The 2021 AthFest Music and Arts Festival takes place next month, but parent organization, AthFest Educates recently won a grant for next year’s event. Executive Director Jill Helme says the $6,000 Project Grant from the Georgia Council of the Arts will be put to good use.
Putting on the festival...it’s somewhere close to a quarter million dollars to put it on.
“So the funds can be used for the project for that they’ve been awarded, which in this case is AthFest,” Helm said. “We’re using it on production expenses, or marketing expenses, or bands or artists that we have coming to the festival. It’s a pretty broad range of the types of things that the GCA allows you to use the funds for.”
Helme says every dollar counts since the expenses involved in putting on such a massive event are significant.
“Putting on the festival is, and folks have heard me say this before, but it’s somewhere close to a quarter million dollars to put it on, so absolutely every support that we get through grants and through donors and through sponsors is vital to being able to make AthFest happen every year.”
A total of 218 organizations were awarded 266 grants totaling more than $2 million dollars in funding from the Georgia Council for the Arts.
AthFest began as a way to bring people downtown during the summer to help boost downtown businesses. Helme says this year’s event is scheduled for September 24th through 26th. Volunteers are needed.
“You know at AthFest, we love it and it’s a fantastic event and it also takes roughly, 200 volunteers over AthFest weekend to make it happen,” according to Helme. “If folks are interested in supporting the AthFest Music and Arts Festival, which in turn benefits AthFest Educates, we’d love to have people volunteer.”
Visit AthFest.com for more information.
