Festivals and events in Durham serve residents and visitors alike, putting the community’s culture on display and increasing dollars spent at surrounding locally owned businesses. Festivals may be driven by individual producers, community groups, nonprofit or for-profit organizations, and often times celebrate the arts, sports, food and beverages, local cultures and more.

There is a great desire to support and cultivate festivals and events in the community, and a belief that there is a great deal of opportunity to do so. The DMP identifies festival growth as a top potential economic driver for Durham.

A number of different organizations play roles in supporting the festival ecosystem, including:

• the City’s Cultural & Public Art Program;
• Durham Parks & Recreation;
• the Durham Cultural Advisory Board;
• Downtown Durham, Inc;
• Discover Durham

These groups are joined by other various supporting city departments such as the police, fire and emergency services, waste management, permitting, etc. Durham Next has also been added to the collective, supporting efforts to explore opportunities to establish a defined process for supporting and growing local festivals and events, as well as recruiting additional ones to the area. In summer of 2025, Durham Next issued its own RFQ to lead an assessment of Durham’s festival ecosystem and identify best practices in similar destinations that can be implemented in Durham.

In the fall of 2025, the team expects to draft a plan for Durham’s festival ecosystem to enhance the value and benefit these events add to our community. Ideal roles and goals for each of the organizations moving forward will be included. If you’d like to know more about this project, please email info@durhamnext.org.