More volunteers needed ahead of 2024 Guelph Ribfest

Guelph Ribfest is short on volunteers as the annual event draws closer. Expected to draw around 40,000 people this summer, organizers are looking to fill more than 400 positions for the event Aug. 23-25.

Volunteer chair coordinator Debbie Stanley said there has been a combination of things that have prevented them from finding help.

“Past volunteers, especially students, they’ve grown up, and they’re now in university. They’re no longer needing their high school hours so now we’re trying to vet new high school students,” Stanley said.

She said getting more volunteers can also be challenging because this event is held in the summer and that’s when people normally go away for vacation.

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Stanley added that volunteers are the absolute lifeline of the event and organizers couldn’t do hold Ribfest without them.

“It’s always shocking to me, no matter the event, not just Ribfest, but all of the great events across our amazing city, how many great Guelph volunteers we have, and we need to be able to pull off something like this,” she said.

The positions include greeters for the Classic Car Show, site setup and tear down, licensed bartenders, and helping patrons sort their garbage.

In addition to offering some of the different, unique roles, Stanley said food will be discounted from vendors as a way of saying thank you.

Ribfest runs from Aug 23-25 and she hopes to have enough volunteers signed up by Aug. 19.

If there aren’t enough people signed up by then, she said they’ll ask volunteers currently helping to take on longer shifts as a contingency plan.

“Ideally, if we could have all our volunteers signed up by the Monday before Ribfest, that would give me enough time to shuffle around of the shifts,” she said.