Festival City grants open 2020-21
Published on 02 July 2020
Maribyrnong City Council’s Festival City Grants Program is open and we’re seeking innovative and contemporary attractions to enrich our community and entice new visitors into our business districts!
The Grants Program provides financial and in-kind support for festivals that strengthen the City's profile as ‘Festival City', and applications are now open for festivals delivered in the City of Maribyrnong between November 2020 and June 2021 (inclusive).
The ‘new normal’, as a result of the impact of COVID-19, may mean that our festivals are delivered a little differently but they can still align with our Festival City vision, which is to host festivals that create great memories, inspire a sense of community belonging and pride, excite visitors and stimulate economic activity.
The 2020 / 21 Festival City Grants Program has been adjusted to respond to the impact of COVID-19. Changes include opening applications up to businesses and entrepreneurs registered in the City of Maribyrnong, where in previous years only not-for-profit organisations could apply, and giving funding priority to applications that best demonstrate benefits to local business, local suppliers and contractors and those which present contemporary experiences which will attract new visitation to the City’s key activity centres. These changes will further provide opportunity and support for our local business community.
As part of the Festival City Grants Program Council works with successful festival organisers to meet their objectives, partner with local businesses and institutions, become more sustainable and enhance their professionalism to festival industry standards.
The Program is guided by Council’s Festival City Policy, which sets out a framework to attract, host and support the best of Melbourne’s festivals for the benefit of our residents, businesses and cultural tourists.
Applicants need to meet the eligibility criteria and address the funding criteria, which can be found on our website. Applications close 12pm midday, 22 July 2020. For more information contact Council’s Festival officer on 9688 0200 or email festival.city@maribyrnong.vic.gov.au
Mayor Cr Sarah Carter said:
It’s wonderful to see the Grants Program open again. It is a key component of Council’s Festival City initiative, which has contributed so much to the City’s vibrancy and economic prosperity over its 10 years of operation. Through the Festival City grants program we aim to support arts entrepreneurs, business districts and the festival community – who, due to social isolation and social distancing, have lost income.
As a Council we’re here to support our whole community in many different ways, this includes our artists and festival community who have helped make our City inclusive, welcoming and connecting us in isolation when we’ve needed it the most - such as running online film festivals like the recent Setting Sun Film Festival.
COVID-19 has changed the lives of all of us and the financial impact has left many businesses and entrepreneurs challenged. We’ve been on the front foot to help our business districts with financial packages and promotions and this is another great opportunity.
Anna Bourozikas, Festival Director and Founder, Setting Sun Film Festival said:
I was very happy to work with Maribyrnong City Council again as a recipient of the Festival grant’s program 2019-2020. Grants like these are integral for the arts and businesses at this time because they provide lifeline funding enabling the continued employment of artists and creative entrepreneurs, who can only survive with grants and sponsorship.
The work that creative entrepreneurs, Maribyrnong’s CALD communities and the business community produce with their grants, brings tourism to the Maribyrnong area which in turn injects much needed finance to the business community.
Communities are enhanced by local events, most of which are free. They foster community pride and identity. They help locals develop skills and provide a platform by which we promote our community to the rest of Melbourne and in some cases, the world. Festivals allow artists, businesses and our CALD communities to work together to produce great events. For instance, the Setting Sun Film Festival is a partnership by several organisations in the Maribyrnong community and is known internationally. It promotes Maribyrnong’s filmmakers, which helps their careers, and Melbourne’s West.
One hundred percent of my grant is spent on production costs and that includes hiring local contractors and local businesses for various services ranging from venue hire, filming, catering, graphic design, purchasing trophies and poster distribution.
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