Funding to get regional Australia feeling festive

Regional and remote communities around Australia will get the opportunity to experience new and exciting arts activations in their area thanks to support available through Round 19 of the Festivals Australia program.

The program provides $1.4 million of funding each year for arts activities in regional and remote Australia, allowing people to experience arts and culture locally, and supporting community participation and audience engagement.

Round 19 is now open for application for projects starting from 1 February 2025.

Activities can include, but are not limited to, performances, workshops, installations, parades or exhibitions held as part of a festival or a significant one-off community event.

The program generates creative opportunities and jobs for artists and arts workers, as well as having significant flow-on benefits for local tourism and allied industries.

The program recognises the crucial role festivals play in connecting communities and promoting local talent to tell Australian stories – a key focus of Revive, Australia’s National Cultural Policy.

Previous round recipients that have benefitted from the program include: 

• Yirrkala Yarrapay Music Art and Dance Festival - Slowmango x The Bait Fridge Performance and Workshops at Yarrapay Festival 2024. The multi-disciplinary arts collective, Slowmango and The Bait Fridge, delivered a series of open-access, community workshops over a four-day period in Yirrkala in North East Arnhem Land, culminating in a performance at Yarrapay Festival 2024. Workshop activities include song-writing, costume and sculpture making, writing, painting, drawing, dance, and theatre.
• SALT Festival -Littoral Light Walk was an immersive light-art project featuring large scale lanterns set on the foreshore of Port Lincoln and across adjoining Boston Bay. The project engaged emerging and established artists from the Southern Eyre Peninsula to develop their skills and work with two professional lantern makers to then present new work as part of SALT 2024. The project included active workshops with community members in the development of the artworks.
• Official Opening of the new Theatre Twyford - Twyford Opening Video Installation. This project included a video installation developed for the opening of the new theatre. It engaged with young people and used both existing and new images to reflect the past and future use of the site, to entice and entertain visitors and inspire artists and arts workers about what is possible in the new building. 

Round 19 of Festivals Australia will close at midnight AEDT, 8 October 2024.

For more information on funding and how to apply follow: Festivals Australia | Office for the Arts.