Parramatta can be an events mecca – just add funding

City of Parramatta is calling for more State funding to host major events and festivals after a record-breaking Parramatta Lanes festival last week.

More than 180,000 people from all over Sydney swarmed Parramatta over four nights last week to enjoy the best food, art and music on offer including an estimated 70,000 people on Saturday night alone – the equivalent of last year’s total festival attendance.

Lord Mayor Cr Pierre Esber said the success of Lanes only reinforced the appetite for events in Sydney’s true geographic heart.

“We promised Parramatta Lanes was going to be bigger and better and we well and truly smashed attendance figures from 2022,” Cr Esber said.

“We know how valuable events like Lanes are for local business – they don’t just drive big crowds to Parramatta for four nights, they give people a taste of our City and encourage them to keep coming back.

“Council will invest millions in events and festivals this year but to amplify those impacts we need the NSW Government to look outside the Sydney CBD and invest in more events in Sydney’s global centre at Parramatta.”

In the past seven years, Destination NSW has invested in more than 354 sports, cultural, creative and arts events in Sydney’s east compared to 137 in Sydney’s west.*

“It’s high time the west got a fairer share,” Cr Esber said.

“In 10 to 15 years, there will be more people living west of Parramatta than to its east so it just makes sense that the NSW Government would invest in events that are more accessible to the broader population.

“Parramatta is Sydney’s true beating heart and can be an events mecca– we just need to add funding.”