Manchester Literature Festival relies on its volunteers. With over 50 events going on across the city centre every October (and some of these overlapping), volunteers are crucial to ensure that Festival events run smoothly and that audiences and authors get the most out of the time they spend together. MLF’s volunteers are ambassadors for the organisation and, wearing the Festival t-shirt, are usually very much in the public eye. As such, they play an important role in the interface between audiences and Festival events; this could be directing people to the event venue, checking and selling tickets, answering questions about this or other events, assisting latecomers and handing out audience evaluation forms at the end of each event. There is usually a role to play in the set-up of each event and the clearing up afterwards. Occasionally, volunteers can be asked to look after an author before, during and after an event.

In addition to these roles during the Festival, there is sometimes occasional administrative work in the Festival office; in particular the mailout of several thousand festival brochures every August. We also recruit a team of volunteer bloggers to write reviews of events for the festival blog site.

MLF volunteers usually get a lot out of helping with the Festival - they get to meet authors, get to know other volunteers, expand their literary and creative horizons, and see some of the events for free! Volunteering for the Festival can also be useful experience if you are thinking of working in publishing, the arts or events management in the future.

If you are interested in volunteering for this year's festival in October, please fill in and submit the form below. If you have any other queries, please contact Festival Coordinator, Jon Atkin, at admin@manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk