Friday, 15 February 2019

Multicultural groups across Victoria are invited to share in more than $3 million worth of community event grants.

The first round of the Andrews Labor Government’s Multicultural Festivals and Events program is now open for applications, providing seed funding to develop events.

The grants are designed to help and encourage multicultural groups to build broader partnerships and secure other sources of financial support to complement this initial seed funding.

Grants will be awarded to a range of celebrations that showcase Victoria’s diversity through food, music and culture – fostering cross-cultural awareness, understanding and respect.

This year the program will be split into two rounds to streamline applications and provide timely funding for organisers.

Applications are now open for community events to be held between July and December 2019 and are available to all events, regardless of size or location across the state.

In 2018/19 the Multicultural Festivals and Events program supported events attracting more than three million participants and delivered over $24 million of total economic activity to the state.

For more information, please visit www.multicultural.vic.gov.au/grants.

Quotes attributable to Minister for Multicultural Affairs Richard Wynne

“We’re helping newer community events to get off the ground and draw bigger audiences to celebrate food, music and culture from across the world.”

“The Multicultural Festivals and Events program is nurturing and promoting our state’s rich diversity by sharing the many voices, cultures and faiths throughout communities.”

Quotes attributable to Member for Eastern Victoria Region, Harriet Shing

“Our multicultural communities are vibrant, warm, diverse and extremely welcoming and we can’t wait to support local celebrations that enable more Victorians to experience this for themselves – I warmly encourage all local multicultural groups to apply for these grants.”