Deadline: 27 June 2025
The British Council is accepting submissions for the Festival Connect Fund to support festival organisers and artists to foster artistic collaboration, mobility, and showcasing.
Aims
- Festival Connect aims to:
- create opportunities between SSA and UK festival peers that can lead to future creative collaboration, co-commissions and partnership projects
- support festival-making and artistic expressions, including community engagement during festivals that can lead to meaningful social impact.
- mobility for festivals and festival leaders within SSA and UK to promote professional development, cultural exchange, and presentation
- Build new cross-regional collaborations focused on access to market and the potential of festivals in bridging cultures in SSA and with the UK arts sector
- support the festival value chain, targeting tour-ready work, festival management and networks, including
- provide space for experimentation with creative technology (digital festivals included) to develop new experiences.
Focus Areas
- The festival must include programming in at least one of the following areas:
- Creative Technology
- Film
- Literature
- Music
- Theatre and Dance
- Multidisciplinary Arts
Funding Information
- A total of 100,000 GBP is available for this year’s Fund.
- Applicants can apply in three tiers of scales – £5000 GBP, £10,000GBP, or £15,000 GBP.
Geographic Focus
- Projects must be based in:
- Sub-Saharan Africa: Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi.
- In partnership with:
- UK: England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland
What they fund?
- Festival Connect 2025 supports festivals and festival-led projects that include one or more of the following:
- Artistic collaboration and co-production between SSA and UK partners
- Festival making and delivery, including community engagement
- Mobility and exchange between SSA and UK (and within SSA)
- Capacity building, including mentoring and coaching
- Use of creative technology or digital components
- Marketing and storytelling activities that engage audiences aged 18–35
- Activities may include performances, exhibitions, artist residencies, workshops, talks, and other cultural engagements in digital, in-person, or hybrid formats.
Eligibility Criteria
- Applicants must be festivals that have completed a minimum of two previous editions (in-person or digital).
- All applications have to be a partnership between the UK and Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Festivals applying should promote cultural exchange, community engagement, and creative innovation
Ineligibility Criteria
- They cannot fund:
- Non-arts festivals (e.g. food and wine festivals, wellness festivals, carnivals/parades) or arts activities within non-arts festivals.
For more information, visit British Council.
