Create NSW has launched a new funding initiative, the Creative NSW Collaboration Fund, to support an expanded calendar of NSW arts and cultural festivals and events, especially throughout the winter and summer peak festival periods.
Through the Creative NSW Collaboration Fund, grants of up to $750,000 are available for eligible applicants, which include major arts festival producers, tourism businesses or cultural producers collaborating with delivery partners such as the state’s Cultural Institutions, or local councils, hospitality operators and venues. Applications are now open until Tuesday 10 November 2026.
The Creative NSW Collaboration Fund – aims to deliver more multi-artform programming, pop-up activations, and signature events in partnership with existing arts and cultural festivals, events or NSW’s Cultural Institutions.
The fund is designed to support current festival programs and NSW’s Cultural Institutions to expand and incorporate new arts, entertainment or hospitality offerings. It could also see festivals reach new locations, such as the many Uptown Precincts and Special Entertainment Precincts across NSW, where businesses and councils are primed to activate public spaces and draw large crowds with all forms of culture, from performing and visual art, to live music, comedy, film, fashion and food.
Applications are now open until Tuesday 10 November 2026, with a call for the state’s most ambitious and visionary creatives and their partners to put forward their exciting multi-arts programs to be delivered during the winter and summer peak festival periods.
Read the program guidelines and apply at create.nsw.gov.au
HIVE OF INDUSTRY by Legs On The Wall, presented at the Power Up Festival at White Bay Power Station – Remy Rochester and Anna McCulla (pictured) – image by Anna Kucera
