Festival Grants

Before applying, you must contact Creative New Zealand to confirm your Festival is eligible for Festival Grants.

Once we have confirmed your eligibility, we will make the application form available to you in the Creative New Zealand Portal (link).

To speak to an adviser about your eligibility:

• book a time online (link), or
• email funding@creativenz.govt.nz

The purpose of this fund is to support established festivals who continue to be impacted by the effects of COVID-19 in 2023, to deliver programmes that:

• celebrate the life experiences, stories, cultures, and regional identities of New Zealanders
• improve access and participation
• provide opportunities for development and employment for communities in the cultural sector

We also expect the festivals we fund to help achieve our long-term goals (strategic outcomes), which include:

• High-quality New Zealand art is developed
• New Zealanders participate in the arts
• New Zealanders experience high-quality arts
• New Zealand’s arts sector is resilient

When you apply, you need to explain how your festival will achieve one of these strategic outcomes.

This funding has been made possible by a one-off allocation from the Manatū Taonga Ministry of Culture and Heritage as part of their Arts and Culture COVID Recovery Programme.

To apply for a Festivals Grant, you must:

• be an established New Zealand-based arts festival*
• have presented at least one festival within the past five years**

See who got funded in Round 1 of Festival Grants (link).

You cannot apply if:

• you are a festival funded through the Toi Uru Kahikatea or Toi Tōtara Haemata investment programmes
• you, your organisation, or key members of your project team are in breach of the conditions of a current funding agreement.

Funding types

You can apply under one of three funding types: Ngā toi Māori, Pacific arts, or general arts.

If you apply under Ngā toi Māori:

• your organisation must be Māori-led, and
• if applying for funding on behalf of an individual, that person must also be Māori, and
• mātauranga Māori must be evident in the idea, practice, and outcomes of your programme.

If you apply under Pacific arts:

• your project must deliver outcomes to Pacific arts, and
• Kaupapa Pasifika must be evident in the idea, practice, and outcomes of your programme.

*A festival (for the purposes of this funding programme) is one that takes place within a defined area or region within New Zealand over a designated period of time and involves a programme of festival events and associated activities featuring one or more artforms of any cultural tradition.

**Includes 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 calendar years.

Festival Grants offer funding across two funding rounds for established festivals to deliver a single-artform, or multidisciplinary arts, programme of festival events or activities.

You can apply for a maximum of $150,000 combined across Round 1 and Round 2 of Festival Grants.

We expect the demand for Round 2 of Festival Grants to be high and encourage you to think carefully about the amount of funding you request. 

If your application is successful, we may offer you an amount of funding that is:

• lower than what you requested
• similar to what you have been offered in the past

This will depend on factors including:

• overall demand in the round
• how well your festival is aligned to the purpose of the Festival Grants programme

For this second and final round of Festival Grants, your programme of activity must:

• start after 15 November 2023
• be completed by 15 February 2025

Funding can be used towards:

• fees, stipends, and wages. These need to offer fair pay for artists and arts practitioners
• operational, commissioning, development, and presentation costs

You can apply for festival activities including:

• commissioning, co-production, development, or presentation of new or remounted New Zealand work, including Māori and Pacific work and work of the diverse communities of New Zealand. These may include live/in-person and digital components
• community arts events
• presentation and transmission of Māori customary and Pacific heritage arts
• other associated activities that support the festival programme

• Non-arts festivals (e.g. food and wine festivals, wellness festivals, parades) or arts activity within non-arts festivals
• Festivals that are not based in New Zealand
• Activities already funded by another Creative New Zealand funding programme or initiative. For instance, the Pacific Festivals Initiative, the Creative Communities Scheme, Arts Grants or Annual Arts Grants
• Activities another Creative New Zealand funding programme or initiative is designed to support
• Purchase of capital items, renovating or buying buildings, or restoring marae
• Duplication of funding with other government agencies
• Projects, project phases or programmes of activity that have received support from Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage through the Arts and Culture COVID Recovery Programme (excluding Cultural Sector Emergency Relief Fund, the Arts and Culture Event Support Scheme and the Grant for Self-Employed Individuals)
• Core education resources and activities that are part of the curriculum and course of study in New Zealand, including early learning, school, or further education
• Game design, fashion design and commercial design
• Some film and screen activity
• Activities that are part of the core business of a Tertiary Education Organisation (TEO), Territorial Local Authority (TLA) or Council Controlled Organisation (CCO)

For more detail, see Guidelines - What we don’t fund

Before applying, contact Creative New Zealand to confirm your Festival is eligible for Festival Grants.

To speak to an adviser about your eligibility:

• book a time online (link), or
• email funding@creativenz.govt.nz

Once we have confirmed your eligibility, register or sign into your Creative New Zealand Portal account (link) to apply using the online application form.

Complete the application form, add relevant support material, and submit the application before 1pm, Thursday, 28 September 2023.

For technical support to create your Creative New Zealand Portal account or use the online application form email portal@creativenz.govt.nz

If you have access needs or require additional support to use the CNZ portal, contact us at email portal@creativenz.govt.nz or phone 0800 CREATIVE (273 284).

The application form contains the following sections.

Idea

Tell us about your festival, including

• your artistic focus, curatorial approach, or creative direction
• your target audience (including demographics and past attendance figures, if possible)
• the communities you work with
• the artists you’ll work with and the artwork that will be developed, commissioned, or presented
• how your programme is relevant to your audience, participants, or community
• your long-term goals for the festival
• how the festival achieves the Festival Grants purposes

If you’re applying under Ngā toi Māori or Pacific arts, also tell us:

• how Mātauranga Māori or Kaupapa Pasifika are evident in the idea, practice and outcomes of the festival 

Process

In this section, tell us where, when, and how you plan to deliver your programme.

People

In this section, tell us about:

• your organisation, including people in key leadership and creative roles
• the artists and practitioners you’re working with
• any other partners who are integral to the success of your festival

Budget

You need to supply a detailed budget that shows:

• all the costs associated with the activities you’re requesting funding towards, including fair pay for artists and practitioners
• which of the costs you want the Festival Grant to cover
• all sources of revenue for the activities, including in-kind revenue

You can use our Activity and budget template (link) to present your budget.

Support material

In this section, upload additional documents that support your application. This can include:

• your draft festival programme 
• your business plan (link)
• a schedule or timeline 
• a link to your festival website 
• artistic CVs 
• written confirmation of the availability of the key people or organisations involved in the festival 
• support letters from your peers or other practitioners 
• documentation or evidence of the quality of past programmes

For advice on how to format your support material, see Guidelines – Support material (link) 

After the round closes, Creative New Zealand staff double check your application is eligible and record information about the activities in your festival.

Your application is then assessed by peer assessors, following our assessment and decision-making process (link).

We will let you know the result of your application on 15 November 2023. There will also be a full list of what was funded on our Results page (link).

If your application is successful, we’ll contact you about your:

• Funding agreement
• Payment details
• Reporting requirements (link)

If your application is not successful, you can email Funding Services (link) to get feedback on your unsuccessful application. You may also consider looking into other sources of funding and support (link).