Search is on for Devizes Festival Makers (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Search is on for Devizes Festival Makers

10:00am Saturday 16th February 2013 in News

AS Devizes Carnival grows and develops in leaps and bounds the only thing holding it back is a lack of personnel, say the organisers.

The carnival’s small but dedicated band of helpers work hard over the two weeks of events in August and September.

But artistic director Dave Buxton and his team say more hands to the pump will make the carnival and its accompanying international street festival an even bigger success.

They have even agreed to dub the new volunteers Festival Makers, borrowing the Games Maker title from last year’s London Olympics.

Mr Buxton said: “Every year people come up to us and congratulate us on the street festival and carnival and say they will definitely help next year.

“Of course, they forget or find they have other things to do.

“What we want to do is sign them up now, keep them in touch with regular newsletters and run workshops for them so that, come the carnival, they will know exactly what they have to do.”

Mr Buxton said each volunteer will fill in a questionnaire so the organisers know what area they would like to be involved in.

He said: “Some people will have practical skills we can use, while others might like to look after individual artists in the street festival. That is a skill in itself.”

People are also needed to liaise with stall holders, help marshal the events and man the public address systems.

The carnival, street festival and Christmas festival are now organised under one umbrella organisation, Devizes Outdoor Celebratory Arts (DOCA), which recently absorbed the charity arm of Devizes Development Partnership.

The organisation is keen to carry out market research among the thousands of people who attend all three events and some volunteers will be earmarked for that work.

Mr Buxton said: “We have come about as far as we can with the number of people we have.

“We want these events to carry on growing. The street festival will run over two days again this year, but we can only do that with more volunteers.”

Anyone interested in volunteering can find out more by visiting www.devizescarnival.co.uk