Local events supported with $287,000 in Council grants and new policy

Councillors approved Queenstown Lakes District Council’s (QLDC) events funding at its meeting on Thursday 26 June and adopted a district Events Policy at the same time.

A total of $287,000 was awarded as part of the annual contestable Events Fund 2025-2026 which goes toward attracting and supporting sports, arts, cultural and community events across the district.

Councillor Craig Ferguson, chair of the QLDC Events Funding Panel, said it was heartening to provide support to a range of commercial and community events that celebrate our district and boost community wellbeing.

“We’ve been able to award grants to 18 events which will take place across the district including the Queenstown Multicultural Festival, Central Lakes Polyfest, NZ Mountain Film Festival, Challenge Wānaka Festival, Arrowtown Autumn Festival and Wānaka A&P Show,” said Mr Ferguson.

The funding criteria supports events that are committed to environmental sustainability, economic impact, event diversity, and positive community benefits.

“This year we’ve focused on events’ environmental sustainability and prioritised funding for applicants that are taking steps toward better waste reduction and the minimisation of carbon emissions,” he said.

As well as the yearly funding round, QLDC continues to provide ongoing support for community events through local support grant programmes. Over the past year more than 140 events were supported through in-kind services such as use of Council venues, reserves, equipment and waiving permitting fees.

QLDC’s Events Funding Panel, which consisted of councillors Craig Ferguson, Quentin Smith, Matt Wong and Barry Bruce, considered the applications in late May.

“It is never easy for the panel to step through the applications. Every year we see the increased demand for support from QLDC so we would like to sincerely thank all of those who applied for funding assistance,” said Mr Ferguson.

Full details of the fund recipients can be viewed on the Council’s website at www.qldc.govt.nz/events-fund.

Councillor Ferguson says the new QLDC Events Policy will help guide event organisers and staff to make decisions based on what the community want to see from events in our district.

“During the policy engagement we heard how events are highly valued in our district as they contribute to the economic, social and cultural vitality of the area, and reinforce our community identity,” he said.

“This new policy reflects the community’s expectations of events such as reducing event waste and carbon emissions and managing the impacts events have on community experience, both positive and negative.”

There are eight objectives that have been developed and embedded in the policy to ensure events held in our district support wellbeing in the community and our key strategies. These are mapped to the QLDC Wellbeing Framework. Future procedures, decision-making and funding criteria will be based around these objectives.

To view the QLDC Event Policy go to www.qldc.govt.nz/policies.

ENDS|KUA MUTU.

Media contact: communications@qldc.govt.nz or call 03 441 1802.

FURTHER INFORMATION | Kā pāroko tāpiri

• The QLDC Events Fund 2025-2026 opened for applications from 1-30 April for people looking to organise events that benefit the community. The fund is open to both commercial and community-level events.

• QLDC received 22 applications to the Events Fund requesting a total of $830,971.83 in grants.

• To view details on past Event Fund recipients, go to www.qldc.govt.nz/events-fund

• QLDC awarded $180,000 through the QLDC Community Fund 2025-2026 to 28 local groups. For more information go to www.qldc.govt.nz/community-fund 

• The draft Events Policy was open for community engagement from 10 February to 7 March 2025.