On Friday 23rd September, young and adult volunteers who dedicated their time to Youth Beatz 2022 came together for the annual Youth Beatz Volunteer Celebration. The event was held at Easterbrook Hall in Dumfries, as a thank you for the efforts and achievements of all those involved.
Youth Beatz was held over the weekend of Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th June, with the Sunday being cancelled in the interest of everyone’s safety due to the adverse weather conditions. Despite this, the Festival was still a huge success. The Festival prides itself on providing high quality volunteering opportunities to both young people and adults, some of whom attended the Celebration Event.
Councillor Archie Dryburgh, Chair of Communities Committee said: “Youth Beatz provides those who selflessly choose to volunteer their time with many opportunities to develop new skills, to broaden horizons, and to get valuable experience within the events industry. Our Council is incredibly proud to celebrate the achievements of all of those who volunteered their time at Youth Beatz 2022.”
This year, the Festival was incredibly thankful to have 172 young and adult volunteers, who worked on a variety of aspects of the event, from staff welfare to the Youth Work Tent, backstage and production, and the box office to name a few. For the duration of the build and de-rig, 12 young Duke of Edinburgh’s Award participants from across D&G and the rest of Scotland came along to undertake their Gold residential section, working on several elements of the event alongside event staff. The Toon also saw many volunteers help with the design and delivery of the immersive youth drama production which delivers powerful messages of youth information on a variety of topics and issues that affect young people in their day to day lives.
Councillor John Campbell, Vice-Chair of Communities Committee said: “Our Council truly appreciates the hard work and dedication of all volunteers involved with Youth Beatz. A massive 8,600 volunteer hours were tallied up, further emphasising the point that Scotland’s largest free youth music event would not be possible without all our volunteers.”
