Helping create a national garden festival in Christchurch is behind an increase in funding proposed for the City Council’s Festivals and Events budget.

The Council proposes to make another $130,000 a year available for each of the next three years, taking the Festivals and Events yearly budget to $2.5 million.

Of that total, it is proposed that up to $250,000 be set aside to help create a garden festival which would become nationally recognised and reinforce Christchurch’s reputation as the Garden City.

The festival’s name is still under discussion but the Council hopes it will raise the city’s profile, bring in significant numbers of visitors and showcase the city and the South Island.

A draft scoping study on a New Zealand garden festival got Council support in April.

Councillor Paddy Austin, who chairs the Festivals and Events Subcommittee, says the proposed festival would not be done at the expense of existing Council-funded events. There may instead be some refinements, she says, with some perhaps merging and others running every other year.

The aim for the new festival is for it to be the country’s number one garden festival. “This is not a South Island Ellerslie,” Cr Austin says.“We see it rather as the garden equivalent of the International Festival of the Arts held every two years in Wellington.”

The core event would be a large, quality garden show with paid entrance featuring competition exhibits, workshops, trade displays, music and entertainment. A range of associated community events would be held to support the event.

The festival would be run by a separate trust with a festival director, at arms-length from the Council.

“This is an ambitious project that would require some seeding finance from the Council to get it off the ground. Some events would be free, to ensure wide public accessibility, and others would be run on a commercial basis,” Cr Austin says.

“Once the festival is established, public funding could be reduced as commercial elements and sponsorship are increased.”

If the scoping study is accepted via the Annual Plan, the inaugural festival could not realistically be staged before October 2004, she says.

The concept is being developed in discussion with a wide range of groups such as horticultural interests and trade shows such as Gardenz.

“We are also working quite closely with the Parks, Waterways and Gardens Committee to improve both the image and the reality of Christchurch as the Garden City. As part of each festival we could focus on a project that somehow enhances the Garden City, leaving something tangible, so it becomes more than just an event,” says Cr Austin.