Tourism Festival Investment Programme
Closing Date: Midnight, Sunday 23rd February 2025
Leitrim County Council provides direct investment to organisations in Leitrim that produce unique, high-quality festivals that engage with the fabric of the county, providing valuable opportunities for residents and visitors alike to come together, to celebrate and to explore new experiences.
Festivals can have countless origins and purposes from specialist festivals such as film, theatre, music, food, fishing, cycling etc. where the theme, subject and programme are the principal motivations, to community festivals where the opportunity for people to come together and celebrate within their own community is the central purpose, and the programme of the festival the means to do that. Most festivals will have a healthy balance of both, ensuring a high-quality programme, connecting well to their own communities, with many implementing strong marketing strategies that drive tourism in the region.
Leitrim County Council advertises its three separate sources of support for festivals – Tourism, Arts, and Community – at the same time so that festivals can look at the different priorities, requirements and assessment criteria of each strand before choosing which one is the most appropriate for the applicant to pursue.
The purpose of the Tourism Festival strand is to help drive domestic and international tourism visitors to Leitrim, increase bed nights, stimulate local economic activity, and help improve the county's visitor experience. This Programme aims to support festivals in County Leitrim. The supported Festivals must help drive domestic and international tourism visitors to Leitrim, increase bed nights, stimulate local economic activity, and help improve the county's visitor experience.
Qualifying Conditions & Minimum Eligibility Thresholds for 2025:
- The Festival should assist in attracting domestic and international visitor arrivals to County Leitrim
- The festival must:
- have a minimum expenditure of €3,000.
- generate a minimum of 200 visitor bed nights in paid accommodation.
- take place during 2025 for a minimum of two days.
- include high-quality content and design.
- have appropriate insurance cover.
- always have an online presence with up-to-date information available.
- be fully compliant with current regulations and requirements for holding such a festival.
- be a new festival providing additionality to the existing festival calendar or an existing festival. Where an Application is in respect of an existing festival, applicants are encouraged to consider including a new element to the programme.
Who can apply?
Community and Voluntary Organisations based in and undertaking festivals in the administrative area of Leitrim County Council (The Council) are eligible to apply for funding under this Scheme. Proposals from individuals will not qualify.
Eligible Festivals:
To be eligible for funding, in addition to the other qualifying criteria, festivals must fit into one of the following categories:
- General Festivals (literary, historical, traditional culture, music or family-focused).
- Food Festivals
- Angling Competitions
Ineligible Festivals:
The following festivals are not eligible for funding:
- Festivals with minimal tourism appeal. The appeal is indicated by its ability to attract visitors to Leitrim as a destination rather than be something extra for visitors to experience while in Leitrim.
- Spectator-based sporting events.
- Circuses and carnivals.
- Christmas fairs and markets.
- Festivals promoting non-Failte Ireland registered accommodation.
- Solely virtual Events.
- Activities that fall under the remit of another government department i.e. health promotion.
- Activities which are supported by other local authority funding sources i.e. heritage.
Download Leitrim Festival Funding Guidelines 2025
If your festival is more suited to Community or Arts, please follow the links below -
Community Festivals
Arts Festivals
For further information contact tourismgrants@leitrimcoco.ie