Applications for Tauranga City Council's events funding have dropped markedly from last year in both number and the overall amount being sought.

With the application period now closed for the 2016/17 funding round, council has received 27 applications with a total sum of $177,759.81 applied for.

Applications are in for the next round of community events. Supplied Photo.

But TCC event design and delivery manager Michaela Blackman says for the 2015/16 funding round there were 42 applications requesting $302,252.90 worth of funding.

'This is less than was requested last year as the fund has been specifically targeted to youth and to address seasonality,” says Michaela.

She told city councillors at this week's Monitoring Committee meeting that from a total fund of $50,000 the 2015/16 community events fund supported 13 events across the city; three sporting, two youth and eight community events.

Five of the events were held between May - October, seven events were held in during peak months. One event was cancelled.

The locations were split between Tauranga central, Welcome Bay, Mount Maunganui and Papamoa.

Last year council staff revised allocation criteria to place more emphasis on youth and off peak season events. Funding was also split into small events with a $3000 funding cap, and medium events with a $15,000 funding cap, to encourage larger community events to apply. The overall fund remained at $50,000.

'We actively encouraged applications from youth focussed events in response to feedback from this sector, and have encouraged events that fall outside of the October to April peak season to look to address seasonal impact of events in Tauranga,” says Michaela.

The $15,000 level attracted a broader range of applications this year, she adds.

Michaela says the revised criteria and increased funding amount for 2015/16 shows there is still a gap in funding events that do not meet the 'community event' criteria, are too small for the 'major events' criteria but are events the city should be actively supporting in some way.

Commercial operations were not prevented from applying but weighting was given to those events with a non-commercial/community based function, she says.

This year's successful and unsuccessful applicants will be notified in writing on July 30 2016. 29. A media release will advise the wider community of the outcomes and future events they can expect to see on the Tauranga City calendar.