Revamped NW Festival a step closer

Tourism WA has seemingly confirmed the North West Festival after announcing funding grants to the Port Hedland event.

A total of 64 regional events across WA have received a funding boost, including the North West Festival, under the Regional Events Scheme.

The announcement comes as the first serious commitment to the popular festival after all discussions on the matter by the Town of Port Hedland council have been held behind closed doors.

However, during last month’s council meeting, it was mentioned that the lack of communication on the festival was due to negotiations with Sunset Events and various artists still in process.

Mayor Camilo Blanco said the Town had been in serious negotiations to deliver a revamped festival for 2017. “The Town is committed to holding a festival this year, and we have had a positive response from the business community for our sponsorship prospectus,” he said. “Preliminary discussions have already been held with potential acts to headline the festival.

“Once the contract negotiations are complete, we will announce full details of this year’s event.”

Partially funded by Royalties for Regions, the scheme aims to develop and support smaller regional events across WA.

Regional development minister Alannah MacTiernan said regional events played an important role in strengthening the economy in these regions.

“Not only do these events attract visitors, they create much-needed business and job opportunities in regional communities.

“The scheme is part of the Government’s plans to support the regions to showcase and promote their unique and diverse attractions.” In conjunction with the funding announcement, Tourism WA outlined a mid-August date for the festival; however, Mr Blanco said the dates for the festival had not been decided yet.

“The dates released by Tourism WA are not the official dates — we will confirm these once negotiations with artists have been finalised,” he said.