The Sherwood Community Festival returns to the Arboretum on Saturday 16 May 2026, marking its 30th year, and the all-volunteer committee is calling on locals to give an hour or two of their time to help bring the 4075’s biggest free community day back to life.
After the 2025 festival was cancelled due to poor ground conditions at the Arboretum, the return this May carries extra significance for a community that has rallied around this event for three decades. The festival draws up to 10,000 visitors to Sherwood Arboretum each year and runs entirely on volunteer effort, from the committee that spends twelve months planning it down to the people who set up gazebos at dawn and pack the last chair away at the end of the day.
Without enough hands on deck, an event of this scale simply cannot happen, and with 16 May now just weeks away, the team is actively looking for day-of volunteers across a range of roles.
Find Your Role on the Day
There are five volunteer roles, each suited to different interests and energy levels.
The Production Team is the crew that transforms an empty arboretum into a festival. They arrive early, put up gazebos, set out chairs, hang signage and get the whole site ready before the gates open. If you like being active and want to see an event come together from the ground up, this one is for you.
The Info Tent is the community’s first point of contact during the day. Volunteers there hand out programs, help visitors find food stalls and stages, and keep people informed about what’s on next. It is a prime viewing spot, and it suits anyone who enjoys a conversation and wants to make visitors feel genuinely welcome.
Workshop Helpers work in the Arts Hub, setting out materials for painting and hands-on crafts, giving a hand to anyone who needs it, and keeping tables tidy between sessions. It is a relaxed role well suited to anyone who enjoys a creative atmosphere and wants to help local families get into making things together.
Stage Runners are the link between performers and the stage, making sure musicians and speakers get where they need to be on time. The Arbor Green and Fig Tree stages both host local bands, schools and performing arts groups across the day, and this role puts you right in the middle of that energy.
Stewards move around the full festival site, helping people find their way and making sure the grounds stay safe and tidy for the thousands of families, children and visitors coming through. It lets you experience the whole festival atmosphere while playing a genuinely useful role.
Thirty Years of Showing Up for Each Other
The Sherwood Community Festival traces its origins to 1995, when a small group of Sherwood Road traders organised a pavement event to bring people to the shopping strip as banks and businesses began to close. That first event had a handful of stalls and a straightforward purpose: keep the community connected to its local street.
Over the following three decades it grew into a full street festival with road closures, then shifted to its current home at Sherwood Arboretum where it has expanded to more than 100 stalls, four performance spaces, free rides and face painting, an Arts Hub, food trucks and a sausage sizzle, all free to attend.
The festival has always run off the same foundation: the generosity of people willing to give a bit of their Saturday to something bigger than themselves. The committee is made up entirely of volunteers, many of whom give a few hours a week across the year to handle everything from grant applications and sponsor relationships to site logistics and entertainment programming.
On the day itself, those roles multiply and the event lives or dies on how many extra pairs of hands show up.
How to Put Your Hand Up
Volunteer registration for the Sherwood Community Festival on Saturday 16 May 2026 is open now. You can sign up for as little as an hour or two, in whichever role suits you best. To register, click here and fill out the expression of interest form. The committee will be in touch to confirm details.
The Sherwood Arboretum is at 87 Jolimont Street, Sherwood. The train station sits at the end of the street, making it easy to get to without a car.
Published 24-April-2026
