Regional Event Fund – Flagship Event 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 primary objective of the Regional Event Fund is to provide grants to events in regional NSW that have demonstrated they are, or have the potential to become, tourism drivers for their region. 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 Flagship Event stream of the Regional Event Fund only. Guidelines for the Incubator Event stream and Event Development stream are available separately.
The Flagship Event stream identifies and assists the development of events that contribute to the unique character and culture of the tourism regions of NSW and can demonstrate that they attract overnight visitation.
The Flagship Event stream offers annual grants to events in regional NSW specifically to support marketing activities aimed at increasing visibility and attracting visitation to the event from outside its immediate area. Grants through the Flagship stream are only available to events that have been running for more than two years.
The Flagship Event stream offers two subcategories:
- Annual grant – $20,000 (ex GST)
- Triennial grant – $30,000 (ex. GST) per annum for three years
A single event may receive an annual grant a maximum of three times and a Triennial grant only once. An event will only be considered for a Triennial grant once it has received three Annual grants.
Application to the Flagship Event stream is a single-stage process consisting of an online application form responding to a series of questions that address the fund criteria. Strong applications require robust data and supporting information.
To be eligible for Flagship Event funding an event must be held for the third time or more between 1 July 2026 and 30 June 2027 and must align with the fund criteria outlined in the grant guidelines.
Applicants are encouraged to read the Flagship Event grant guidelines before commencing an application to ensure your event meets the requirements.
View the guidelines here.