Tag: Sydney Christmas

The City Of Sydney has approved the appointment of the National Breast Cancer Foundation, Settlement Services International Limited & the Sydney Children’s Hospital Foundation as the charity partners for Sydney New Year’s Eve, Sydney Lunar Festival & Sydney Christmas respectively.

Details about each charity are at the end of this article.

The approval was made following an Expression Of Interest (EOI) process in accordance with the City’s Support For Charities policy & is for the next edition of each event with the option to extend to the edition after that.

17 organisations applied to be an official charity partner of at least 1 event.

For Sydney Christmas, 2 extra criteria were added after the EOI closed, which was in early May 2023:

• cash handling policy and,
• point of sale infrastructure & floats for interactive activations

The applications were then assessed & then recommended to the Cultural & Creative Committee by:

• Producer, Major Events and Festivals;
• Audience Manager, Major Events and Festivals; &
• Social Programs Officer (LGBTIQA+), Social City.

The Cultural & Creative Committee meeting, held on Monday the 19th of June 2023, then recommended the appointments to Council, who approved the recommendations on Monday the 26th of June 2023.

Now the Council has approved the appointments, the signing of Charity Participation Agreements are next & were due by mid-July 2023.

National Breast Cancer Foundation

National Breast Cancer Foundation is a leading not-for-profit organisation funding world-class breast cancer research. Since their inception in 1994, they have been involved in more than 600 world-class research projects across Australia & continue to fund further research to create a greater impact and help reach their vision of 0 deaths from breast cancer.

Settlement Services International Limited (SSI)

SSI is a not-for-profit organisation established over 20 years ago who provide life-changing human & social services. Their purpose is to empower individuals, children, families & communities from diverse backgrounds & identities to fully participate in the economic, social, civic & diverse cultural life of Australia. SSI’s mission is to create a more equitable, resilient, enriched & inclusive society.

Sydney Children’s Hospital Foundation

Sydney Children’s Hospital is one of the largest children’s health charities in the country. Since 1986, they have been delivering on their vision of a world where every child has access to the best healthcare when & where they need it. Each year, they raise vital funds for 5 of their key entities including Sydney Children’s Hospital Randwick, The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Bear Cottage, Kids Research & Newborn and Paediatric Emergency Transport Service, to enable powerful change for children’s health care.

The City Of Sydney has been looking for new charity partners as part of an Expression Of Interest (EOI) process for the next edition of Sydney New Year’s Eve (NYE), Sydney Lunar Festival & Sydney Christmas with the option of the following edition after that too.

Charity partners use the respective events to promote and raise funds for their cause including through the event’s media & marketing campaigns. For Sydney Lunar Festival, they will also get speech & networking opportunities while for Sydney Christmas, they will get a merchandise stall.

The EOI revealed Sydney Christmas this year will have at their concerts interactive paid activations.

Aside from charities applying, throughout the EOI process, the City Of Sydney may also approach potential candidates.

The EOI process opened in late April & closed in early May. An evaluation panel will review applications with the successful charities:

• being an official registered charity or public benevolent institution,
• not being associated with religion,
• undertaking work which produces significant community benefits,
• aligned with the City of Sydney’s values,
• values’ being important for the respective event &,
• holding reasonably required insurances.
• demonstrated previous experience in successful online fundraising (does not apply to Sydney Christmas)
• providing & managing a minimum of 2 employees or volunteers to operate an interactive paid activation at each concert (Sydney Christmas only) 

A recommendation will be sent to Council & once Council approves the recommendation, which should be by September 2023, the City Of Sydney will prepare letters of agreement.

For the 1st time, charity partners are not promised exclusivity with the City Of Sydney stating that in the event of a humanitarian crisis they “may also support an additional specified charity”. This follows the Red Cross becoming a last-minute co-charity partner for NYE2019 during the devastating Black Summer bushfires. In conjunction with the City Of Sydney, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) turned their Sydney NYE concert into a charity concert for the Red Cross to help bushfire victims. It ended up raising around $26 million (that’s about 90c per Australian) including $13 million from NYE alone. The original charity partner for NYE2019 was the Refugee Council Of Australia.

The ABC unilaterally (that is, not in conjunction with the City Of Sydney) tried to repeat the success of the NYE2019 charity concert for NYE2020 by replacing the Red Cross with Lifeline & Kids Helpline as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it was not as great a success as NYE2019 despite the massive effects of the pandemic on mental health though it did raise about $700,000 on NYE alone (that’s about 5 cents per Australian).

Also interesting, the City Of Sydney specifically mentioned for the EOi that they reserve the right to not choose a charity partner, which is a very rare thing to do, and also to not hold the events, which is understandable, as we’ve seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, it is good to see the City Of Sydney being proactive rather than reactive after the massive pressure they faced in the lead-up to NYE2019.

Is the City Of Sydney about to bring back some creativity into Sydney New Year’s Eve (NYE)?

The City Of Sydney has announced they want to hear ‘fresh concepts’ & ‘innovative ideas with capacity to broaden the creative contribution’ of their events as part of a Big Creative Ideas process.

And they want to hear from anyone!

It’s not just Sydney NYE that want concepts & ideas for but any of their events including Sydney Christmas & Sydney Lunar Festival.

Proposals can be just 1 small thing to redesigning a whole event but they should be adaptable, sustainable proposals with “improved environmental performance”. Where applicable, they should be experienced by a live & broadcast audience. For a live audience, it should be accessible to a large-scale audience.

Proposals should also reflect the event’s traditions & objectives.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore said proposals should be similar in scale, timing and impact to their respective events.

We want to explore new technologies & ideas that may be included in our major events to showcase Sydney’s creative innovation to the world – this could include drones, light shows & projections – but the sky’s the limit.

Our aim is to build on Sydney’s status of producing cutting-edge, dynamic & extraordinary events that push the boundaries of innovation & leave a lasting impact on attendees and audiences.

City Of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore

All Proposals Criteria

• Creative concept including curatorial vision and detail, concept presentation, reference images & collaborating artists’ experience and calibre.
• Relevant production experience including in carrying out services of a similar scale and nature.
• Technical production ability
• Feasibility
• Risk

Sydney NYE Proposals Extra Criteria

• Fireworks engagement reflection
• Fireworks integration reflection
• Sydney Harbour exclusion zone & its’ airspace focus (see map below)
• 8pm-12am activation (note: sunset is around 8:10pm & fireworks are held at 9pm-9:08pm and 12am-12:12am)
• Clearly visible to a live audience about 650 metres away
• Positioned to be filmed by Sydney Opera House television cameras
• Global appeal
• Meet major international event standards

How To Apply

While applications close at 11am AEDT on Thursday the 26th of October 2023, there is an optional 1-hour briefing session to be held at Town Hall House, 456 Kent Street, Sydney on Thursday the 28th of September 2023 at 2:15pm AEST. This briefing session will also be held online. If you want to register for the optional 1-hour briefing session, e-mail crivilloosborne@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au .

For more information on the Big Creative Ideas process, click here.

To apply, click here.

Successful applications will be notified in January 2024.

If you are successful, you may either make a shortlist to work with the City Of Sydney to develop the ideas or participate in a tender process or both.