Toronto/CMEDIA: An official announcement was made today by the City of Toronto to provide nearly $2 million in funding for 44 approved local cultural festivals in 2023, a news release said.
Celebration of Toronto Dragon Festival at City Hall was held today by Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie (Scarborough-Rouge Park) and Councillor Shelley Carroll (Don Valley North), Chair of the Economic and Community Development Committee, joined by representatives from Caribbean Carnival, to celebrate the cultural festivals receiving funding this year.
Made available through the City’s Cultural Festival Funding Program (CFFP), the funding is intended to facilitate delivery of diverse and sustainable programming contributing to Toronto’s neighbourhoods’ the vibrancy by cultural event organizers to stimulate positive economic impact for local businesses all year long.
Salsa on St. Clair, Luminato, Caribbean Carnival and Pride Festival 2023 are included in the multi-year recipients and returning favourites while annual recipients include Tkaronto Music Festival 2023, Toronto JerkFest, Francophonie en Fete, Scarborough Summerfest 2023, St. Patrick’s Festival and Celebrate Toronto.
Nineteen new recipients in 2023 will receive funding for their cultural festivals including the Toronto Dragon Festival.
The full list of CFFP recipients will be available online in the coming weeks after agreements have been signed.
The CFFP was created in 2021 in response to an increasing number of requests from more recently established festivals to access City supports and funding with an aim to increase the reach, accountability and transparency of City funding to cultural festivals.
The selection criteria for 2023 CFFP recipients by a peer advisory body, along with City staff, using was developed with stakeholders and communities seeking support. This is the second year that the City is offering this funding program.
Three different CFFP streams including long-standing, major annual events recognize the festivals’ varying sizes, capacity, and community impact are eligible for multi-year funding and annual grants up to a maximum of $650,000 each, annual operating funding up to $150,000 granted to other established festivals while smaller and newer organizations and festivals produced by Business Improvement Areas are eligible for project grants up to $25,000 each.
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