Volunteers · 02 of 03 · what we ask
Seven things, and every one of them has a reason we can name. Where a rule comes from the police, the province or the City, the line says so and gives you the date it bites.
Our plan for 7–8 August 2027 at LeBreton Flats, subject to permits
Nothing on it costs you money if you come through us. Two of the seven have a deadline attached, and both of those deadlines sit in the first half of 2027.
Requirements · 29 August 2026 · published before registration opens
| What we ask | Who it applies to | What it costs you |
|---|---|---|
| Age 14 or over · planned floor · at sign-up | Everyone. Three roles sit at 18 because a level 3 check needs an adult applicant. | Nothing |
| A second language, if you have one · at sign-up | Welcome everywhere. It sets the roster at the gates and the information desk. | Nothing |
| An emergency contact · before a first block | Everyone. It stays with the two coordinators who run the day. | Nothing |
| Police record check · filed by 20 June 2027 | Roles that work unsupervised near the public — today that is Gates and welcome. | $0 with our letter · $74 without it |
| Vulnerable-sector check, level 3 · filed by 20 June 2027 | Information, children's zone and accessibility. | $0 with our letter · fingerprints $0 with it, $56 without |
| Event accessibility and Safety on the ground · July 2027 | The whole corps, staff and pavilion crews included. | Nothing |
| Role briefing · on the day | Everyone, at the start of a first block. | Fifteen minutes |
Two questions decide it — how old you are on the day and whether the role needs a check. Everything else about you is welcome as it is.
Planned floors · reviewed with the licence
Age floors are planned and get their final review with the venue licence
what a police check costs a volunteer of ours
Ottawa Police issue a volunteer record check free against a letter on our letterhead naming your role, and the fingerprints that sometimes follow are free the same way. The same check bought over the counter costs $74, and the prints $56. Our letter is written the moment your role is confirmed, which is the single most useful thing this festival does for a volunteer before the weekend starts.
Ottawa Police Service tariff effective 1 January 2026 · a co-op student pays $74 either way, which is a rule of the programme rather than of the police
Two levels, one deadline, and a short processing window that decides how early a role has to be claimed. Read this before you pick a role that needs one.
Ottawa Police Service · fees effective 1 January 2026
| Check | Roles | With our letter | Over the counter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Volunteer record check | Gates and welcome | $0 | $74 |
| Vulnerable sector, level 3 | Information · children's zone · accessibility | $0 | Police tariff of the day |
| Fingerprints, where the police ask for them | Any check that returns a possible match | $0 | $56 |
| Co-op placement check | Students on a school placement | $74 | $74 |
Ottawa Police take seven to ten business days. A check is valid on the day it is issued, so an early check is worth nothing on its own — the useful window is short and it closes on 20 June 2027 for an August festival. A role that needs a check is a role to claim in the spring.
Our letter names you, names the role and sits on festival letterhead, which is what makes the check free. It is issued the moment your role is confirmed. A volunteer who applies without it pays $74 and gets no advantage from having done so, so wait for the letter.
Two courses for the whole corps and one briefing for your own role. Ontario law puts the first of them on every volunteer at every event in the province, and we treat it as the thing it is.
July 2027 · online, with one session on site
Both courses are free and both sit at the participant academy
Volunteering here is unpaid, and saying that first is the only decent way to describe the rest. Two provincial rules shape the exchange, and one question about insurance is still open.
Employment Standards Act · Workplace Safety and Insurance Act
Out-of-pocket costs come back to you against a receipt. That is the safe and legal shape of it in Ontario: the Employment Standards Act manual says plainly that the absence of wages does not by itself make somebody a volunteer, and the test looks at whether the person treats the arrangement as a way of earning a living. A flat sum per shift, or the word honorarium, moves a person into employee status with everything that follows. So the positions that genuinely have to be paid — coordinators above all — are hired as paid positions and named as such on this site.
Festival volunteers sit outside the definition of a worker in the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, which lists ambulance volunteers, fire brigades, auxiliary police and search and rescue and stops there. Paid summer staff are workers in the ordinary way and are covered in the ordinary way.
Ontario asks every high-school graduate for 40 hours of community involvement before an OSSD is issued. A festival weekend and a build day put a serious dent in that, and we sign the form.
OSSD community involvement · Ontario Ministry of Education
Under-18s are a large share of the people who volunteer at festivals of this shape — at Folklorama in Winnipeg, 101 of 187 new volunteers in 2025 were under eighteen. Planning for that is part of building the corps rather than an afterthought, which is why the age floor, the role list and the letter all exist before registration opens.
Shifts are better in pairs and pairs are rostered on request. Bring a friend, tell us on the form, and you work the same block.
A team takes one task for one block and finishes it together. Build day, the sorting stations, the water points and the bike valet suit a group that arrives at the same hour and wants to see the result.
Corporate volunteering · agreed team by team
The letter that makes your police check free is written the day your role is confirmed.
Everything on this page has a date. Here they are in order, with the two that cannot move marked as what they are.
Reverse calendar to 7 August 2027
The ones that arrive before somebody commits. Anything missing goes in the notes box on the sign-up form and gets answered here.
hello@capitalcultures.com
Six of the nine roles need no check. Gates need a record check, and information, the children's zone and accessibility need a level 3. Everything else is open to anybody who signs up.
Tell the coordinator and it is talked through against the role in front of it. A record is read in the context of what somebody would actually be doing, and plenty of roles on this site are unaffected by one.
Accessibility training is required of volunteers across Ontario by regulation, and safety training is our own rule. Both are free, both are short, and a badge is issued against them.
That is being answered by our brokers now and the answer publishes on this page in autumn 2026. Anybody on the volunteer list is written to when it lands, and no one is asked to book a shift before it does.
Out-of-pocket costs come back against a receipt. A fixed payment per shift would make you an employee under provincial law, so the exchange stays as reimbursement.
Send them to the roles page, which writes out what an hour in each one looks like. A coordinator is on the radio for the whole block, a briefing comes first, and a parent is welcome to work the same block.
Three pages hold the volunteer offer. Read them in any order; the sign-up form asks for what the first two describe.
Volunteers · 02 of 03
The checks are free with our letter, the courses are free, the shirt and the meal come with the block. Five minutes on the form puts you at the front of the queue for the role you want.