*Montgomery Church perform at the Arbour Festival Finale. Photo Matt Beaver*

Eastern Riverina Festival Audience Boost: Grant Guidelines

The Eastern Riverina’s festivals bring communities together, boost tourism, and put local creativity front and centre. Many of our region’s amazing festivals simply couldn’t run without the passion and energy of local community groups.

Eastern Riverina Arts is offering cash boosts to help local festivals reach and grow their audiences in 2024.

Objectives

The one-off Eastern Riverina Festival Audience Boost will boost festival audiences for 2024 and beyond. Grants of up to $2500 will help festivals to undertake marketing, promotion and audience engagement activities in 2024.

To apply, using the link below, you’ll need to tell us what you’d do to develop and grow your audience. This might include:

Marketing and PR activities
purchasing new signage or branded materials
developing and improving ticketing and website infrastructure
paying artists (eg musicians, performers) to do things that will expand the potential audience of your event
Event documentation (eg photography and videography) that contributes to the future marketing of your festival.

Grant amount:

Up to $2500

Eligibility:

To be eligible for an Audience Boost Grant, applicants must fulfil the following eligibility criteria:

The application must be for a festival that takes place in the Eastern Riverina Arts service region (within the LGA of one of our member Councils: Bland, Coolamon, Cootamundra-Gundagai, Junee, Lockhart, Snowy Valleys, Temora, Wagga Wagga)
The proposed activity must take place in 2024, but we fully support activities that might have a longer-lasting impact (eg updating a website or securing event documentation for future marketing materials).

There are a few things we don’t fund, and these include:

Prize money or gifts
Expenses which are already covered by an organisation's core/existing funding (eg. existing worker salaries), or that comprise the base running costs of an organisation (eg. paying for insurances, admin staff, office costs etc.)
Illegal activities, or activities that would contravene community expectations in relation to hate speech, defamation etc.

Funding Round Priorities

Eastern Riverina Arts will instruct its grant assessment panel to give consideration to the following values when assessing the applications it receives:

Our commitment to distribution funding and support across the breadth of our service region
Support for volunteer-led and inclusive, community-focussed activities
Activities (and festivals) that contribute to the creative and cultural life of the region

Talk to us about what you're proposing and we can help you to navigate these requirements.

Important Dates:

Applications Open: Monday 18th December 2023 at 9:00am

Applications Close: Sunday 4th February 2024 at 11:59pm

Projects commence anytime after 1st April 2024

Projects finalised and acquittals due by 28th February 2025

Funding Pool:

$25,000

How to apply:

Applications have now closed. This is a once-off funding opportunity.

If you have any questions regarding your application, please contact Eastern Riverina Arts.

Applications to the Eastern Riverina Arts Volunteer Festival Grants will be assessed based on their ability to address the funding objectives and eligibility criteria outlined on this page.