Looking for the right kind of festival staff can be hard, especially for those new to event planning, but luckily there are plenty of people out there who are clamouring for this kind of job, which means you’ve got a relatively big talent pool to choose from.

Without the right kind of festival staff on your books, your event will falter. If you want to come back for a second year, make sure that you hire the best people for the job. But what to look for in someone applying for festival staffing work?

It might come as a surprise but experience isn’t always the most essential or desirable skill. Festivals and other events are quite naturally incredibly hectic affairs so what you need to look for more than anything is someone who can keep their cool no matter what happens someone who is the consummate professional and someone who really cares about doing their job properly.

Someone with some kind of customer experience would be the obvious choice, but don’t fall into the trap of trying to find someone with festival customer service experience.

The skills are transferrable, so even if they’ve been working in an office on a customer service team, they’re likely to be able to work at your festival with ease. People skills are certainly a desirable trait!

Look for people with drive, ambition and enthusiasm and you can’t go wrong. They may even bring a few of their own ideas to the table to help make your festival an incredible success. Remember to hold serious interviews instead of just appointing people however, and make sure that you offer them training before the event.

Alternatively, you can make use of the event staff we here at Newthorn Events have on our books if you want to know you’re getting the cream of the crop.

Check out more tips for festival organisers over on The List.