Dear Zimfest community,
We were celebrating the nearly filled volunteer signup sheet. But two days ago we discovered that most of the volunteer sign-ups are fake!
We have removed the fakes from the sign-up page, which leaves only 30% of the shifts filled. We are in desperate need for festival-goers to volunteer. There are lots of open shifts. Please sign up now on the Volunteer Sign-Up.
All the volunteer names looked real enough so we didn’t notice the problem. I should have discovered it sooner as many had questionable phone numbers and email addresses. We decided to manually compare the volunteer names with the names of festival registrants (they are two separate systems).
We have deleted all those who volunteered with names that are not registered as Zimfest 2025 attendees. And we’ve added a captcha to help secure the volunteer signup form.
If you signed up to volunteer, please look for your name on the sign-up page. Your sign-up(s) may have been removed in error. If so, please sign up again; or send an email to volunteers (at) zimfest(dot)org so that we can restore your sign-up. We apologize for any inconvenience this causes.
Thank you for volunteering! Your help and generosity make Zimfest possible.
Larry Israel
Zimfest website maintainer
I signed up for a shift I won’t be able to make because I won’t have arrived yet, how can I change to a later shift? It doesn’t seem to allow for deleting once signed. Thanks!
To remove yourself from a volunteer shift that you are signed up for, find the confirmation email you received when you signed up. That email was sent from with subject Zimfest volunteering. In the confirmation email, at the bottom, there is a Removal Link. Click the removal link to remove yourself.
And Toni, if you are still assigned to two shifts on Monday, I will go ahead and remove you from the marketplace Zimfest booth. I can conclude that’s probably the one you want to be removed from.
Thank you, Larry. I just looked and see that I didn’t receive an email after signing up for either volunteer spot. The one I need to cancel is the registration desk on Thursday. I signed up for the shift just before yours. We won’t arrive to Ellensburg until around 4:00 PM on Thursday. If you don’t mind taking me off the registration shift I’ll sign up for a later one. I want to keep the marketplace shift on Saturday. Thanks!
Toni: As you requested, I removed you from your registration desk shift. I’m willing to bet that the volunteer confirmation email is in your spam folder, which is why you didn’t find it.
To Everyone: Zimfest has had a problem this year with email from zimfest.org being flagged as spam, so being sent to your spam email folder. We haven’t found a solution, so have pointed it out in various places on the website and blog posts. Instructions for self-removal from a volunteer shift is on the How to Register page, under Sign Up for Volunteer Shifts.
Thanks for your help with this, Larry. Fyi, I checked in spam folder before saying I didn’t get the emails. It’s curious because I have gotten emails confirming my registration and classes but not the volunteer shifts. Just letting you know in case there’s a glitch with the volunteer letters. Thanks again.