Forecasting Volunteer Numbers for Music Festivals.

Estimating the number of volunteers to recruit for a music festival can be a bit of a science. Too few volunteers can lead to logistical problems and an excess number can tie up valuable management and training resources. What can organisers do to accurately predict how many volunteers they will need?

Every music festival utilises volunteers and they provide an invaluable contribution to the success of an event. They give up their time in exchange to free entry to the festival but they need to be recruited and trained which can increase costs the more volunteers required. For this reason, organisers should try and accurately forecast the number of volunteers they will need.

Historical Data. 
Any music festival that has been operating for a number of years will have historical data on previous events that will include the number of volunteers used. This data needs to be cross referenced with an assessment of any problems or issues encountered that could have been resolved by having more volunteers. This analysis needs to be balanced with understanding if it was not the number of volunteers that caused issues but a lack of training for example.

Ticket Sales as a Predictor. 
In conjunction with analysing volunteer numbers from previous events organisers can also look at any correlation between the visitor numbers and ticket sales of the same event. If a festival had 10,000 visitors and used 500 volunteers by looking at problems encountered and resources tied up recruiting, training and managing them a reasonable conclusion can be made as to the likely ratio of volunteers to visitors. If the festival expects to double the attendance does that mean they need to double the number of volunteers? Probably not because there is a finite number of tasks that volunteers will need to perform.

Experience. 
Having an experienced volunteer management team in place is really going to help predict the number of volunteers a festival will need based on the number of visitors expected and the work required. Tasks and work need to be logically segmented into manageable rotas and schedules. By limiting shifts to 4 hours and moving volunteers around different tasks will help keep them fresh and energetic too.

There is no magical formula for estimating the number of volunteers that will be required for a music festival. The best approach is to use a combination of historical data and festival-goer feedback. Having an experienced volunteer management team who can utilise the optimum number of volunteers with good training and efficient shift and task allocation should deliver the appropriate number required to prevent any complaints from festival-goers and give the volunteers a great experience too.

For festival organisers planning their events using a software management platform like Festival Pro gives them all the functionality they need manage every aspect of their event logistics including the complete management of the volunteer process with dynamic shift and task allocation. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and the features are built from that experience and are performance artists themselves. The Festival Pro platform is easy to use and has comprehensive features with specific modules for managing artists, contractors, venues/stages, vendors, volunteers, sponsors, guestlists, ticketing, cashless payments and contactless ordering.

Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels

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