Council
12 April, 2024
Events policy gets a revamp in review
CORANGAMITE Shire Council’s Events and Festivals Grant Program has had an overhaul.
Councillors voted to approve the policy review at last month’s Ordinary Meeting of Council.
Shire manager economy and prosperity Katy McMahon said in her report to council, feedback from officers and community members outlined a variety of issues which have been addressed in the review.
“As part of this review, changes are proposed to ensure the policy is consistent and in-line with other council policies and strategies and provides a fair and equitable process for even organisers seeking support from council,” she said.
Ms McMahon said two streams of funding were proposed, being ‘Local’ and ‘Signature’, to represent the “diversity of events and equity in funding” and to deliver on the policy objectives.
Under the Local Events and Festivals stream funding of up to $3000 would be available, which may include a combination of both grant funding and in-kind.
The Signature Events and Festivals stream sees funding of up to $7000 available for events and festivals which showcase Corangamite Shire, its geography, local experiences or creative talents and attract audiences from across Victoria.
Ms McMahon said the open levels of funding in the current policy had “proved problematic” for officers to administer and for event applicants.
“The types of in-kind support council can offer has changed with council no longer providing traffic management and the policy has been updated to reflect this change,” she said.
“The proposed changes to the policy provide a clear and defined process that ensures fairness and transparency for event support.
“Delineation of events as local events or larger scale (signature) events allows for signature events to be provided in-principle triennial support.”
Coastal Ward Cr Jamie Vogels welcomed the updated policy and said the changes were important.
“We’ve had an events and festivals program for a number of years and it feels that every year we tweak and refine the policy to make sure it keeps up with what the community and patrons want,” he said.
“The policy needs to provide the right amount of support for the volunteers who put in a great amount of time and their own money to running the great events that we have in the shire.
“In just the last two weeks I’ve attended two events supported by this program – the Timboon TRACKS and the Crayfest in Port Campbell and I had a great time at both.”
Cr Geraldine Conheady said the update had been “really well considered”.
“I think there’s been some really productive outcomes here,” she said.