News Alert |

Ballarat City Council has approved a three year, $60,000 Strategic Partnership grant for the new Rock Ballarat festival at its November 20 Ordinary Council Meeting.

The payments will include $25,000 for the first year, $20,000 for 2020/21 and $15,000 for the third year of the agreement.

Rock Ballarat is a weekend long event to be held in February and will include car displays, dancing, live music, food vendors and product stalls in the Civic Hall, Mining Exchange and Armstrong Street North.

Council funding will be used for road closures, venue and equipment hire, security and marketing.

Rock Ballarat will the fill the gap created by the withdrawal of the former Ballarat Beat Rockabilly Festival from the February events calendar.

The City of Ballarat Grants Policy ensures recipients can deliver quality programs, events, products and services that bring a wide range of social and economic returns.

The Strategic Partnerships Grant Program helps fund organisations to deliver initiatives which must align with community needs and Council’s strategic objectives.

Similarly, Ballarat City Council has approved two tourism event grants for the 2020 Ballarat Beer Hop and 2020 Ballarat Beer Festival.

Council approved a one-year $25,000 grant to Ballarat Beer Hop, which will be held over the Easter long weekend, and $11,840 to the Ballarat Beer Festival which will be held on 15 February and which has been voted “Australia’s Most Popular Craft Beer Event” for the past three years.

In the 2018/19 year, the City of Ballarat Events Team supported, funded or managed 110 events, representing 574 event days in the year, which attracted over 600,000 people and produced a $50 million injection into the Ballarat economy.

City of Ballarat Mayor Cr Ben Taylor said there was an amazing summer of events coming to the town, including Rock Ballarat, the Beer Festival, the National Road Cycling Championships and Summer Sundays.

“This is a great opportunity for our businesses to get involved so everyone can get as much benefit as possible from the fantastic summer events program in Ballarat,” Cr Taylor said.