Apply for Regional Event Fund 2025-26, hole-in-one for families, & more
We’ve celebrated a bit of wild news this week, as giant pandas Xing Qiu and Yi Lan made their public debut on Tuesday with an official Welcome Ceremony at Adelaide Zoo’s Bamboo Forest.
It comes as Australia’s leading experiential tourism group, Journey Beyond is confirmed to manage and operate Monarto Safari Resort. Opening on 28 May 2025, the multimillion-dollar development will provide a highly unique guest experience, helping to attract visitors from all over to Murray River, Lakes & Coorong. The partnership between Zoos SA and Journey Beyond will see conservation as a primary focus, with a portion of the room rate being donated to Monarto Safari Park’s conservation programs.
With the new year, our events season in South Australia is already in full swing.
Our State has been the focus of the cycling world over the past week thanks to the 25th Santos Tour Down Under. Crowds of spectators have been filling our pubs, restaurants, and bars across Adelaide and our regions. There are plenty more celebrations to come this weekend, including the world’s best women’s and men’s riders tackling a city circuit on Super Sunday.
The new Family Fairway at LIV Golf Adelaide will help attract more families to the world’s best golf event, offering a kids’ DJ, the much-loved RangeGoat GC Petting Zoo that has featured at other LIV Golf tournaments globally, live entertainment, food trucks, and mini golf.
Events are a great way to showcase the best of our state – both in Adelaide and in our regions.
To help this continue, organisers of developing, and established events across South Australia are encouraged to apply for our Regional Event Fund 2025-26. Applications are open until 5pm on Tuesday 18 March 2025, and will support events that are staged between 1 September 2025 to 31 August 2026.
The Fund, managed by the South Australian Tourism Commission (SATC), encourages the development of new and innovative regional events and aims to grow existing events, while driving visitation and boosting the regional economy.
Funding is offered across two event categories: Established Event Funding and Development Event Funding. Event organisers can apply for up to three years’ funding, to the value of $50,000 per year for an Established Event, and up to $20,000 per year for a Development Event.
The SATC will host a webinar to provide interested operators advice on how to enhance your applications and address any questions. You can register now for the free, online workshop at 11am on 29 January.
Emma Terry
Chief Executive Officer
South Australian Tourism Commission