Offaly County Council’s Festivals Arts Grant Scheme 2023 is in recognition of the growing number of festivals in Offaly with an arts programme and the potential of quality programming to enhance the county’s cultural tourism potential.

Festivals and events play a distinctive role in developing a vibrant and sustainable arts environment at a local level and should present new ideas and ways of working that can have far reaching effects for artists and audiences.

Offaly County Council recognises the valuable contribution made by active voluntary committees in developing and sustaining these festivals.

Allow ample time to complete this application. It will save as you fill it out and you can come back to it. You may wish to be prepared with answers and documents.

Here are some things that we will need from you.

IMPORTANT: You cannot submit the form and you will not get verification of submitting the application until all 'required' parts of the form are filled in or uploaded. If you require a print-out of the application questions and guidelines please do contact us and we will email same for your information.

Offaly County Council’s Festivals Arts Grant Scheme 2023 is open to organisations that promote festivals or events with a *clear artistic purpose where the festival will take place in the calendar year 2023 in the jurisdiction of Offaly.(Arts is defined as music, literature, film, video, community arts, drama, dance, visual arts, architecture). A festival may represent one art form or may include a wide variety of different art forms. Festivals or events may also be programmed over a number of months (e.g. a concert series).

* If festival application is deemed by the selection panel not to have sufficient artistic content, the festival may be considered within other funding schemes (pending available funding). 

An assessment panel nominated by Offaly County Council will review all applications based on the following criteria. Note that funding is limited and the standard of festivals applying and being funded is very high, therefore you need to carefully consider the assessment criteria and eligibility when making your application.

a.   A complete and considered application form having regard to the guidelines with inclusion of all supporting material relating to your application and a complete expenditure/income report for the full festival.

b.   Assessment of the artistic quality and content of your proposed programme, both on a standalone basis and in reference to competing applications.

c.   Assessment that the proposed programme is carefully considered in terms of audience development.

d.   Assessment that the festival is embracing all avenues of community and financial support in order to keep it sustainable.

e.   Assessment of the accessibility and affordability of the arts events to members of the community. 

If you have any queries please do email arts@offalycoco.ie