This year’s Norfolk & Norwich Festival has more ways than ever for local people to get actively involved with one of the region’s most high profile and successful events.

Whether you fancy yourself as an extra in a world-class piece of theatre, a crew member at a large-outdoor extravaganza or are just looking to get some fantastic experience, there are more ways than ever to be part of this year’s Festival.

Performer or musician? Artichoke is on the hunt for more than 200 extras and no fewer than six Alice’s of different sizes to take part in Dining with Alice, guaranteed to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. A chorus of singers is needed for the Festival Chorus and The Voice Project Choir are seeking people of all abilities to join.

Two hundred saxophonists are required for Andy Sheppard’s Saxophone Massive an ambitious, community event to launch the Festival.

Looking to improve your CV and get some unique work experience? Or want to contribute and give a little something back to the community you live in? Every year, the Festival works with up to one hundred and fifty NNF Volunteers. This year there are opportunities for people to work in almost all aspects of the Festival; from helping out behind the scenes at events, to manning an information point or providing crowd control at one of our big outdoor shows. Whatever the role, people come back time and time again to work with us.

A survey of last year’s volunteers found overwhelmingly that people found the experience rewarding, with many saying that the skills and experience they gained as a result of volunteering for the Festival will help them in the future. The most common skill gained by volunteers was confidence, closely followed by communication and team work skills. This illustrates how the Festival really contributes to people’s lives and has a positive impact on their future in leading them on to other things

Looking to gain real skills to help you move back into full time employment? The Festival is offering exciting opportunities for young people through the Team East for Skills programme. It’s all about giving people the opportunity to find out a bit more about themselves whilst getting stuck in to some engaging and rewarding activity

New Artistic Director & Chief Executive William Galinsky, who is joining the NNF from Cork Midsummer Festival on the opportunities this year – “Norfolk & Norwich Festival’s volunteer programme is a hugely important way of getting local people involved in what we do. Working on a world-class event like this can bring fantastic benefits to people, in terms of life skills, confidence and can act as a springboard to gaining further employment”.

This year’s Norfolk & Norwich Festival, which runs from 6th – 21st May 2011, will present world-class music, theatre, dance, circus and visual arts and the biggest ever programme of free international street performance at Chapelfield Gardens on the opening weekend. The full programme will be announced in early March.