19 Major Events to Receive Funding Boost Thanks to AEDA’s 2024/25 Sponsored Events & Festivals Program

The successful applicants for the 2024/2025 Sponsored Events and Festivals Program have been announced.
Administered by the Adelaide Economic Development Agency (AEDA) on behalf of the City of Adelaide, the Events & Festivals Sponsorship Program is designed to provide financial support to eligible not-for-profit organisations to assist in the staging of public-facing medium and major events and festivals that create a vibrant and dynamic city experience.

AEDA's commitment to an annual schedule of events encompasses a wide array of arts, culture, music, sports, and food and wine festivals and supports the outcomes of the City of Adelaide Strategic Plan 2024-2028 and AEDA Business Plan FY 2024/25.

Congratulations to the following successful applicants:

AEDA's commitment to an annual schedule of events encompasses a wide array of arts, culture, music, sports, and food and wine festivals and supports the outcomes of the City of Adelaide Strategic Plan 2024-2028 and AEDA Business Plan FY 2024/25.

A diverse range of events enhances Adelaide's appeal as a vibrant city, encouraging multiple visits and fostering a thriving cultural and economic environment. Businesses are encouraged to leverage the influx of potential customers to drive sales through offering compelling promotions or exclusive products with heightened activity during these event periods.

Increased visitor numbers lead to higher occupancy rates for hotels and increased patronage for restaurants and bars, benefiting the hospitality sector, as indicated in the 2023 Adelaide Fringe Foot Traffic Report.

To know more about events happening in the city, click here.

Funding from the previous round helped applicants achieve significant milestones:

• 2023 Adelaide Film Festival set a new box office record with a 13% increase on 2022 sales and a 78% increase on the last pre-pandemic festival in 2018.
• 2024 Tasting Australia attracted record-breaking Town Square attendance of over 77,000 over 10 days in Adelaide’s Victoria Square / Tarntanyangga.
• 2023 Nature Festival grew from 160 events and 8,000 attendees in its inaugural year in 2022 to 432 events and 31,000 attendees in 2023. AEDA has supported the Nature Festival since its inaugural year.

2023 Fringe edition became the first festival ever in Australia to sell 1 million tickets. 2024 also maintained its million-ticket milestone, with 1,040,305 tickets sold generating 306,318 visitor nights (up from 61,217 in 2014). The City of Adelaide welcomed 1.5 million visitors during the opening weekend and attracted even more the following weekend.

A diverse range of events enhances Adelaide's appeal as a vibrant city, encouraging multiple visits and fostering a thriving cultural and economic environment. Businesses are encouraged to leverage the influx of potential customers to drive sales through offering compelling promotions or exclusive products with heightened activity during these event periods. Increased visitor numbers lead to higher occupancy rates for hotels and increased patronage for restaurants and bars, benefiting the hospitality sector, as indicated in the 2023 Adelaide Fringe Foot Traffic Report.

To know more about events happening in the city, click here.