Volunteer at the Festival!

Volunteer Opportunities

Join our team of amazing volunteers that make the Canada Dry Victoria Dragon Boat Festival possible! Victoria’s biggest cultural celebration relies on your support to welcome everyone to the Inner Harbour, and ensuring festival goers have a blast!

Volunteer Positions

There’s different volunteer positions at our Festival, each with different responsibilities and qualification requirements. To find out more about each volunteer position at the Festival, check out the descriptions and apply below. Orientation for general volunteers will occur on the Thursday or Friday before the Festival. Volunteer leads should expect to be engaged in the months leading up to the event, and be an active part in making the Festival come to life by helping train volunteers during the general Festival orientation.

Join us August 10 in the Inner Harbour: click here to volunteer now!

Beer Garden Crew

The beer garden crew keeps the party going! Your job is to serve alcoholic beverages to festival attendees and paddlers with a smile. This is a social position, where people come together to hang-out, laugh, cheer, and be merry! You will be one of the most popular volunteers, putting on a smile on the face of everyone you serve. As a server, you will require a “Serving it right” certification that you can obtain here.

Kids Tent /Cultural Crew 

Kids Tent
The Kids Tent is a fun and active festival space dedicated to entertaining kids of all ages. You will be part of the committee that plans and executes activities that kids will love; like crafts, sidewalk chalk drawing, bubble blowing, dancing, singing, face-painting, and more!

Culture Crew
The Cultural Tent is a space dedicated to celebrating Chinese culture, traditions, and Chinese-Canadian history. Volunteers on the Culture Crew will coordinate and host the Culture Tent. You will plan and execute many of the traditional Chinese ceremonies such as the Dragon Boat Eye Dotting Ceremony. Volunteers should have an appreciation for Chinese-Canadian culture, arts, and history. The Festival will also have a space dedicated paying tribute to the Lekwungen peoples on whose traditional territory Victoria stands, and the Songhees, Esquimalt and WSÁNEĆ peoples whose historical relationships with Victoria continue to this day.

Environment Crew

The Environment Crew has one of the most important responsibilities of The Festival; ensuring The Festival grounds and the Inner Harbour remain clean at all times. You will be in charge of making sure waste and recycling bins are positioned where they are needed most and emptied regularly. Stray garbage and recycling must be picked up and disposed of quickly so that it doesn’t end up polluting the ocean, where an abundance of sea life thrives. Overall, you will be responsible to encouragement festival goers and racers to respect the ocean and land by cleaning up after themselves.

Volunteer Support Team

Help support the Festival’s volunteers! You’ll help greet and check in all volunteers at the Festival, make sure they have the information and uniforms they need, and understand the Festival’s ground rules and schedules. And when it’s time for a break, you’ll help volunteers refuel in the Volunteer Lounge. 

Information Crew

The volunteers on the Information Crew will be located at the Info Desk and help answer questions of festival attendees and direct them where things are located on the grounds. You will handout festival programs and also help with the coordination of lost & found items, and lost children. You will have a means to communicate with many of the other volunteer crews. Overall, you are there to help people out.

Cultural Program Volunteers

This crew is responsible in helping welcome cultural program participants to the stage or to the site. You will be responsible for working with different staff and volunteers to ensure the performers have everything they need in terms of sound equipment and staff setup. You will attend to the various needs of the performers to make sure they are enjoying themselves and everything is running smoothly. As there may be times you make announcements over the sound system, public speaking skills are required.

Raffle Crew

We need trustworthy individuals for this crew as you will be handling cash and selling raffle tickets. You will be stationed at a 50/50 raffle table, making sure the sales of the tickets and the reporting of the sales go smoothly. We need people that like to smile and encourage festival attendees to take their chances on winning big! You will also be responsible to handout treat bags to people at the exits of the festival.

Dock and Marshalling Crew

This position brings you to the front line of the races!

The Dock Crew is responsible for stabilizing the boats by holding the lines so that paddlers can safely go in and out of the boat. Training consists of how to hold the lines, tie the lines, and learning the commands of the Dock Master. Dock Crew volunteers must know it is a physically demanding position that requires people to be on their feet.

The Marshalling Crew is an active and important role within the festival. Marshalling Crew Volunteers work under the Crew Marshall to marshall teams. Using a manual system such as a megaphone will mean volunteers will have to walk around and call out the teams to attend to the crew marshalling area.

Food Sales Volunteers

Hot Dog Tent Volunteers will attend to the on-site hot dog tent and serve hotdogs to Festival attendees. This is a fun role that involves chatting with attendees. A Foodsafe certification is required for this position.

Volunteer information

Questions?

If you have any questions or concerns about volunteering or about your volunteer shifts, please don’t hesitate to contact us.