Musicport Festival, Whitby 

AS preparations for Musicport Festival, headlined by The Blockheads (Friday), The Mahotella Queens (Saturday) and Lynched (Sunday), gear up with a month to go, organisers are keen to recruit additional volunteer stewards.

The Musicport volunteer team is well-known for its good-natured, friendly approach to helping audience and artists alike have a great weekend of music in dry, comfortable (and mud-free!) surroundings at Whitby Pavilion.

Every year, around 70 volunteers are recruited, each offering around 13 hours of work over the three-day festival in return for a free weekend ticket – which means they can see anything on offer in the wide-ranging programme when they're not on duty.

Some roles involve working close to one of the five stages so they can get the full festival experience even while on duty.

One regular says: "I love Musicport – being part of a friendly team at such a great event and feeling really involved is brilliant. I always get to see something I didn't know about before, there's always something that moves me – can't recommend it enough."

Another wrote "Thanks for having me... I loved the music and I loved that no one has to sit on a car park gate miles from anything happening – everything I did was right in the middle of it all."

If you'd like to get involved, application details and a form can be downloaded from the website musicportfestival.com or the Musicport Volunteers 2016 Facebook page https://facebook.com/groups/517826661707602/- or call 01947-603475 for information and a form.

* The festival takes place at West Cliff, Whitby, YO25 3EN. October 21 to 23

Whitby Pavilion - West Cliff, Whitby YO21 3EN

musicportfestival.com