Festival fund offering £95,000 to expand events

A £95,000 festival fund has been created to support 10 cultural events across Bradford during UK City of Culture 2025.

The funding – which will be awarded in grants of £5,000 - £10,000 – is designed for festivals to expand their capacity and is "a chance for creativity to thrive".

Councillor Sarah Ferriby, executive member for healthy people and places, said the grants would allow organisations and people to boost their festival or event and invest in communities.

She said: "Bradford has a rich heritage of an amazing range of festivals and events which provide lots of opportunities for residents to have fun while celebrating and sharing cultural activities."

According to Bradford Council the city has more than 30 festivals across the year.

It said the Culture Is Our Plan scheme would "celebrate the rich plethora of cultures we have in our district".

The council will accept proposals for festivals or events that have a "strong arts, culture and heritage provision or have an ambition to increase the arts, culture and heritage provision as part of the programme".

It said it was looking to fund existing events to increase their capacity and would particularly welcome applications from events that have established audiences, include multiple partners and are exploring additional funding opportunities.

It added applicants would need to demonstrate previous experience in delivering their activity or have delivered festivals and events of this scale previously.

It said groups would likely need to raise additional funds, but it was not a requirement for the grants.

Applications can be submitted until 2 February 2025, with successful candidates informed in February.

The events would take place between April and November 2025.

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