Festival Connect Fund 2025

About the programme

The Festival Connect Fund enables festival collaboration between Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and the UK, supporting festival organisers and managers with funding, skills, network building and knowledge to enhance festival management and ensure scalability and sustainability.

With up to £100,000 in funding available, the Fund aims to strengthen cross-regional partnerships, foster artistic exchange, and encourage innovation in festival-making and cultural engagement.

We invite applications from festivals based in SSA and the UK with collaborative proposals that promote cultural exchange, mobility, and community impact.

Apply now

Deadline: 27 June 2025, 23.59 (EAT)

Application form

Information for applicants

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.

We do not fund: Non-arts festivals (e.g. food and wine festivals, wellness festivals, carnivals/parades) or arts activities within non-arts festivals.

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 (see below for list of eligible countries).
Festivals applying should promote cultural exchange, community engagement, and creative innovation (see list of eligible art forms below).

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.

All applications must involve a confirmed partnership between an organisation or festival in SSA and a counterpart in the UK. A letter of intent, signed by both parties, is strongly encouraged and will strengthen the application.

Festivals are responsible for contacting and agreeing to collaborate with their partner. The British Council does not have a centralised directory of artists, and each festival is free to contact the artists or organisations they consider relevant to carry out the collaboration through which they will apply for funding.

The festival must include programming in at least one of the following areas: