I bet you’ve been reading our posts about summer for the past few months and thinking, why does Brokelyn love suummer so goddamn much? Well, besides all the obvious reasons I’ll tell you another one, which is that summer favors the broke. It’s one of the few times in the year when you can save on gym memberships by exercising outdoors, when you can find social activities under the stars that don’t cost a dime, and when you can actually fathom sleeping in parks if turning your entire life into a performance art piece doesn’t pan out.
And on this, the nicest day of the year so far, here’s yet another opportunity to claim summer 2016 as the Season of Not Paying for Stuff: BRIC’s Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival is looking for volunteers to help run their summer programming, which includes over 25 concerts featuring the likes of Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Violent Femmes, Jon Batiste and the Stay Human, and includes Benefit shows with Tame Impala, Ray LaMontagne, Beirut and Herbie Hancock.
In exchange for volunteering your time, you get to see every show, even those fancy paid shows, for free. Bet you’re starting to love summer even more now, huh?
Here’s how the perks stack up once you start contributing volunteer hours to the festival:
- 3 shifts = 1 Reserved Seat to 1 free show (based on availability)
- 5 shifts = 2 Reserved Seats to 1 free show (based on availability)
- 8 shifts = 2 Friends Tent Wristbands to 1 free show (based on availability)
- 12 shifts or more = 2 tickets to a Ticketed Benefit show (based on availability)
- 22 shifts or more = Free Membership to BRIC House (special perks and discounts TBA)
Not only is this a great way to see all of the music for none of the money, but it’s also an awesome way to meet other music-loving Brooklynites such as yourself. Volunteer crews are just karmically-enlightened friend circles, after all.
Shifts are only four hours long and volunteers are encouraged to sign up for at least 10 performances, so it’s almost guaranteed that if you’re not seeing one of these awesome shows as a perk, it’s because you’re already working it. You’ll be the envy of all your friends, not to mention have a pile of new ones you can spend the summer with.
Ready to apply? Fill out this form. Remember, outdoor concerts are rain or shine, so don’t be the kind of grump who gets surly with people in bad weather. Have good interpersonal skills and be a team player. Past volunteer experience, especially in a venue, school or other large capacity facility, is helpful. Bilingualism is, too. Go get ’em, tigre.