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Article published 20/01/2022

EventScotland has today (20 January) relaunched the National Events Programme as part of its ongoing work to support the recovery of Scotland’s tourism and events industry in 2022.

The programme will support the development and delivery of live sporting and cultural events taking place outside of Glasgow and Edinburgh. It will support events which help drive domestic tourism and showcase Scotland as the perfect stage for events. This latest round of funding will also be open to community focused events.

Awards of between £2,000 and £4,000 are available for eligible organisers of community focused events with overall delivery budgets of between £8,000 and £20,000 and attracting a minimum of 500 in-person attendees.

Larger scale events which support the wider visitor economy and can demonstrate alignment with the national events strategy, Scotland the Perfect Stage, will be able to apply for between £5,000 and £25,000. These events will have delivery budgets in excess of £20,000 and attract more than 1,000 in-person attendees.

Events play an important role in our communities and EventScotland is delighted to be relaunching the National Events Programme to help deliver live sporting and cultural events in 2022.

Scotland is the perfect stage for events, however, our industry has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. The National Events Programme will ensure we continue to rebuild our vibrant events sector by developing a diverse portfolio of events that helps drive domestic tourism while also delivering social and economic benefits to local communities across the country.

Paul Bush OBE, Director of Events

There are two deadlines for applications to this programme in 2022:

  • 11 February 2022 for events taking place from 1 April to 31 August 2022
  • 6 April 2022 for events taking place from 1 September to 31 December 2022

This is a competitive fund and events will be assessed on their merits, with EventScotland looking at how the event will create a positive impact for the host region and Scotland as a whole.

The previous limit of three successful awards from the National Events Programme per event has been lifted to support the ongoing recovery of the events sector, with earlier award recipients eligible to apply to this latest round of the programme.

Those interested can find more information about the National Events Programme and read the full guidance and criteria on the National Events Funding Programme page on this site.

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