Community Festivals Fund

Overview

This is a competitive fund and Essential criteria will be used to score applications which the applicant must meet and also demonstrate that the Festival will grow or develop as a result of CFF assistance. The overall level of public funding cannot exceed 80% of the total Festival costs.

The applicant must meet the essential criteria and demonstrate that the Festival will grow or develop as a result of CFF assistance.

Essential Criteria

• Be initiated and led by a community organisation or community partnership
• Project a positive image through media
• Maximise non-public sources of income (eg through commercial sponsorship, donations, ticket sales, advertising revenue etc)
• Attract visitors to the area

Desirable Criteria
The desirable criteria against which CFF will assess Festivals for selection are:

• sustainability - long term viability of the Festival, and other potential sources of income.
• media coverage - level of print, radio, television, and Internet coverage secured and anticipated in terms of quality and quantity. The marketing plan should also acknowledge Northern Ireland's key markets.
• positive economic impact - direct economic benefit will be measured against the level of total public sector funding to assess the economic return per £1 of public money invested.
• tourism potential - potential for the event to be packaged for tourists indicated by bed nights and out-of-state visitors.
• status of performers/event participants - key to the marketing and media success of the project.
• level of funding required - the applicant will demonstrate value for money. The following indicators will be applied:
  - ticket sales and other entrance income should be at least 70% of the performance costs;
  - marketing should be no more than 30% of ticket sales and other entrance income
• encourage social inclusion - enabling and supporting access to activities by people of difference age, economic status, politics, religion, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation etc.
• identify opportunities for development - this includes capacity-building, links with other organisations and diversity of activities. Festivals or groups which have previously been funded through Community Festivals Fund will be required to demonstrate clear progression from previous applications.

In addition applicants must provide:

• a marketing plan with achievable targets for securing maximum media coverage;
• three years' accounts;
• past year's media clippings (if applicable).

If successful, applicants may be required to conduct spectator surveys during the event.

Although a Festival is eligible for funding against these criteria, it does not necessarily mean that an application for funding will be successful. CFF assesses each individual application on its merits based on the information provided within the application form. This is a competitive fund with definite tranches and closing dates and priority will be given to those applications which meet CFF published criteria.

The staff of CFF will be pleased to provide further information about eligibility for financial assistance and to assist in completing the application process.

Ineligible Costs and Projects

CFF will not normally providing funding for the following activities:

• events taking place outside N Ireland;
• commercial concerts;
• events of a commercial nature;
• trade or professional conferences/conventions;
• core costs for Festivals (staffing, annual overheads);
• Festivals that are primarily fundraising events, are heavily branded with charity
• branding or deploy potential sources of income from an event to a charity;
• award ceremonies or industry events;
• debates, talks, seminars or discussions;
• residential courses and associated events;
• Festivals that are social events for an organisation;
• events developed and delivered by public bodies;
• events initiated and led by private sector organisations.

How to Apply

It is the Culture Ministers intention to transfer the delivery of the community festivals fund to local authorities from 1 April 2008.

The preferred option is that DCAL retains responsibility for community festivals policy, and that the Department makes an annual allocation to each council under a specific grant process.