Flagship event funding available

Cedric Burnside from The Cedric Burnside Project will headline the Girrakool Blues Festival at Mt Penang in 2016

Event organisers on the Central Coast holding events between January and June 2019, are encouraged to apply for the NSW Liberal National Government’s Flagship Event Fund, which is now open.

Parliamentary Secretary for the Central Coast, Scot MacDonald, and Member for Terrigal, Adam Crouch, said the 2019 Fund will be offered in two rounds per year and with just a single application process. “The NSW Government is continuing to reduce the red tape and for the first time, event organisers no longer have to submit an expression of interest when applying for the Flagship Event Fund,” MacDonald said.

The Girrakool Blues Festival and Harvest Festival held in March and June (respectively), 2018 were both supported with funding from the Flagship Event Fund.

“Events can apply for an annual grant of $20,000 or a triennial grant of $27,500, to help market and promote their event to visitors outside of their local area,” Crouch said.

“We already have a large number of events across our Central Coast region, and it’s important that they consider applying for this funding to help them expand their reach,” Crouch added. NSW Minister for Tourism and Major Events, Adam Marshall, said that, since 1997, the Regional Flagship Events Program, which includes three different funding streams, has provided more than $10m to 351 events throughout rural and regional NSW.

“Whether it’s event proponents, tour operators, hoteliers or visitor attractions, we’re working hard right across our regions to make it easier to access vital grants to get initiatives off the ground and to get tourism booming more than ever before,” Marshall said. The Regional Flagship Events Program is managed by the NSW Government’s tourism and major events agency, Destination NSW.

Source: Media release, Sep 20 Kit Hal, Office of Scot MacDonald MLC

Access to the 2019 funding website here