.

    • There will be an information session on Monday 10th of August to provide more information on the engagement and answer all your questions.

    • There will be a volunteer orientation meeting during the week of August 31st to meet your fellow volunteers and the Fringe staff, and to provide details.

    • Volunteers are entitle you to complimentary tickets for Festival shows, subject to availability and the complition of volunteering tasks. Further information will be provided at the volunteer orientation.

    • Applications close on Friday 14th of August at 11:59 pm.

  • Two volunteers wearing purple hi-vis vests, waering black health masks, and holding their ticket scanners towards the camera pretending to be guns, standing behind a Dublin Fringe Festival 2021 purple banner.

  • Notes for Applicants

    • We ask all of our new applicants to make a special effort to attend our a volunteer orientation meeting during the week of August 31st, so you can get a clear sense of the Festival and the role of our volunteers. 

    • Dublin Fringe Festival welcomes applications from all sections of the community. We particularly encourage applications from members of groups who are underrepresented in the cultural sector. Black artists or artists of the global majority, people with disabilities, members of the Traveller community, members of the LGBTQ+ community and candidates of all gender identities are actively encouraged to apply.

    • Correspondence with volunteers is done mainly via e-mail. Please ensure that the address volunteers@fringefest.com is added to your contacts so none of our correspondence is lost to spam filters.

    • All applicants must complete the availability table. Should your availability change following your initial application, please do not hesitate to e-mail our Adriana, Volunteer Coordinator at volunteers@fringefest.com with your updated availability.

    • It is a policy of Dublin Fringe Festival that each applicant is available for a minimum of five volunteering shifts.

    • It is a strict policy of Dublin Fringe Festival not to share any information contained on the Volunteer Application Forms with any third parties.

    • Please note that submission of this application form is not a guarantee of receiving a volunteer placement. Historically, due to overwhelming number of responses to our volunteer calls, it has been unavoidable that some applicants did not receive a volunteer placement. This should not in any way dissuade you from completing the volunteer application form, as we will do our outmost to ensure that each applicant receives a placement.

  • General Information

    We’re excited to welcome volunteers to the festival! Please note scheduling takes a lot of time (and quite a few coffees to be honest). For this reason, good communication is really important. In August, if you receive a placement email, please confirm your participation as soon as possible. If we don’t hear back within a reasonable time frame, we’ll assume you are no longer available and may offer the your shifts to someone else. In addition, repeated ghosting or no-shows will probably affect future opportunities within the organisation. By filling in this application, you agree to respect our staff and reply to emails, even if your reply is negative.
  • What are your pronouns?*
  • Do you identify as a person with a disability?*
  • Have you volunteered with the Festival before?*
  • Please check below if you have experience with / passion of any of the below. You can choose as many as they apply.*
  • This year, we’re on the lookout for people with experience or skills in conducting vox pops — fabulous, outgoing volunteers who aren't afraid to hit the streets/venues and chat with our beautiful audience. If you’re confident, curious, and love connecting with people, we’d love to hear from you! Please tick the option(s) that suits you.
  • In 2026, we might be looking for a few volunteers to join us in conducting audience interviews onsite during the festival. Taking on this responsibility, would include a training session with Quality Matters and would require you to be available for full-time engagement throughout 2 of the 3 Saturdays of the festival (Sep 5th, 12th and 19th). There will be lunch/small stipend provided. Please let us know if you are interested in being contacted in relation to this opportunity.
  • Do you have experience working professionally with either of the following groups:
  • Please tick if you have access to the following:*

  • Availability

  • Please tick all of the times you are available to volunteer on the chart below. You will not receive a shift for every box you tick, this just gives us your availability so we can assign your shifts from within those options. Please note these times are guidelines only and may vary slightly.

  • Would you like to be a...*
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  • Some of our events may take place outside of the city centre. Please tick if you live near any of the following locations:*
  • Would you be interested in helping out before and/or during the Festival with admin in our offices? This involves helping with rostering, sending reminder texts and meeting the rest of the Fringe team.*

  • Supervising Shifts

  • Would you be interested in being a Volunteer Coordinator Assistant? This involves overseeing a venue over a series of shifts, ensuring all volunteers are accounted for and are being looked after by the venue point of contact, assisting volunteers with anything they need and reporting any issues to the Volunteer Coordinator, etc.*

  • Guide for Applicants

    Please read the guidelines below before submitting tour application

  • The following is a brief guide to the principal areas of volunteer operation. By reading this you can get a broader sense of some of the work volunteering entails throughout the different shows/venues across the Festival.


    Front of House
    Volunteering for Front of House puts you very much at the forefront of the Festival experience. The Festival unfolds across various spaces, including venues like Smock Alley Theatre, Project Arts Centre, The New Theatre, The Abbey Theatre and many more! The venues are the hub of Festival activity and as many of our volunteers are Festival aficionados themselves, they get the opportunity to participate in and contribute to the dynamic atmosphere of the Festival. You are the face of the Festival for the audience and their main point of contact. Front of House volunteering activities include ushering and general venue operations (crowd liaising & information point of contact). Through a co-ordination of these elements, we can ensure the smooth running of the Festival schedule. Certain Front of House shifts can involve some late nights.


    Box Office
    Volunteering with the box office entails scanning audience tickets, managing customer/guest lists, and in many cases picking up or returning documentation to the Festival offices in Temple Bar. There can be some light work based in the office as well. Previous experience with scanners or Ticketsolve is a plus but training will be provided in any case.
     

    Outdoor / Site Specific Events
    Our outdoor and site specific events rely heavily on dedicated volunteers to assist with crowd management, organising site layout and liaising with the public. For outdoor events, volunteers have to be prepared to operate in changing weather conditions. These shifts, overseen by the production team, provide those involved with a valuable insight into the co-ordination of an event of this scale. 

     

    Our Volunteers are a hugely important component of what makes the Festival a success year on year. Thank you for taking the time to complete this application and offer your services in support of Dublin Fringe Festival.

  • Join us and our legend volunteers in 2026!

  • a group of Dublin Fringe volunteers wearing black hi-vis vests bearing the organisations logos, standing in front of chapel royal in Dublin castle.

  • Thank you for your interest to volunteer with Dublin Fringe Festival. We know that the Festival will not be possible without all of your hard work!

    We are collecting information from potential volunteers in order to increase our understanding of why people volunteer, what the benefits of volunteering with the festival might be, and what changes we can make to ensure future volunteers have the best experience possible.

    Please answer to the below questions to help us. It will take 5-7 minutes.

  • About You

    In line with our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, we added the below questions to help us understand more about the people who engage with Dublin Fringe Festival. Please note that we have given you the option not to reply to the below if you don't wish to do so.
  • Disability and access requirements. Please select any of the terms below you identify with.*

  • Ethnicity and Heritage

    We understand ethnicity as grouping people according to common racial, national, tribal, religious, linguistic, culinary, cultural origin or background.

    We understand heritage as referring to your ancestry and the culture of that society, such as traditions and languages.

    For some people ethnicity and heritage are the same, for others, they are something very distinct. We've included a "same as ethnicity" option for heritage if that feels right.

  • Please choose if one of the following describes you.*

  • What are the benefits of volunteering with Dublin Fringe Festival?

  • Impact Measurement

    Based on feedback from past volunteers, we have listed below traits and skills that might be effective/of benefit for your volunteering experience. We would appreciate if you honestly evaluate yourself on the below based on your knowledge and feelings before your Dublin Fringe Festival experience.

  • Skills Confidence: 


    Please note that the scale is rated from 1 to 7 scale where 1 is Not at all and 7 is Extremely. There is also an n/a option in case you feel that the specific line/question is NOT relevant to your experience or personal circumstances.

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  • Statements: 

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  • Unique ID


    Dublin Fringe Festival surveys volunteers before and after each Festival. Our goal is to observe and measure the impact of volunteering for Dublin Fringe Festival over time. Although our surveys are anonymous, to achieve our goal, we need each participant to create an anonymous unique ID which we will use to track each individual's replies over the years.


    Please create your unique ID below using:
    - your first name initial (I)
    - your date of birth and
    - the first three letters of the city where you were born (C)
    as follows: (I)DDMMYY(CCC)

    For example, if John was born on Sep 9th 2020 in Galway, his unique ID would be J090920GAL.

  • Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey!

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