Volunteer for VIFF 2026

1. Review

Discover all the ways you can be part of our incredible 45th annual festival! Browse through our departments to find the perfect volunteer opportunity that matches your skills and schedule. Each team listing includes everything you need to know about the role and time commitment, making it easy to find where you’ll make the biggest impact and have the most fun. Please note that expected mandatory orientations are listed under the description of each team. If you cannot make the orientation date, please select another team.

2. Apply

Fill out the VIFF 2026 Volunteer Application. You will receive an email acknowledging your application once it has been received. Alumni Volunteers will also need to re-register through this application process. Alumni Volunteers, when prompted during registration, please provide the email you used in your previous year’s application. Due to the large number of applications we receive, it may take up to 4 weeks before an onboarding team member reaches out to you for interview. This is normal, do not panic — you are in our queue!

3. Interview

When filling out your application, you’ll be asked about your availability for a brief 15-minute phone interview. Our onboarding team will contact you according to this availability. For our team’s privacy, some of these calls may show as “No Caller ID.” If we don’t connect on the first call, we’ll try once more before leaving a voicemail with details explaining the next steps. After a successful interview, we’ll match you with a team based on your strengths and availability and confirm your orientation date with you! You must be available to attend orientation, or we’ll help you pick another team.

If you prefer an alternative to an interview over the phone, there is a field in the application to specify your preferred method of interview.

Lead Volunteers

• If you are applying for a Lead position, you must submit additional documents to [email protected]. You can find a summarized list of required supplementary documents for each Lead position here. Once all documents and a Shiftboard application have been submitted, the department will reach out to selected applicants to set up a phone interview. If you are selected for the role, you will receive a welcome email and an email from Shiftboard confirming your addition to the team!
• If you are not selected for the role, you will be matched with another volunteer team that aligns with your skills, availability, and interests highlighted in your application. No need to contact us or resubmit your application.

4. Handbook

Once you’re officially part of the team, you will receive a welcome email from Shiftboard with a link to the 2026 Festival Volunteer Handbook. The Volunteer Handbook is your complete guide to volunteering at VIFF, covering all insider details about the volunteer program and its perks. You will also receive a link to a manual about how to navigate Shiftboard. Please review these at prior to your orientation.

5. Orientation

You will be scheduled for your team orientation during your phone call interview. Orientations are mandatory for all volunteers. At your orientation you will meet the team, your coordinators, and receive team-specific training and information. It is at your orientation where you will also receive your volunteer package and pass for the festival! Missing your team’s orientation, may result in being removed from the team and placed back into the applicant pool for placement on another team with an upcoming orientation.

6. Schedule

Once you have been onboarded to your team and added to an orientation date, the coordinator for your team will email everyone on the team to let them know their team’s schedule is posted and ready for shift pick-up! Please note, schedules are not immediately posted — these may take several weeks to finalize while the Volunteer Department continues to onboard new applicants and fill teams.

Once the schedule is posted:

• You will receive an email notification

• You must log-in to Shiftboard using the email you provided in your application — please email [email protected] if you need to reset your password

• Once logged into Shiftboard, you will be able to view and select the upcoming shifts available to your team — it is your responsibility to select your shifts

• When assigning yourself to shifts, please keep in mind the minimum shift commitment for your position. If there are not enough shifts available to make your minimum, do not worry. The Volunteer Department is monitoring all shifts and understand these things can happen — there is no need to contact the department, we will contact you if we have concerns regarding the number of shifts you’re assigned to.

Please note:

• You must have an active email address that you check regularly – this is how we will contact you. Please add [email protected] to your address book to avoid these emails ending up in your junk folder.

• Applicants must be 16 years of age or older. Some teams have specific age requirements, please review team requirements and descriptions below.

• Volunteer applications are reviewed in the order they are received. Please be patient as we receive a high volume of applications.

Deadline to Apply for the Festival: September 22, 2026.

Found a position you’re interested in?

Apply now