General 02 June 2023

Volunteers Profile Billy Bedborough

It's Volunteers Week and we talked to Billy Bedborough one of our longstanding volunteers at Hippfest about how he became involved and what he enjoys about volunteering.

Why did you Volunteer?

"Glasgow born and bred, inevitably cinema(s) became an essential and continuing part of my up bringing! After a career which took me to other areas of Scotland, I eventually settled in Dollar on my retirement . A good friend invited me to visit ‘Hippfest’.. about which I was totally ignorant! -- with him some eight years ago and I was totally blown away by the experience! All the very best things I remembered about my own cinema-going in Glasgow seemed to have been incorporated into ‘The Hippodrome ‘ and the Festival ! Plus as it was essentially silent films on show, it was now possible to see classic movies produced world wide and often to have critical introductions by experts to them.

I attended the Festival six or seven times that year and indicated I would love to become a volunteer. I subsequently formally applied for the 2016 Hippfest and was delighted to be invited to participate . I have been doing so --give or take Covid interruption !! -every year since and my enthusiasm for the whole project is unabated and grows with every year I have had the privilege to have a small part in it!"

What did you do as a volunteer?

"The main tasks I have been involved in are:

• The filling and setting out of ‘goodie’ bags
• Issuing and collecting evaluation forms from the audience
• Queue management /welcome for audience
• General assistance whenever /wherever required"   

What do you enjoy about volunteering? 

"Simple  answer is absolutely everything about it!! The opportunity to meet and work with so many interesting and equally enthusiastic people, the chance to see so many classic silent films, the chance to hear so many film experts giving informed lectures about the films, the accompanying music -- invariably appropriate and brilliant and of course the infectious sense of teamwork ,common purpose  and unfailing enthusiasm which comes from the organisers."

You can find out more about our volunteering opportunities at the Hippodrome here.