To keep the festival alive and open to change, it is a good thing not to get stuck in a rut with the same people for too long; we are therefore looking for new volunteers to take on some of the tasks that make the festival run smoothly.
Currently, the core organizers are Mecki Testroet (director, programming), Monty Crook (admin, ticketing overseer), Brian Stanton (treasurer) and Colin Hume (webmaster). Other volunteers are Malcolm Jowett who deals with TicketTailor, Mike Tozer (pre-event steward co-ordinator), Peter Dunkley (on-site steward coordinator), Darren Williams (publicity), Debbie Chadwick (ticketing assistant) and stewards, a lot of whom 'go the extra mile'.
We thank Darren and Debbie for stepping up after the 2025 Festival.
Some of these jobs take a few hours a year, others take a few hours a week during the majority of the year (we mainly have our summers off, though).
We all find our jobs rewarding as it is lovely to see a sea of happy faces during the festival and the majority of our feedback is positive.
Monty has confirmed he will retire at the end of the 2026 festival after 6 years carrying out a multitude of tasks. The use of TicketTailor (thanks Malcolm) and Debbie helping with tickets has reduced his involvement somewhat, and we also have an outside consultant on catering who helped last year and will again this.
Please have a look at the job descriptions below and consider if you could take on one of these tasks for a few years.
No-one currently involved in running the festival has the will or the capacity to take on Monty's roles: therefore if more volunteers do not come forward to take on a share of his tasks, there will be no more May Heydays after 2026. Ideally a working group of volunteers is needed by 31 January 2026; if this is not forthcoming no preparations for 2027 will be made and the festival will be wound down. The only way to avoid this happening is by coming forward and stepping up to the bar. We look forward to hearing from you.
Mecki, Monty, Brian and Colin