Creative summer jobs
If you want to learn new skills in an artistic environment this summer, working at a creative arts festival could be just the ticket.
What's a creative summer job?
If the idea of working in a bar or a fast food chain this summer fills you with dread, maybe you should shake up your life and get creative. Rather than spending eight weeks in a factory packing toilet paper, why not try a summer job involving the creative arts - literature, film, painting, theatre and comedy?
The best way to do this is to get a job at one of the creative arts festivals that happen across the UK. These aren't alcohol-drenched music festivals; they're a little more refined. But they can still be fun, bizarre, confidence-building, and offer the best working summer you'll ever have.
"I couldn't have had a nicer time and everybody made me feel welcome," says Alice, 19, from Edinburgh. She worked at the Edinburgh International Book Festival for three weeks, and says she was treated "less like a colleague, more like family. I was intellectually stretched, enthralled, amused and very happy for three weeks."
What summer jobs are available?
There are loads of different jobs you can do at arts festivals and a lot of roles don't need specialist skills. So, if you're halfway through, say, a Sports Science degree and fancy a creative change, you don't have to be a fully paid-up thespian to get involved. Here are some of the jobs on offer:
- Box office and ticket sales
- Customer service assistants
- Stewards and ushers
- Workshop facilitators
- Café staff and caterers
- Crèche workers, special needs/disabled carers
- Administration officers
- Press officers, PR and marketing
- Front of house and events management
- Technical support, such as lighting, props, stagehand, projectionists, make-up and costume
- Artist, author, actor and director personal assistants
Where to look for jobs
Most summer festivals start recruiting from March and April, so plan ahead. People are often needed to help set up tents and offices and promote events by posting out flyers months before festival-goers turn up. So if you finish your studies early, or can spare more than three weeks start looking from the end of March.
If you want to work at the Edinburgh International Arts Festival keep in mind there are many parts to it. Each of these advertises their jobs separately and most have email updates you can sign up to. The job pages have online applications at:
- Edinburgh International Festival
- Edinburgh International Book Festival
- Edinburgh Fringe Festival
- The Edinburgh Mela
- Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF)
"People come to work and volunteer at the film festival for a variety of reasons," Angie Jennings, Head of Administration and Personnel at the Edinburgh International Film Festival explains. "Some want experience in event management; others want to be in the film industry. You won't get paid work at the film festival unless you have relevant experience, but there are 150 volunteer posts and nine unpaid training placements for people who want to get involved and have a more in-depth experience."
I was intellectually stretched, enthralled, amused and very happy for three weeks.
What to expect
"I worked for the Edinburgh International Book Festival during August for the last two years, and I can't recommend it enough," says Helen, 23. "It's a wonderful opportunity to work with such a diverse range of people. Last year I worked with someone who had travelled from Italy to come and work at the festival."
Helen is just one of the hundreds of young people who pitch up to work in Edinburgh for the summer. It can be scary as it's a new city and you don't know what to expect, but festival employers are supportive to workers and volunteers.
"A lot of effort is put into making everyone feel welcome and part of the team," Helen continues. "That's why so many of the temporary staff come back year after year. It's hard work as it can get very busy, but because there's such a great buzz about the place, it certainly doesn't feel like hard work and you can spend your free time at events."
The downside? Don't expect festival managers to provide you with accommodation. If you're planning on working at Edinburgh, there are cheap rooms and flat shares in the Haymarket area and many residents rent out their homes during the festival. The Edinburgh Festival Partnership has an accommodation search facility.
Of course there are many other festivals, across the UK, such as the Bath Festivals, Brighton Festival and the Hay Festival in Wales. All will have different approaches to accommodation, so ask the person who recruits you about the best local sources for finding accommodation.
Pay will vary from job to job, but advertised jobs should give details of pay. It's likely that you'll get your cash weekly because it's temporary work.
Job prospects after the summer
Working at a creative festival will look great on your CV, showing potential employers that you're motivated to find interesting work during the holidays. You'll learn loads of transferable skills, make useful contacts and gain the kind of social skills that employers love.
"Every year our workers have a lot of fun, get a feeling of achievement and credit us with improving their CV," says Angie Jennings from the film festival. "This year, we placed six graduates from our training placements into paid posts."
Written by Anthony Burt
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