KU Powwow, Juneteenth, Busker Festival and more to receive city funding

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The KU Powwow and Cultural Arts Festival, Free State Festival and Paper Plains Zine Fest are among 32 events set to receive funding from the City of Lawrence this year.

The city’s Unmistakable Events grant program is funded through the transient guest tax, a special sales tax that applies to hotel stays.

The city previously had a TGT advisory board that made recommendations on how to spend the annual funds, but it was disbanded last year. In its place, an ad hoc committee of volunteers reviewed and scored applications.

The Lawrence City Commission approved these funds during their Tuesday meeting as part of their consent agenda, a list of items that are considered routine and often approved with one motion without discussion.

The city received 41 applications seeking $414,088 in funding. Here are the events that will get a piece of the $150,000 budget, as well as their total score from rubrics the group used to evaluate events:

Rank2025 EventFunding RequestFunded AmountScore
1KU Powwow & Cultural Arts Festival$10,000$8,000565
2Free State Festival 2025$15,000$12,000540
3Lawrence Busker Festival$15,000$11,250530.5
42025 Juneteenth Celebration$15,000$11,250512.5
5Lawrence Old-Fashioned Christmas Parade$15,000$9,000478
6Paper Plains Zine Fest$8,000$4,800477
7Theatre Lawrence Annual Holiday Show$15,000$9,000469
8LAAND$12,000$7,200463
9Lawrence Comedy Festival$15,000$9,000458
10Art Tougeau Art Car Parade with Low Rider-Ganza!$8,350$5,010457
11Lawrence Art Guild Art in the Park$10,000$6,000455.5
12MixMaster2025$10,000$4,000449
13The Avocado Tree LLC / El Arbol de Aguacate$15,000$6,000437
14The Nutcracker, A Kansas Ballet$10,000$4,000436
15Lawrence Pride Park Party$10,000$4,000433
16St. John the Evangelist Church Mexican Fiesta 2025$10,000$4,000429
17Kaw River Roots Festival 2025$10,000$4,000422
18Lawrence Restaurant Week$15,000$6,000413
19Live on Mass$15,000$6,000410
2044th Annual Kansas State Fiddling and Picking Championships AKA FidPick$7,500$3,000401
21Second Annual Downtown Lawrence Music Crawl$6,445$2,578401
22Lawrence Mardi Gras Parade$7,168$1,218396
23runLawrence Thanksgiving Day 5K Run$9,580$1,628388
242025 Central States District of the Barbershop Harmony Society Fall Convention$7,000$1,190382.5
254th Annual Great Plains Art & Music Festival$15,000$2,250380
26Haunting Humanities$5,000$1,000361
27Lawrence Pride: Queer Prom$2,000$1,000348
28Lawrence Opera Theatre Season 16: “Gianni Schicchi”/”Pagliacci”$6,875$1,026337
29Park(ing) Day$8,300$1,100328
30The Fond Dinner Series$4,000$1,000328
31Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies Spring Festival$4,000$1,000324
32Society for the Preservation of Natural Historic Collections Annual Meeting (SPNHC)$10,000$1,500302

The following events were not recommended for funding:

Rank2025 EventFunding RequestFunded AmountScore
33Lawrence Lights: Making Spirits Bright$10,000$0281
34Memorial Day Takeover$12,000$0281
35National Christian Homeschool Basketball Championships – Heartland Regional$15,000$0280
36KU Sip & Shop$3,500$0275.5
3730 Plays in 60 Minutes$9,400$0274.5
38Alliance of National Heritage Areas Meeting – Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area$14,970$0273
39National Christian Homeschool Volleyball Championships$15,000$0267
40Lawrence Pickle Fest – A Big Dill$5,000$0262
412025 Lawrence Veterans Day Parade$3,000$0228

The group of volunteers included Lisa Hallberg, chair of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board; Tim Metz, Cultural Arts Commission member; Liza McKinnon, a local artist; Fally Afani, a local artist and event organizer; Allison Calvin, director of marketing and communications for eXplore Lawrence; Joey Pauda, event organizer and former TGT Advisory Board member; and Heidi Champagne, general manager of Springhill Suites, according to the agenda item.

See the complete agenda item at this link.

The city also funds a Community Arts Grant program with TGT funds. Applications for grants are open until Feb. 3.

Learn more about that on the city’s website at lawrenceks.org/lprd/art-grants.

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