City events funding set
Gamarjobats: The Japanese busking duo has been a hit at the last two summer World Buskers Festivals.
Funds to develop a new Antarctica Festival and boost the World Buskers and New Zealand Cup and Show Week festivals have been approved as part of a $1.9 million events funding package.
The City Council considered a staff report on the matter last month and approved a programme to support events and festivals in the year from 1 July 2005 with $1.887m.
This includes $60,000 for the development of an Antarctica Festival, to increase activity around the Antarctic season opening in October this year and preparations for a full festival in 2006.
Council Marketing Manager Richard Stokes says the proposed festival is supported by the many organisations making up the city’s Antarctic Link Community. Council Events and International relations staff will be involved in developing and implementing the festival.
The Council also approved more support for the World Buskers Festival, which will run next summer from 19-29 January. The aim is to help cement it as a world-class attraction, inextricably linked to Christchurch. The extra money will give organisers the certainty they need to plan the 2006 festival and continue to establish it as the largest street festival in Australasia.
Festival director Jodi Wright says the Council backing is one of three essential elements to its success. “Christchurch is absolutely the best host city for this type of festival,” she says. “We have an incredibly suppor tive City Council, generous audiences and a central city that’s laid out perfectly for street theatre. Together, these ingredients make this festival work.”
Showtime Canterbury is to be renamed New Zealand Cup and Show Week and will receive $85,000 to establish Canterbury Fashion Week within the festival. This will provide a platform to increase visitors to Christchurch for New Zealand Cup and Show Week and showcase Canterbury fashion.
A proposal for a Harvest Canterbury Festival, whose supporters had asked for up to $350,000, has been turned down for 2006. Instead, the Council has asked that the backers — from the Canterbury A&P Association, Canterbury Horticultural Society and the Christchurch Garden City Trust — further develop business plans and financial projections so that it can be considered within a planned full review of garden festivals and events across the year. |
