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SB 865

California Music Festival Preservation Grant Program.

2025-2026 Regular Session Introduced by Angelique Ashby

SB 865 creates a $20M grant program to help privately owned, multi-day California music festivals meet local economic and community criteria to stay open and accessible.

From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 9. Noes 0.) (June 23). Re-referred to Com. on APPR.
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Bill Summary · SB 865

Summary of SB 865 (2025-2026) — California Music Festival Preservation Grant Program

Purpose and intent

SB 865 proposes to create the California Music Festival Preservation Grant Program within GO-Biz, under the direct authority of the Director of the Office of the Small Business Advocate. The program aims to provide grants to eligible independent live music events promoters to preserve large-scale music festivals and to ensure equitable access to the arts for all Californians. The bill envisions these grants as a tool to sustain cultural, tourism, and economic benefits generated by major state festivals.

Key provisions and changes

  • Establishment: Creates the California Music Festival Preservation Grant Program in the Government Code, housed within the Office of Small Business Advocate (GO-Biz).
  • Administration: The program is under the direct authority of the director of the Office of the Small Business Advocate and administered by the office.
  • Eligibility criteria for grant recipients:
    • The applicant must be a privately owned entity.
    • The entity can take various legal forms (e.g., sole proprietor, C corp, S corp, cooperative, LLC, partnership, nonprofit 501(c)(3)).
    • The entity’s principal business activity must involve organizing, promoting, producing, managing, or hosting a multiday live music festival in California.
    • The festival must occur on publicly owned lands and meet all of the following:
    • A front-door admission charge is applied.
    • Performers are compensated.
    • The festival is annual and in an eligible jurisdiction with at least:
      • 100 live music performances, and
      • 100,000 admissions.
    • The promoter enters into a multiyear agreement with the local tourism authority or applicable local government.
    • The promoter demonstrates support for local businesses and the jurisdiction by:
      • Serving at least three local beers,
      • Serving at least two wines from a local winery,
      • Including at least three performances by local or regionally based artists,
      • Providing meaningful promotion of the jurisdiction in coordination with the local tourism authority or equivalent subdivision (if no tourism authority exists).
    • An “eligible jurisdiction” is a governmental entity or political subdivision that owns or has an interest in the festival venue.
  • Funding and appropriations:
    • Subject to legislative appropriation, the office would allocate grants to eligible promoters.
    • The program is authorized to allocate twenty million dollars ($20,000,000) in one or more rounds to eligible promoters.
  • Purpose of funding: Grants are intended to support ongoing ability to provide equitable access to the arts and to preserve large-scale festivals that deliver cultural, tourism, and economic benefits to the state and local communities.

Who is affected

  • Eligible independent live music events promoters (the primary beneficiaries and grant recipients).
  • Local jurisdictions and tourism authorities that partner with festivals.
  • Local communities and small businesses (through ancillary economic and cultural benefits).
  • California residents and festival-goers who benefit from continued access to large-scale music events.

Procedural and timeline notes

  • The bill text indicates an appropriation would be required; the proposed funding amount is $20 million, allocated in one or more rounds, contingent on the Legislature’s appropriation.
  • The bill has an extensive eligibility framework that ties grants to multi-year agreements with local authorities and to demonstrated local economic and cultural contributions.
  • Status in the 2025-2026 session: Amended in April 2026, with subsequent hearings and actions noted; sponsor is Senator Angelique Ashby (co-sponsor), and the bill has passed through several committees and readings with amendments.

Overall, SB 865 creates a targeted grant program to sustain major California music festivals, provided promoters meet specific ownership, organizational, community engagement, and economic criteria, and subject to state funding.

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

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