Open call: British Council Festival Connect Fund

The grant seeks to enable new and innovative ways for connections, mobility and exchanges, and showcases contemporary arts between festivals across Africa and internationally.

The fund seeks grant proposals from festivals across various art forms such as music, creative technology, dance, film, literature, theatre and multi-disciplinary arts.

This call is open to festivals engaging with all art forms in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

The programme recognises the role of festivals in Africa as an embodiment of the traditions, values, and dreams of a place and its people as well as a catalyst to stimulate local economies, foster social connections and enrich the lives of those who attend. In a world marked by rapid change, festivals remain essential in preserving the spirit and vitality of communities across Africa.

“It is against this backdrop, that we are providing an opportunity for festivals in Africa to apply for grants to collaborate, increase access for their audiences to both regional and international artists, and provide opportunities for experimentation and showcasing,” the British Council said. “Festivals that have been in operation for at least two biennales or three editions inclusive of both physical and digital editions are encouraged to apply.”

Objectives of the Festival Connect Fund

The objectives of the Festival Connect Fund are to:

• Create opportunities between festival peers in Africa and internationally that can lead to future creative collaborations, co-commissions and partnership projects.
• Support festival-making and artistic expressions including community engagement during festivals that can lead to a meaningful social and economic impact.
• Provide space for experimentation with creative technology (digital festivals included) to develop new experiences.
• Build new cross-regional collaborations focused on access to the market and the potential of festivals in bridging cultures in Africa and internationally.
• Improve the festival value chain including targeting tour-ready work and supporting the professionalisation of festival management through capacity-building.
• Support mobility for festival directors, curators and managers within Africa to support professional exchanges and development.
• Develop data-driven innovation and research into the festival sector across Africa – to inspire innovations from creators in artistic work, audience experiences, or research products and services that use/generate data.

Outcomes of the Festival Connect Fund

British Council expects the Festival Connect Fund to help achieve the following strategic outcomes between 2024 and 2027:

• New festival partnerships and exchanges developed, and existing ones strengthened between festivals in Africa and/or the United Kingdom, artists, curators and managers.
• Increased public engagement through access to regional and international artists.
• African festivals connecting to showcase work to support collaborative projects.
• The development of a network of festival curators and managers and represented festivals across the region.
• Access to data-driven research on the festival sector in Africa to foster an understanding of festivals in operation in the region and strengthen collaborations, engagements, and networks in the wider festival ecosystem.
• Shape communities, catalyse artistic innovation and contribute to social impact.

How much funding is available for applicants?

• A total of £200 000 (about $253 500) is available for festivals in the eligible countries to support collaborations, exchanges, mobility and showcasing on scales ranging from £10 000 to £40 000 maximum per application.
• A maximum of two applications will be accepted per festival.

There are three tiers of funding available

• Tier one: Festivals can apply for grants to the value of £10 000.
• Tier two: Festivals can apply for grants of no less than £10 000 but not exceeding £20 000.
• Tier three: Festivals can apply for grants of no less than £20 000 but not exceeding £40 000. Festivals applying for tier three grants must be able to demonstrate their capacity to manage grants and provide supporting evidence with their applications.

Festivals can apply for the following activities:

• Commissioning, co-production, development, or presentation of new or remounted work from across countries in Africa and internationally. These may include live/in-person and digital components.
• Community engagement programme/arts events alongside the festival.
• Other associated activities including mobility and travel to support festival development, partnership building, etc, that support the festival programme.
• Administrative and technical costs towards managing/producing the festival, up to 30% of the grant amount applied for.

What can this look like?

• Programming of young, emerging artists between African festivals.
• Incubation of existing art (e.g. a piece that already exists that would benefit from further development).
• Cross programming, co-production, and/or curation of work.
• Experimentation between festivals/artists.

Applicants may also apply for funding for activity costs that your festival expects to incur.

These might include:

• Artists’ fees (including performance fees).
• Venue-rental costs.
• Staff costs (e.g. administrative, technical, and front-of-house support directly related to the festival).
• Audience engagement – activity carried out to develop ongoing relationships with current and new audiences.
• Marketing and publicity costs.
• Technical and production costs.
• Travel costs and expenses for artists.
• A contribution to the festival programme archiving.

This fund is not open to the following:

• Non-arts festivals (e.g. food and wine festivals, wellness festivals, carnivals/parades) or arts activity within non-arts festivals.

“We acknowledge the broad diversity of festivals and in this regard welcome applications from festival organisations operating either annual, triennial or biennial festival programmes both face-to-face and online,” the British Council said.

Interested applicants can apply here before 1 April.

View the original call here.