Member Article

How crowdfunding could revitalise Newcastle's Chinese New Year celebrations

Next year’s Chinese New Year celebrations in Newcastle may have a brand new look thanks to a partnership Crowdfunding programme set up to help benefit arts, heritage and culture projects in the city.

The Chinese Festivity Group (CFG) have applied to the new “Crowdfund Newcastle Culture” programme for match-funding as they need to raise £10,000 towards developing the celebrations, expanding the reach of the event and to re-instate the performance staged area to allow more people to enjoy the spectacular show.

The CFG 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 New Year celebrations are expected to be seen on a big scale by crowds swelling to around 15,000 people, all enjoying the heritage display by over 200 performers.

For the last three years the cultural event has been lower key due to limited funds available to organise the celebrations.

Crowdfund Newcastle Culture has been made available through the Newcastle Culture Investment Fund, a grants programme run in partnership by Newcastle City Council and the Community Foundation for Tyne & Wear and Northumberland.

Sow Fong Cole, a founder member of the Chinese Festivity Group, said: “For the first time we are looking to revitalise the Chinese New Year celebrations; with the additional funding we are looking to set up a special Chinese New Year Parade and also help develop two new women’s cultural programmes.”

“The Parade will not only involve the Chinese community, as we would like to invite other national groups to take part as well, which will make it unique. We would like to welcome everybody to get involved! Potentially we are looking for the funding to help bring the community together during our annual festivities.”

Councillor Kim McGuinness, Newcastle City Council’s Cabinet Member for Culture and Communities, said: “This partnership scheme will open the doors for a great number of fantastic, creative projects from both individuals and groups in the Newcastle area.

“Opportunities like Crowdfund Newcastle Culture are a good example of how funding opportunities are being developed to allow a hands on approach to project planning, financing and development.

“The beauty of this scheme is that a wide variety of different arts and culture projects can be submitted for consideration hopefully resulting in more of them achieving their goals. We hope creatives and groups embrace this, and we look forward to seeing more exciting projects delivered in Newcastle.”