The team behind Newcastle’s Chinese New Year Parade, Chinese Festivity Group (CFG), have announced some great news as they’ve successfully reached their Crowdfunder target.
The CFG applied to the new ‘Crowdfund Newcastle Culture’ programme for match-funding as they looked to raise £10,000 towards developing the Chinese New Year celebrations. The plans would include expanding the reach of the event to attract and inform a wider audience, to re-instate the performance staged area, and to organise the first ever spectacular parade through the City.
In February, the New Year celebrations, which in 2018 is the ‘Year of the Dog’, are expected to be seen on a massive scale by crowds swelling to around 15,000 people, all enjoying the heritage display by over 200 performers.
Crowdfund Newcastle Culture has been made available through the Newcastle Culture Investment Fund, a grants programme run in partnership with Newcastle City Council and the Community Foundation for Tyne & Wear and Northumberland.
Councillor Kim McGuinness, Newcastle City Council’s Cabinet Member for Culture and Communities, said: “It’s wonderful news for Newcastle that next year’s Chinese New Year celebrations will be bigger than ever before thanks to support from the Crowdfund Newcastle Culture programme. This success story highlights how people really get behind the community projects they care about. Individuals, groups and businesses have all shown support and as a result will see a great celebration.
“We really want to encourage more local groups to come forward and submit their ideas, and make the most of the Crowdfund Newcastle Culture programme. This great fundraising programme aims to bring creative and culturally diverse arts and heritage projects to life, something we all want to see more of.”
The Chinese Festivity Group has been in existence for over 17-years and it’s a collaboration of six local Chinese voluntary organisations including Newcastle Chinese Healthy Living Centre, South Mountain Chinese Older People’s Association, Newcastle Chinese Students and Scholars Association, North East Chinese Association, UK Choi Lee Fut Edmund Ng Association and Sino-Anglo Cultural Exchange Association.
The Chinese Festivity Group’s Crowdfunder campaign was supported by 87 individual pledgers as they helped the group reach their £10,000 target.
The New Year Parade will include stunning traditional lion, dragon and unicorn dances accompanied by flag wavers, banners, themed floats and inspiring drumming. The idea will be to start the parade at Old Eldon Square / Grey’s Monument and work its way to Chinatown.
The successful Crowdfunder campaign will also enable CFG to set up two new female drumming and dance troupes – who will perform as part of the parade. It will be a cultural first for a female drumming troupe to feature with the breath-taking Dragon Dance in Newcastle’s Chinatown.
Amanda Chan, Chair of The Festivity Group 2018 and committee member of the Chinese Festivity Group, said: “We have been honoured and humbled by the amount of support and encouragement we’ve received for our Newcastle Chinese New Year parade. It just shows the amazing generosity of the people of Newcastle and how important the Chinese New Year celebrations are seen in the eyes of the community.
“The success of the funding campaign means that we can start planning towards next year’s event, as we welcome the involvement of volunteers, groups and performers from across the North East and not only from the Chinese community. It will enable us to set up various creative and schools workshops that represents our commitment towards education and teaching people new performance skills.
“Crowdfund Newcastle Culture was a very useful way of not only raising funds towards our Parade but also on raising the profile of our Group and getting cultural messages to new audiences. We encourage other groups to check out this invaluable opportunity.”
Crowdfund Newcastle Culture roundup: So far the campaign has awarded £14,000 to local projects but there is still £36,000 of match funding available for people wishing to take part.
Ellie Turner, Principal Advisor Culture at Community Foundation, said: “We were delighted to work closely with the CFG to provide training and support to launch their first ever Crowdfund appeal. It was a completely new vehicle for them to raise money and goes to show that raising money this way can be successful with the right plan and approach. I would invite other arts groups or organisations to get in touch if they would like to use this match to create, plan and run a Crowdfunding campaign. ”
‘Crowdfund Newcastle Culture’ welcomes applications from arts and culture groups and organisations based in the City.
For more information visit www.crowdfunder.co.uk/
If people would like to volunteer to take part in Newcastle’s Chinese New Year celebrations then they can contact Chinese Festivity Group by emailingachan.888@hotmail.com
Please note – groups and projects will only receive their match funding if their Crowdfunding project successfully reaches its target.