Regional Event Fund – Event Development stream

The Regional Event Fund was established in 1996. The program is a mechanism to grow regional visitation by assisting events that contribute to the unique character of the tourism regions of NSW to market themselves to visitors from outside of their Local Government Area.

The Regional Event Fund comprises three individual funding streams providing a development pipeline for events from inception, through emergence, to their establishment as tourism events in regional NSW.

The three individual streams of the Regional Event Fund are:

• Incubator Event stream – supports the establishment of new events
• Flagship Event stream – supports the marketing of emerging events to increase their profile and encourage visitation
• Event Development stream – supports the strategic development of established events as drivers of tourism.

Each of the three streams within the Regional Event Fund have different eligibility, selection criteria and assessment processes. Applications for the three streams are managed separately.

The Regional Event Fund provides grants for events in regional NSW which have the potential to become visitor economy drivers for their region, directly contributing to achieving specific NSW Visitor Economy Strategy 2035 targets, by aligning with the following Strategic Pillars:

• Drive Growth through Events – Supporting a robust calendar of cultural and sporting events that attract year-round visitation and drive regional dispersal of visitors.
• Focus on Experiences – Enhancing immersive and culturally rich offerings that showcase NSW’s unique landscapes and produce.

The Regional Event Fund directly supports strategic opportunities identified in the NSW Visitor Economy Strategy 2035 for NSW to create a dynamic, year-round calendar of signature events that spans all seasons and to leverage leisure events to grow seasonal visitation and showcase NSW’s strengths.

Applicants to the Fund must consider how events align with visitor experience priorities, consumer demand and the NSW Government’s ambitions for regional visitor economy growth.

Further, the Fund enables visitor economy stakeholders to strengthen storytelling around NSW’s diverse experiences to resonate with travellers’ motivations. Events supported through the Fund that have demonstrated they are, or have the potential to become, tourism drivers for their region. The program seeks to support unique events that showcase the region and/or location in which they are held. Depending on the stream, grants are focused on event delivery, event marketing or specific growth initiatives.

Secondary objectives include leveraging supported events through Destination NSW marketing and communications activities to build the profile of NSW and specific destinations, and, through the application and feedback process, to offer guidance to event organisers to improve event management capabilities.

The Regional Event Fund will deliver value for money by providing targeted funding to event organisers to undertake specific marketing activities directly tied to promoting the event to new markets and attracting increased visitation across regional NSW.

Ultimately, the funding program aims to increase visitation to regional events and increase economic benefit to destinations.

This page provides information on the Event Development stream of the Regional Event Fund only. Guidelines for the Incubator Event stream and Flagship Event stream are available separately.

View the guidelines here.