Tramlines Festival has announced the opening of applications for the 2024 Tramlines Trust, alongside the return of the Little Hillsborough initiative.
Since moving to Hillsborough Park in 2018, a whopping £213k has been raised for many charities and causes including Weston Park Cancer Care, Cavendish Cancer Care, The Sarah Nulty Power of Music Foundation and Sheffield Hospitals Charity. In 2023, The Tramlines Trust raised £57,600.
A notable £27,800 of these funds were allocated across 27 deserving local organisations, marking a significant impact on Sheffield’s grassroots projects.
Noteworthy applicants included funding the Hillsborough Christmas Lights with a grant of £5,000. Additional recipients ranged from the Hillsborough Hornets Disability FC, requiring a larger pitch for their growing team, to Adira. This mental health charity utilised the funds to brighten the holiday season for disadvantaged children across Sheffield.
Hillsborough Together
Reflecting on the trust’s achievements, Timm Cleasby, Operations Director, stated, “I know first-hand that there are hundreds of local people with ideas that have the power to change their communities for the better. We’re very pleased that Tramlines can help in any way to realise these dreams and create meaningful impact in people’s lives”.
With the application window for the 2024 grants now open, the Tramlines Trust is inviting a new cohort of grassroots organisations to seek funding. Full details on the type of projects supported and the application process can be found on the Tramlines website. In addition to the Tramlines Trust and other charitable projects, the economic impact of the festival was estimated at £3.8million annually in data published last September.
The Little Hillsborough initiative is also returning in 2024 and will give subsidised pitches to Hillsborough-based businesses offering them the chance to showcase their creations and products to the festival’s 40,000 attendees with the festival covering all operational costs. Businesses in the pilot included a stall run by prolific Sheffield artist Luke Horton, homemade items from Annie Jude’s and Michael LeCount, an internationally recognised Lego fanatic who runs the Bricks and Bits shop on Dixon Road.
Luke Horton said, ‘trading at the festival is an exceptional opportunity to boost revenue’, which, ‘enabled us to progress and offer improved service heading into Christmas’. Annie Jude, has said she, ‘loved having Tramlines in Hillsborough Park, it creates a buzz about the area’, and thanked Tramlines for ‘offering us a free space inside Little Hillsborough’ and for, ‘sharing my business on socials and on the screens during the festival.’
Little Hillsborough is just one of many ways that Tramlines seeks to engage and support the local community. The residents ticket service, a voluntary scheme from Tramlines, has given away an ever-increasing number of free tickets to local people which included over 1,600 weekend passes in 2023. Other local highlights include work with Hillsborough Junior School which has raised funds for the school. Children in the school have made a ‘class tea towel’ style pictures of Tramlines acts which are made into actual tea towels and sold at the festival as a fundraising activity.
Interested businesses for Little Hillsborough must submit their applications via the Tramlines website by 26th April, with outcomes announced by 17th May.
Stay informed about the Tramlines Trust Grant application process, the Little Hillsborough initiative, and all festival updates by signing up for the Mailing List and following Tramlines on social media.
