The second round of funding applications for the South Australian Government’s Regional Event Fund will be closing at the end of the month. Established through the South Australian Tourism Commission, the fund has pledged $1 million towards regional South Australian events in an attempt to “strengthen the state’s regional events calendar and drive economic stimulus across the regions beyond the traditionally peak summer tourism period.”
Round 2 funding applications close on the 30th of September, so make sure you get in soon if you want to have a crack. But don’t stress if yours is a larger scale event – funding for significant events, those that can “demonstrate a strong track record of growth and a strategy for event innovation”, will be available year round. The fund has a variety of grant tiers suited for a range of events, starting at $5,000 for smaller community events with a 1-3 year track record, and going up to over $50,000 for significant events with a history of growth and innovation.
Open to a broad range of event coordinators and producers across the state, the Regional Event Fund has been established as a response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and the devastating effect it has had on the events sector. Key aims for the fund include driving regional visitation in both the immediate and long term, increasing collaboration for stakeholders in business, government and regional parties, and encouraging future sustainability for events.
This comes as South Australia starts to ease a number of key hospitality restrictions (SA to return to some dancing, stand-up drinking as COVID-19 testing requirements for Queensland travellers dropped – ABC News), as well as the country’s largest states revealing their “roadmaps” out of their Delta strain lockdowns (Victoria and NSW are trying to get to the same place. So why do their pathways look different? – ABC News), prompting the decimated events sector to look towards life after lockdown, and beyond.
Regional Event Fund grants are available for events held from now up until the 30th of August 2022.
Photo by Mikael Andreasson on Unsplash
