Volunteer for this year's EFG London Jazz Festival!

Join our team of volunteers for EFG London Jazz Festival 13 – 22 November 2026!

The EFG London Jazz Festival is London’s biggest city-wide music festival, taking over the capital for 10 days every November. We bring together established stars and emerging talent, celebrating the vibrant traditions of jazz alongside its diverse and exciting contemporary forms. Explore the full programme at the EFG London Jazz Festival.

Every year, we work with an amazing team of volunteers who play an important role in supporting our Festival staff and freelancers. You’ll be part of a friendly, buzzing volunteer crew, helping to bring one of London’s biggest music festivals to life.

The volunteers are a valued part of the EFG London Jazz Festival team. With roles across Production, Marketing, Merchandise, Development and Creative Engagement, as well as at our pop-up hub The Jazz Social, there is something for everyone! In addition to your role, you have the opportunity to make new friends, gain valuable insight into the inner workings of the live music industry and attend events with a diverse line-up showcasing global stars and emerging talent.

We have several volunteer roles available. Please check the list below to find out more. Volunteers will receive a daily stipend for food and travel and get free tickets to selected shows.

Spaces are very limited, so sadly we cannot accommodate everyone who applies. If you’ve applied and been unsuccessful on previous years, please don’t hesitate to apply again this year – we try to be as fair as possible.

Time commitments

We ask volunteers to be available for as much of the Festival as possible with a minimum commitment of three days. Volunteer shifts and roles can vary from the length of a show to a full day. Availability for the social media volunteer is slightly different as this requires some pre-Festival shifts, detailed below.

Within this time there are opportunities to volunteer in seven separate areas of the Festival. Volunteers will be assigned to one of the following teams throughout the Festival. There may be some cases where you are able to take roles across more than one team, but this is not guaranteed. If you have a strong interest in more than one role please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate.

On the application form you will be able to select a first, second and third preference as there will be limited spaces on each team.

OPPORTUNITIES:

Production & Backstage Volunteers (run by the Production team)

Positions available: 20

Please note that the production shifts will NOT involve technical production work – a lot of the time you will be helping our artist liaison team to look after the artists in a pastoral way, or shadowing Show Managers and technicians learning about their work.

There are various tasks within the production volunteer team, and you will have the opportunity to do a mixture of these. Tasks include working with our Show Managers to support artist liaison and backstage catering, including general runner-work, meeting and greeting, and logistics support. The workload will vary a lot from gig to gig, so being flexible, patient and happy to do all tasks big and small, are all characteristics we are looking for. A big part of these roles is just being a friendly presence that artists and their teams can always come to with questions.

You may also be working with our Transport team to support artist ‘meet & greet's’ at airports and train stations.

You may be required to be available the day before the Festival begins, on Thu 12 November, to help with artist meet and greets. During the Festival (Fri 13 – Sun 22 Nov), you will be required to be available for at least 3 days. The shifts will generally start from between 9am-12pm and will finish no later than 11pm. Exact shifts will be confirmed closer to the Festival.

Production volunteers will be working on live music shows as well as our Creative Engagement programme. If you have a particular interest in Serious’ Creative Engagement work, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate.

Creative Engagement Volunteer (run by the Creative Engagement team)

Positions available: 2

We are seeking two volunteers to join our Creative Engagement team during the festival, acting as an all-round helper / runner / assistant working directly with the Serious team. You will need to be available for the volunteer briefing on Tuesday 3 November and also be available for the 7, 8 November (for rehearsals prior to the festival) and 14, 15, 17, 19, 22 November (shifts will be split between volunteers so please let us know if you can’t attend any of these dates). On these dates, our CE team has multiple events, workshops, rehearsals and shows taking place, so you can expect to be moving around town checking in on different projects, seeing things come together, offering support where needed and reporting back to the team. Please keep the above dates held in your diary if applying for this role.


Show Reporters (run by the Volunteer Coordinator)

Positions available: 25

You will be representing Serious by attending and writing short internal reports of selected shows throughout the Festival to provide coverage and feedback to the Serious team. You will be our extra eyes and ears across the Jazz Festival, to support our Programming team who need to know how our shows have gone but can’t be in 5 places at once!

You will be required to attend at least 4 events throughout the Festival period.

You will be given a ticket to the show, and a brief to follow in terms of what to write as a report. We ask for reports to be sent to our Volunteer Coordinator or uploaded to an online folder, ideally on the night of the event or if not, then by the following day at midday latest - this is an important part of the role, as the reports are shared around the Festival team quickly. Please note we are unable to guarantee specific show-requests, and we ask for your understanding when shows are allocated.

Social Media Volunteer (run by the Marketing & Communications team)

Positions available: 1

We’re looking for an enthusiastic  Social Media & Marketing Volunteer to support the Marketing & Communications team before and during the festival. You’ll have the opportunity to get involved in a range of marketing and social media activity, learn from an experienced in-house team, and gain insight into how a major live music festival is promoted. You’ll also be able to attend selected Festival shows for free.

The role will involve supporting the team in the lead-up to and during the Festival, with opportunities to contribute to social media, website updates, copywriting and content creation. 

You’ll need to be available for two days in October (likely Tuesday  13 and Wednesday 14 October), as well as additional support during the final two weeks before the Festival (expected 4, 10 and 11 November, subject to change). There will also be opportunities to support the team during the Festival itself, taking place 13–22 November.

Marketing Brand Ambassador Volunteer (run by the Marketing & Communications team) 

Positions available: 6

We're looking for an enthusiastic and committed person to join the Marketing & Communications team as a Brand Ambassador volunteer. Reporting into the Marketing & Communications Manager, the role will involve handing out flyers in advance of and during the Festival, seat slipping at venues such as the Barbican, and providing information to customers and audience members at the Festival's pop-up venue.

Development & Hospitality (run by the Development & Partnerships team)

Positions available: 3-4

The Development team manage relationships with current and prospective funders and sponsors of Serious. You will be working closely with our development team to represent Serious and help with the running and logistics of our receptions across the Festival.

You will be supporting the Development team across various hospitality events and receptions where we engage with our sponsors and donors. Your role will involve supporting the setup of our receptions, helping to manage guest lists for our invited guests and making our guests feel welcome at our events.

Inter-personal skills and an openness to meet new people would be valuable attributes.

You are required to be available from around 4pm for at least three dates during the Festival period. The exact days of the receptions are still to be finalised, so getting a general understanding of your availability during the Festival period is useful in the meantime.

How to Apply

If you would like to apply to volunteer for the EFG London Jazz Festival 2026 please complete this Volunteer Application Form or print the form and return the form via post to the address indicated on the form.

Deadline for applications is Monday 14 September 5pm BST

Please note all those applying must be 18 years old or over. 

There will be a Volunteer Briefing Session on Tuesday 3 November from 5pm - 8pm, in a location near City of London / Barbican (full address to be confirmed in due course).

It’s a great chance to meet each other and the teams running the festival and raise any queries you may have from the team leaders. We encourage all volunteers to attend where possible, so mark the date in your diary now! Attendance is not compulsory but strongly encouraged.

Serious and EFG London Jazz Festival embrace diversity of all kinds. We are keen to create a volunteer force that is representative of wider society and therefore encourage applicants of all ages over 18, ethnicities, nationalities, socio-economic backgrounds, gender identities and physical and neurological abilities. We’re a motivated team with a mission to ensure music is accessible for all and would love to hear from like-minded individuals.

We will be able to reimburse the cost of travel within London and a reasonable evening meal, provided receipts are given.

Please note that spaces to volunteer at EFG London Jazz Festival 2026 are limited which means that sadly not everyone applying will be allocated a role. Roles will be allocated on a combination of applicant suitability and a first come first served basis.

Important dates for your diary:

• Mon 14 Sept 5pm: Deadline for applications. Late applications will not be accepted.
• Mon 28 Sept: You will have heard by this date if you have been allocated a role. We aim to get back to everyone who applied by Tue 7 Oct, thanks for bearing with us.
• Thu 8 Oct: online info session, run by the Manager.
• Tue 3 Nov, 5pm: Volunteer briefing session, in a City of London location (full address to be confirmed in due course). Please try as hard as possible to attend this as it is a really important part of the scheme.
• Fri 13 - Sun 22 Nov: EFG London Jazz Festival dates. All shows will be during this period.

Future Projects

As well as producing the EFG London Jazz Festival, Serious programme a huge variety of other music-based events throughout London and around the UK. Volunteers who enjoy their time working with us for the Festival are encouraged to build upon this experience and join us in a similar capacity throughout the year.

Thank you and good luck!