Major Events Fund Successful Applicants Announced

Five events have been successful in obtaining financial support from our Council in the second and final round of the 2014 Major Events Fund. The five events are:
• Coromandel Town Illume Winter Festival of Lights. $20,000 towards the purchase of additional lighting hardware.
• Pohutukawa Festival. $5,000 towards promotion and marketing material for the Festival, which promotes the Coromandel District in early summer.
• Surf to Firth. $5,000 towards the development of an improved website and search engine optimisation.
• Thames Heritage Festival. $4,000 towards publicity and marketing material which will be distributed in the Auckland and Waikato markets.
• Echo Walking Festival. $1500 towards the development of an A3 colour brochure to be distributed to market and promote the event in advance.

"To be successful the application must reflect district, regional, national and or international exposure. We cannot consider applications that are too locally focused or minor in nature," says Garry Towler who is responsible for Council's Economic Development Activity. "Equally, the fund is not a pot of money organisations can expect to return to year after year," says Mr Towler. "We are looking at new events to partner with for one or maybe two years as 'bootstrap support' with the expectation that they are able to seek sponsorship from sources other than Council"

In last year's funding round the Illume Festival of Lights received $40,000 towards the purchase of lighting hardware and assistance with marketing and promotional material. The opening night of the Illume Festival brought up to 2,000 people to Coromandel Town and a survey distribute do Coromandel Business Association members (approximately 120 businesses) showed an average of 58.33% increase in turnover compared to the previous year.

In this year's first round of Major Events Funding, the Leadfoot Festival received $40,000 which is going towards helping secure global media and television coverage.

"This event has the potential to be broadcast to more than 70 countries," says Mr Towler. "There is nothing like that which will showcase the Coromandel Peninsula. If we were to attempt a marketing campaign of our own to the same audience it would cost millions," he says.

Other successful applicants in this year's first round were $5,000 for Thunderbeach, $5,000 towards the tairua Wet N Wild event and $5,000 for the Thames Festival of Mindsports.

Major Events Funding decisions are made by Council's economic Development Committee, which is made up of Mayor Glenn Leach, Deputy Mayor Peter French, Tairua-Pauanui Community Board Chair Bob Renton and Councillor Sandra Goudie. External members are Destination Coromandel Chair Brent Page, (who chairs the Committee) and Coromandel businessmen Mr Leigh Hopper and Grahame Christian.

All applications are scored on a list of set criteria, which includes providing a report on the success of the event. You Can Read the Full List of Criteria Here.

ENDS

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