Volunteer Stories: Karen

Karen volunteered with Ottawa Bluesfest for the first time in 2008. She had been attending Bluesfest as a patron for years prior with her husband and found out through a friend of hers, who was an Area Leader Assistant for the Skimmers team, that she could volunteer. Skimmers handled the cash on site, so they did not recruit publicly. Karen’s friend sent her a link to sign up and told her to sign up for every shift. She did not tell her, however, that there was only a three shift minimum and Karen spent her first festival on site every day and everyone told her she was very keen. The following year Karen was asked to be the Skimmers Area Leader Assistant because her friend had been promoted to Area Leader. She accepted. The following year, which was only her third year as a volunteer, the Beverage Cashier Area Leader at the time had to take a year off. This meant that there was a position to be filled and people told Karen that she should apply for the position. She got the position as Beverage Cashier Area leader and spent the next 5 years in that position. 

In 2014, the first year that CityFolk moved to Lansdowne, Karen had asked if she could be the Area Leader for Backstage. She got the position at CityFolk and was then asked to be the Backstage Area Leader for Bluesfest in 2016. At that time, Backstage Accreditation and Backstage Hospitality were combined in one area, meaning that Karen was leading over 200 volunteers. When Backstage Hospitality and Backstage Accreditation split into two areas, Karen stayed on as the Backstage Hospitality Area Leader.

Karen says she loves Backstage Hospitality because of the people. When she first started as Area Leader of Backstage, she did not know anyone, so everyone became her assistant. She could not believe how much people stepped up to help her. “They were fantastic!”, she said. Her and Co- Area Leader, Dawna, have a great team of volunteers, with a lot of them being very experienced in Backstage Hospitality because it is all they have ever done. Those very experienced volunteers do far above the shift minimum, committing a lot of their time to the festival. Karen says that the Backstage Hospitality atmosphere is great and it feels like going to camp every year. Being a part of the backstage team and the crew that she gets to work with highlights what really goes into putting on a show. Many artists, crew members and patrons don’t even know that her team is made up of volunteers. She thinks that it is important that people know that the majority of the people that they interact with on-site are volunteers. 

Karen loves music and enjoys getting the chance to see acts that she really wants to see, as well as being a part of the festival atmosphere. She enjoys being able to interact with other volunteer Area Leaders at monthly meetings leading up to the festival, as this highlights the extent of the organization by seeing the other areas and all that goes on during the festival. When Karen thinks about favourite memories from previous festivals she says she has a golden moment from each festival. Some of these golden moments include seeing a band or performer come off stage and have an interaction with patrons or volunteers and being so kind and gracious. She says that it is really nice to see. She remembers when Ian Tyson came to CityFolk with Corb Lund in 2017. She was crossing the field during their soundcheck and they started singing Four Strong Winds, a song that she has known since she was a kid, and she was the only one on the field. This was her golden moment from that festival. She later got the opportunity to tell Ian Tyson about that moment, when he was talking to her backstage and she said that he was so happy and gracious. 

Some other great memories are from times when she got to see her team step up and work together. Back when they used to have to do the dishes in the backstage area, it could be a real mess. At the end of one night, it was just a disaster. Karen was thinking, “How are we going to get this done? We don’t have the people to clean this up!”. There were a bunch of Backstage Accreditation volunteers left in the area and all of a sudden about 6 or 8 of those Backstage Accreditation volunteers were in the back washing the dishes. Karen said she walked in and burst into tears seeing them just stepping in and cleaning the dishes. They were all given a meal in artist catering as a thank you for stepping up in that moment. 

When looking forward to Ottawa Bluesfest 2024, Karen says the lineup is always secondary for her. Karen is looking forward to another great year with her Co-Area Leader, Area Leader Assistant and the rest of her team. She is super excited to work with backstage staff and her volunteers again this year. She knows she has a lot of her core volunteer team coming back, including some people who were unable to volunteer in 2023. She is always looking forward to how they can make constructive changes, because every year there’s something different, including seeing how the team grows and changes this year.

For Karen, something very important to her in any sort of leadership role is always succession planning and keeping your eyes open. She is always looking at her volunteers and their strengths, seeing who might be able to do those leadership roles and encouraging volunteers to come forward if they are interested. Particularly, volunteering for Ottawa Bluesfest is a real commitment. Identifying the people who really have that commitment and making it a passion because those are the people who will do very well moving forward. Karen says she really loves volunteering with Ottawa Bluesfest and has learned a lot, as it is so different from anything she has ever done and has met some fabulous people. Her team is already gearing up for Bluesfest 2024!