Round two of the Festivals Investment Scheme (FIS) 2025 is for festivals that commence between 1 July 2025 and 31 December 2025.

The Arts Council’s role is to advocate for and support the development of a diverse and varied arts-festival ecology, and to provide a suite of supports that encourage best-practice festival models that increase opportunities for public engagement and participation in the arts or develop the work of an artist/artform.

In this regard the Arts Council offers financial support to small-to-mid-scale festivals to deliver high-quality arts experiences for audiences, and prioritises programmes engaged with, and relevant to, local communities or communities of interest.

The Arts Council acknowledges the diversity of festival operating models and the rich variety of artform-practice areas presented by festivals and their critical role in broadening public access to the arts. The Council also acknowledges the valuable contribution made by voluntary committees in developing these festivals.

In this regard the Arts Council welcomes applications from organisations (voluntary and professional) operating annual, biennial or triennial festival programmes and supports both multi-disciplinary arts festivals as well as those in a single artform discipline through this award.

The Festivals Investment Scheme is a competitive scheme that offers funding to support the staging of festivals on a non-recurring basis.

It is important to note that funding under this programme is offered on a once-off basis. Therefore, those offered awards in previous funding rounds of the Festival Investment Scheme should not assume that funding will be provided.

There are three bands of funding available:

• Band A – For awards up to €10,000 
• Band B – For awards of €10,001–€25,000 
• Band C – For awards of €25,001–€45,000 

Selecting the appropriate application band for the Festivals Investment Scheme (FIS)

There are three funding bands in the Festivals Investment Scheme and each one is designed to support festivals at different stages of their development. An organisation may make only one application under the Festivals Investment Scheme in a year (i.e. one application in one band per calendar year). You should choose the one most suitable for your festival organisation. Please refer to the application guidelines for more details.

Applicant organisations that wish to apply to Band B must be established for a minimum of three years and have executed three consecutive festival programmes as a minimum requirement to apply to this band (see section 1.3 Who can apply? in the application guidelines for further details)

Applicant organisations that wish to apply to Band C must be established for a minimum of five years and have executed five consecutive festival programmes as a minimum requirement to apply to this band see section 1.3 Who can apply? in the application guidelines for further details)

Application forms and application materials are only accepted online using the Arts Council’s Online System (OLS).

Posted, e-mailed or faxed applications will not be accepted.

Late applications will not be accepted.

Information Clinic - Festivals Investment Scheme 2025, Round 2

This will take place on the 7 November at 11.30 and you can register to attend on our Clinics page here.

Slides from the Festival Investment Scheme 2025 Round 1 Application Clinic can be found here

Access Supports

If you have a disability and would like help applying, contact our Access Officer as early as possible before the deadline.

Phone:      

• 01 618 0200
• 01 618 0243

Email: access@artscouncil.ie

You will be able to apply for additional costs if you have access needs relating to your application.

Note: applications will only be accepted through the Arts Council’s Online Services site. If you have not used Online Services before you must register for a login to be able to apply for funding. It is important that you register as early as possible as it may take up to five working days for your registration to be processed.