The Arts and Culture Event Support Scheme is a fund of up to $22.5 million to help provide confidence for the arts and culture events sector to continue staging events in the coming summer months. 

The scheme focuses on helping with the costs of not being able to deliver the event on the scheduled dates, regardless of whether the event is cancelled or postponed.  

It is part of the $37.5 million Delta Relief package announced in September 2021 by Hon Carmel Sepuloni, to help address immediate relief needs in the sector. This scheme is about providing certainty for event organisers, confidence for vaccinated New Zealanders to attend and enjoy events, and reassurance for artists and crew that they can get paid if their events can’t go ahead as planned.

The scheme provides cover for event organisers to be able to recoup the non-recoverable losses of an event that is unable to be delivered at the scheduled time and location, due to the event location being at ‘Red’ in the Covid-19 Protection Framework, or under a Government-mandated local lockdown. Support of up to $300,000 is available per eligible event. 

It covers:

• Non-recoverable event costs such as cancellation fees or non-refundable deposits that have already been paid or are owing to suppliers (i.e. venue or equipment hire deposits)
• Reasonable costs incurred by the event organiser in the planning and development of the event.
• Full payments for artists, performers and production crew as if the event had occurred.

For detailed information on the scheme, download the Arts and Culture Event Support Scheme Supporting Information for Applicants [PDF 391KB]. It is strongly recommended that event organisers read this guidance before submitting their event for registration.