Argyll and Bute Council will invest up to £250,000 in events and festivals to help the local economy combat the impact of COVID-19.

A range of cultural events, which had been awarded grants by the council’s Strategic Events and Festivals Fund and Supporting Communities Fund, cannot go ahead in 2020/21 because of COVID-19 restrictions.

The council’s Business Continuity Committee agreed three measures to address this and the impact on the economy:

·         Grants awarded by the Supporting Communities Fund for events to take place in 2020/21 can now be used to deliver the events next year

·         The council will provide up to 75% of costs incurred by organisers of events that cannot no longer take place because of COVID-19 restrictions, and

·         The council will make an additional £90,000 available for local events, with the application process for this funding opening towards the end of this year.

Councillor Gary Mulvaney, Policy Lead for Strategic Finance said:

“A healthy economy helps communities to thrive and businesses to succeed.

The coronavirus pandemic threatens the health both of our people and of our economy.

Grants from the Strategic Events and Festivals Fund and the Supporting Communities Fund were conditional on events being held by March 2020. However, we took the view that it is important to adopt a flexible approach at this extremely difficult time.

Investing this funding in events for next year is all about supporting our economy to combat the effects of COVID-19 and rebuild.”