Community Festive Fund

Aberdeen City Council’s Community Festive Fund is now open for applications and the following information has been released;

The Community Festive Fund was established to encourage organisations and groups to come together within their own communities during the Christmas and Hogmanay period to celebrate community wellbeing and togetherness. The fund can provide a small financial grant to individual community groups and organisations who are arranging a celebration for their local community or continuing to grow and develop an existing event which may already be held within Aberdeen City. 

The funding available for any group or organisation is up to a maximum of £350 for Festive events and £500 for Hogmanay events. Groups should be aware that demand for funding is likely to be greater than the allocation provided by Aberdeen City Council. In such circumstances, funding will be split on a proportionate basis with groups receiving less than originally applied for.

The set criteria, as detailed below, will be applied in a transparent and robust manner, in order to determine whether a group or organisation is eligible for financial support from the Community Festive Fund.

Qualifying Criteria

• The Christmas event must be held between 22nd November and the 30th December 2021 within Aberdeen City.
• The Hogmanay event must be held between 31st December 2021 and 2nd January 2022 within Aberdeen City.
• Only one application per group will be considered.
• Applicants must be a constituted group or organisation.
• Event must take place in a venue within Aberdeen City for the benefit of the local community.
• Event must adhere to any Covid-19 guidance in place at the time.

The funding can be used for the purposes of entertainment, venue hire, transport, staffing, decoration or catering. None of the monies requested or received can be used for the purchase or supply of alcohol at the proposed event. Further details on what is eligible for funding is available within the attached Community Festive Fund Guidance.

Successful applicants will be required to provide receipts for all purchases made up to and including the amount of financial support received from Aberdeen City Council as proof of expenditure. These must be returned no later than 2 weeks after the event takes place.

Funding will only be issued to bank accounts in the name of groups, associations, organisations and representative bodies not individuals accounts.

Following approval by the Enterprise Planning and Infrastructure Committee, the introduction of a “3 strikes” policy means successful group applications will only be granted funding for 3 consecutive years before sitting out a year.

Groups who have submitted applications for support in the past and have then failed to comply with the criteria detailed, including the submission of receipts after the event will have this taken into consideration when applications are being considered for all future funding support.

Failure to comply with any or all of the above criteria will result in a request by Aberdeen City Council for repayment of any funds awarded.

In order to ascertain the level of interest at this time, I would be obliged if you can complete the Community Festive Fund application form by 12 noon on Friday 29th October 2021.

If you have any queries relating to the Community Festive Fund, please do not hesitate to contact me on 01224 522802 or email cityevents@aberdeencity.gov.uk

Please see the Community Festive Fund (click here) guidance for more details. The application form can be found by clicking here. 

Further information can be obtained from Christie Milne on 01224 522802 or email cityevents@aberdeencity.gov.uk