A trust is being formed to take over the organisation of Dunedin's New Year's Eve concert.
The Otago Community Performance Trust would run in a similar way to the Santa Parade Trust, spokesman Craig Reeves said.
It hoped to receive an annual grant from the Dunedin City Council and to apply to other funders for top-up grants.
Over the past three years, the Octagon concert had grown to be Dunedin's largest annual community event, attracting between 10,000 and 20,000 people, he said.
The trust had been promoted to ‘‘maintain the momentum and wider community benefits already achieved''.
The council has budgeted $70,000 for this year's event but has also picked up some cost over-runs from past events.
Cr Bill Acklin and Cr Fliss Butcher asked whether the council could be confident the trust would be able to raise any additional money required to stage the event.
Mr Reeves said he was. The trust had already obtained some corporate sponsorship and would be able to budget for and plan the event in a more structured way.
It was also hoped a national broadcaster would commission the recording of the concert to be broadcast live or played in a delayed telecast. That was expected to save the trust $20,000 in production fees.
