North coast Nationals MLC Ben Franklin has announced that three north coast events will receive NSW government funding under the 2016 Regional Flagship Events Program. Among the grants was $10,000 for Ballina Fine Wine and Food Festival, $10,000 for Bangalow Music Festival, and $10,000 for Byron Spirit Festival.
Mr Franklin said the program provides regional events with support for marketing and advertising, which aims to increase visitation to festivals in regional NSW.
‘Events play an important role in the north coast economy, helping to attract people to our beautiful area and showcasing what is unique about our region,’ Mr Franklin said.
‘These three events draw extraordinary crowds and the recent grants will help them boost the number of attendees.’
NSW minister for trade, tourism and major events Stuart Ayres announced that 36 events and festivals across the state will receive funding from the 2016 Regional Flagship Events Program, which is administered by Destination NSW.
$14b spend
‘Regional NSW welcomed more than 53 million international and domestic visitors who spent over $14 billion just last financial year,’ Mr Ayres said.
‘Positioning NSW as Australia’s number one tourism and events destination is one of the NSW government’s key priorities and the Regional Flagship Events Program helps us to achieve this by creating additional exposure for our fantastic state.’
The Regional Flagship Events Program provides successful events with annual funding of either $10,000 or triennial funding of $20,000 per year for three years. Funded events are expected to have the ‘strong support’ of the local council.
For further information on the program visit www.destinationnsw.com.au/rfep.
