So you'd like to help make the magic...
The Fairies need you to Volunteer!
Volunteers make the festival go
Being a volunteer to help make the magic come alive at various fairy festivals is one of my most valued experiences. The folks I've worked alongside to bring festivals to life have become my dearest friends. Many of those friends are helping me bring The Shepherdstown Fairy Festival to life. There is a powerful magic in being part of a community working toward a common creative goal, especially when the fairies are involved. I'm really looking forward to the new community and friendships we will build on this journey.
Be a Friend of the Fae
Creative Projects Need Patrons
Money makes things happen. Your support can help to make The Shepherdstown Fairy Festival the best it can be.
We've decided to fundraise directly rather than through a third party app. Your contributions will help us hire additional acts and entertainers, provide an ADA accessible festival including Sign Language translation and a quiet space where those experiencing sensory overload can rest and regroup, as well as build additional decorations to bring the magic alive.
There is a separate sponsorship link for an additional project we'd really like to make happen for our community and for The Shepherdstown Fairy Festival. The Youth Marketplace will give young artists and makers an opportunity to experience vending at a festival.
Volunteer Needs
The Faeries need your help. We are grateful for all of it from just a single 3 hour shift to the hardcore Friday to Monday Festival volunteers who work way more than they play, and the folks who are ALL IN for creating the set and story this Summer. The work isn't without rewards from day passes to t-shirts to extra discounts, meals, and more.
Mid-July to October:
Social media promotion, handing out flyers, marching in parades, building sets, making decorations and costumes, stuffing folders, running errands...we need loads of help leading up to the festival. There are some really fun details we'd love to incorporate if we can just get enough folks to help us pull it off.
This category also includes the Whimsical Procrastinators Improv Project which you can read more about on our performers page. It's an opportunity to help create the folklore of the festival, learn from amazing improv performers, and have a stupid amount of fun, but it's a labor of love (unpaid).
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Set Up (Thursday and Friday before the festival)
So much help is needed to lay out the site, put up tents, move tables, set up chairs, check in vendors, decorate, make sure the people doing those things are drinking enough water...
During the Festival (Saturday and Sunday)
Parking direction, working front gate, security, emptying trash, helping run the crafts and games in the children's tent, supervising the moon bounce...there's probably loads more things I haven't thought up quite yet.
Something a little different I would like to offer at this festival is a small crew to help vendors out. I used to vend alone so food, water, and toilet breaks depended on me feeling like I could trust the folks standing in my tent and I didn't feel bad asking them to hang around. I'd like to provide vendors with runners and booth watchers.
After the Festival (Monday)
We absolutely need help with this. Every festival I've worked, there's almost always enough help to get set up and run the event. Then on Sunday night, everyone but the hardcore volunteers go home, and it's a scramble to get the whole thing cleaned up and packed out by the end of Monday.
Youth Volunteers
Responsible children ages 10-18 who WANT to help are welcome volunteers. Some of the most incredible help I have had working at festivals has been from young people in this age group. I truly could not have made some of the magic I did if they hadn't stepped up. We do require that a young person has a designated grown-up on site at the festival the whole time.
I'm aware that even being a volunteer is a sort of privilege, particularly for folks who work in the restaurant and retail service industries. If you really really want to be a part of this but you can't pay your bills if you miss work, fill out the application and let us know in the extra comments section. I'm looking into working something out for this type of situation.
Sponsorship, Crowd Funding and Advertising
Youth Vendor Sponsorship $150
20 sponsors needed to raise $3000 cover the cost of renting two 20 x 40 ft tents, 20 tables, and 40 chairs.
Beneficiaries
10 young folks age 13-17 and 10 young folks age 18-25 will be selected by our vendor jury committee to set up a vending table with their handmade products.
This is an excellent opportunity for young people to gain the experience of being an artist-vendor without having to take any financial risk beyond the making of their own product.
You can give a talented young artist the opportunity to create a business.
You may sponsor tables anonymously or as an individual or business. Signs will be hung at each table to credit sponsors and the list of sponsors will also be published online and in the program.
Friends of the Fae
Do you believe in fairies?
Remember the scene in Peter Pan where Tinkerbell has to be brought back to life by the audience clapping to show they believe in fairies?
You can show your belief in fairies by being a Friend of the Fae. These funds will be used to invest in even more entertainers and to purchase supplies to build some amazing set pieces as well as to help make our festival more accessible through hiring ASL translators and setting up a separate quiet area and tent where neurodivergent patrons can go to decompress and recover from sensory overload. The more we raise the more special opportunities we can offer, from additional bands to bringing in additional bestselling authors, perhaps even to hiring mechanical rides!
All the Friends and Believers will be recognized for their support both online and in our printed program. A range of support tiers and rewards packages are available.
Program Advertising
LINK NOT YET ACTIVE
Purchase advertising space for your business in our full-color printed program. All print advertising includes representation and a link on the advertising sponsor page of our website as well as a thank you and tag on our social media pages.