Funding Opportunities

Fèis Rois is committed to supporting musicians and creative practitioners, including through funding opportunities where possible. Open project calls will be posted here when they are available.

Small Grants Scheme: Folk and Traditional Music

This opportunity has now closed.

In early 2021, we distributed £40,000 to eleven musicians across Scotland to devise and deliver their own youth music projects through the Youth Arts Fund Small Grants Scheme as part of a Scottish Government Covid-19 Funding Package to support the arts. The grants, administered by Creative Scotland, aimed to create work opportunities for freelance musicians and to provide arts activities for children and young people, especially those most affected by Covid-19 and you can learn more about the projects we funded below.

The eleven funded youth music projects, provided access to music activities to about 650 young people across Scotland as well as paid work opportunities for 33 freelancers including musicians and creative practitioners. The projects ranged from song workshops with young refugees and asylum seekers to ceilidhs for under 5s and the impact these projects have had on the local communities they were based in has been immense.

Taking place at a time when there was a lack of opportunities for children and young people to engage with live music due to the pandemic, these projects had a positive and important effect on participants’ well-being and for the under 5s in particular, supported their social, physical and cognitive development.

The work carried out by these freelance musicians, and the impact it has had on communities across Scotland, has been impressive, and we are delighted to share these projects with you here.