Government funds bail out festival cancellations with Event Saver Fund
As another year of music festivals and summer events have been cancelled in the eleventh hour by the pandemic, the NSW government has put their hand up to help the arts.
The state government recently announced the Event Saver Fund, which is aimed at financially supporting the state’s music industry that has been devastated by the latest wave of Omicron.
At a recent press conference, NSW Treasurer Matt Kean revealed that a $43 million fund has been established for organisers of the cancelled events to be financially supported if they've been cancelled or may be affected by changes to public health orders.
“This fund is a $43 million fund that will ensure that we will underwrite sunk costs for the festivals that could be impacted by changes to public health orders,” he said.
The fund will help organisers to pay their staff and suppliers, as well as recoup other costs lost in the event planning that got cancelled or cut short due to lockdowns or border closures.
Minister for the Arts Ben Franklin said the vital funding will give event organisers to continue to plan festivals without the stress of a last-minute cancellation costing them thousands.
“Major events provide tremendous social benefits to the community, bringing us together to enjoy live performances,” he said.
“As we look to rebound from the effects of the past two years, this funding will help support local jobs and ensure major event organisers can plan with confidence to safely deliver their events in 2022/23.”
Australian Festivals Association chair Julia Robertson welcomed the Event Saver package, and emphasised how much the industry has suffered since the start of the pandemic.
“This package is really great for building confidence,” she said.
“For helping those festivals that have got events coming up — to maintain those festival lineups — but also to those events that have had to be cancelled over the last couple of weeks due to the Omicron variant.
“We will be able to help those events recover some of those costs that they’ve lost. We’ve got a really long way to building that confidence for the festival industry, so thank you.”
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