Everyone's favorite festival will be here before you know it, and the volunteer schedule for our 54th annual festival is now live. ComFest only happens because community members like you show up and pitch in. Thank you!
We’d be honored if you would join us again this year. Signing up only takes a few minutes. Please take a look at the FAQ and role descriptions below.
FAQ:
What do I wear?
- The dress code is simple: comfortable shoes, breathable clothing- shorts, a dress, a kilt - whatever keeps you cool.
I have some physical limitations, can I still help?
- Absolutely. Most shifts can accommodate specific needs; let us know what you require and we'll work it out.
What is the time committment?
- Most shifts run just three to four hours.
What's in if for me?
- Besides working for the largest, longest-running, free, all-volunteer, independent festival in the nation, every volunteer earns a festival t-shirt and a handful of ComFest chips, redeemable for food, beverages, ComFest merch, or at Street Fair vendors.
My family would like to volunteer together. How do we do this?
- We love it when families volunteer together. It's a great day for everyone, and it's how ComFest grows into its future. For families with children under 16, Cleanup & Recycling is the best shift to choose. When you sign up, please indicate that you're volunteering as a group so we can keep you together.
Can my friend or partner volunteer with me?
- Yes, ComFest is always more fun when you volunteer with friends or your spouse. Find a shift with two or more open slots and sign up. Be sure to mention that you'd like to volunteer with another person. Suggested shifts: Roving Safety or Barricades, Program Guide Distribution, Bartender, Cleanup & Recycling. Note: each person must use their own email address.
Where do you need the most help?
- Sunday afternoon and evening shifts across every committee
- Safety roving ambassadors throughout the weekend
- Logistics crew - maintain the park by putting up fencing, perform landscaping, and handling water/ice deliveries
- Evening Libations shifts — bartenders and cashiers
- Monday teardown (Cleanup & Recycling, Logistics, Street Fair)
ComFest 2026 — Shift Descriptions
June 26, 27, 28, 2026 · Goodale Park, Columbus, Ohio
Safety - Roving Ambassador or Barricades
Safety volunteers are responsible for helping to look out for the safety and well-being of ComFest participants. Police are on the park premises to handle any serious situations. Day-to-day responsibilities include:
- Helping lost kids and parents find each other
- Watching the street barricades
- Enforcing the rules of ComFest and Goodale Park, which mainly consist of making sure people are having a good, safe time
- Roving the park to give a helping hand
Roving Safety Ambassador
Tour your designated area looking to help fellow ComFesters in need. You'll coordinate between the Safety base station and ComFesters to make sure we all have a safe and happy ComFest.
Training: See the Safety training video for details on radio protocol and base-station check-ins.
Barricade Volunteer
Enjoy a shady seat under an umbrella at the main barricades. You'll assist cars with proper access and remind your fellow ComFesters not to take open containers out of the festival.
Cleanup & Recycling
The Cleanup/Recycling committee is responsible for keeping the park and the surrounding area clean. Volunteers are always needed for this dirty but essential job, and are responsible for picking up trash, replacing trash and recycling liners, taking trash and recycling to the removal sites, and ensuring that the park looks better than it did before the event began. Keep Goodale Park nice and clean — and be an environmentalist while you're at it.
Training: Short training video available before your shift.
Logistics - Site Operations Volunteer
Logistics keeps the festival's physical operation running. You will be responsible for fencing, the golf cart corral, water and ice distribution, signage, or any of the dozens of infrastructure jobs that get the gates open on Friday and restore the grass back to green by Tuesday.
Libations - Bartender or Cashier
This is a job for trustworthy folks who understand that Community Festival has survived, in a small part, through its beverage sales.
Two ground rules: any drinks given away come out of ComFest's pocket — and although the festival looks huge, it is weather-dependent and can struggle to break even. And if alcohol is furnished to a minor, you and ComFest are in deep doo-doo.
Bartender
Serve drinks to fellow ComFesters after checking their ID.
Training: How to Pour a Drink · How to Check IDs
Bar Cashier
Help your fellow ComFesters turn money into ComFest drink chips and souvenir mugs.
Entertainment - Stage Crew
Help the stages work like well-oiled machines. Entertainment stage crews help load equipment on and off in between sets at the five festival stages. It's a good idea to be sober, and to have careful hands and a sturdy back for this job. It involves carrying the equipment ComFest musicians use to make a living.
You'll help move gear for performers and work the back-stage areas. Stage Crew shifts are coordinated with the Peace & Healing Village stage as well.
Street Fair
Help is needed Thursday evening after street closure to mark booth spaces, Friday morning to help with set-up (direct traffic and walk cars to booth spaces), throughout the festival to monitor the area (walking up and down Goodale and Park Streets), and most crucially during tear-down on Sunday evening and Monday.
ComFest Merch Booth
The Merch Booth is where ComFesters pick up their festival swag, including t-shirts, posters, mugs, and other official merchandise. Merch volunteers also serve as a friendly info point for directions and general festival questions.
Program Guide Distribution - Roving or Barricade
Hand out the official ComFest program guide as folks come into the park. This is one of the friendliest first-points-of-contact at the festival. A smile and a program go a long way to making someone's weekend.
Bike Corral - Set-Up / Parking & Returning
The Bike Corral provides free, supervised bike parking for festival-goers at the Dennison & Buttles entrance. It's an environmentally friendly way to encourage attendance without adding cars to the neighborhood, and the Corral team keeps everyone's wheels safe while they enjoy the festival.
Park & Return Bikes
Check bikes in and out for festival-goers. You'll tag each bike with a ticket and return it to its owner at the end of their day.
Parking & Returning (evening)
Same role, evening hours — usually busier as the late-day crowd arrives and rolls home.
Parking
Parking volunteers direct cars to legal spots in and around the neighborhood, watch the loading zones, and help vendors and performers navigate to their drop-off points. Friendly traffic-direction skills and patience required.
Peace and Healing Village - Stage Crew
The Peace and Healing Village is the festival's wellness and contemplative space that features workshops, yoga, meditation, and quieter programming for ComFesters who want a moment of calm. Stage Crew volunteers help set up and run the Village stage in coordination with the Entertainment Committee.
Voter Registration
ComFest has registered voters at its booths for decades. Volunteer advocates spend a shift on the Street Fair walking attendees through the registration form and answering basic questions about Ohio voter rules.
Info Booth / Lost and Found / Volunteer Central
This is the front desk of the festival. Volunteers there answer the constant stream of questions from festival-goers about schedules, lost-and-found items, and where to find the nearest restroom. The Info Booth also maintains a list of volunteer opportunities for folks who are interested in walking up and volunteering for this year's festival.
Digital Media
Digital Media is the team behind ComFest's online presence. This includes social media coverage, festival photography and video, livestream support, and online program updates during the weekend. Volunteers with photography, videography, or social-media skills are especially welcome.
Archive - Docent / Display Set-Up / Greeter
The Archive committee preserves and shares ComFest's history. Volunteers staff the museum display in the Shelter House, conduct short interviews with longtime ComFesters about their festival memories, and help set up and tear down the exhibit.
ComFest Docent
Veteran ComFesters are especially well-suited for this role. Did you attend the first ComFest? Have you been attending for years and want to share your knowledge of the festival? Share your deep familiarity with ComFest and its history with your fellow ComFesters, helping them learn our roots.
Museum Display Set-Up & Tear-Down
Thursday afternoon set-up and Sunday evening tear-down shifts to put the exhibit up and back away.
Electrical Assistant (Logistics)
(Electrical is coordinated through Logistics in the 2026 shift schedule and may not appear as its own committee on the volunteer sign-up board.)
Help our electrical experts lay out and clean up all of the electrical wiring for the festival. No electrical background required for the assistant role — you'll work under a licensed lead.