£2,500 Funding for New Wave events in Leicestershire

New Wave is our youth engagement project focused on the co-creation of new, innovative Heritage Open Days events with young adults (18-30).

Each year we take a small cohort through a structured training and development programme, that supports organisers to devise, plan, and deliver event(s) collaboratively with local young people. You can find more information about previous years on the New Wave page.

This year we wanted to focus on one region for greater networking and support between participants and to create a lasting legacy of youth engagement in one area.

Leicestershire has been largely underrepresented in previous years of New Wave. Also our latest evaluation data indicates that the East Midlands has the lowest awareness of Heritage Open Days of any region.

Your £2,500 of funding is for supporting the delivery of an event created in collaboration with young people.

The project will run from February to October 2026. See the full timeline of dates below and please ensure you are available for all of the below training dates when applying. 

Note: There will also be optional connection sessions throughout the project. 

The funding is open to any organisation or individual based within Leicestershire, regardless of whether you have previously participated in Heritage Open Days.

Your application will be judged against the following criteria: 

1. Rationale for taking part 
2. Potential benefit to you and/or your organisation of the funding and training 
3. Desire to successfully meet the project brief and actively work with young people  

As New Wave is a training and development project, no previous experience of working with young people is necessary to participate or be selected. Successful applications will best demonstrate the criteria above, highlighting their desire to reach New Wave’s target audiences and utilise both the funding and training element of the project.

Yes! We are open to applicants that are seeking, or will provide, match funding for larger projects, or programmes of work, that include co-creation with local young people and can meet the requirements of this call.

No, we welcome applications from anyone wishing to take part in the festival and hold an event. 

If you are set up as a sole trader, or taking part with an organisation or charity, we will make a payment directly and you can spend your funding. If you are applying in a personal capacity, please note we cannot process payments directly to personal bank accounts, but we can spend on your behalf if you need to purchase something for your event, pay an invoice or hire a venue. Regardless of your set up we will support you as best as we can to put on a great Heritage Open Days event. 

All applicants must use the training and funding to run an event or events for the 2026 festival (11-20 September).  All festival events must meet all three of our general entry criteria:

1. FREE from entrance to exit

It is possible to raise money over the festival BUT admission to the main attraction of your event has to be free of charge. Running a free tour if visitors have to pay a site entrance fee doesn't count!

2. Offer something special

• Open a site / part of a site that isn’t usually open to the public.
• Launch a new online activity/event.
• Offer free entry to a usually charging site/activity.
• If your site is open free of charge all year round - then something out of the ordinary! Such as: have volunteer stewards on site to greet visitors and answer questions / put on some activities or a competition / invite other groups to showcase their work – eg artists, choirs, local history societies.

3. Take place within the festival dates

The festival covers ten days in early September and your event must take place at some point during this time. However, it doesn’t have to be open on all days or even for a full day.