During 2025-26, the Coronado Arts and Wine Festival, put on by the Coronado Schools Foundation and the Coronado Chamber of Commerce, was required to pay $7,000 in city fees and got no municipal funding for its events. During those same years, the city waived all fees for Concerts in the Park, which is put on by Coronado Promenade Concerts, and provided almost $37,000 in grant money to support the event.
During a Sept. 1 meeting, the City Council reviewed its framework for dealing with major municipal events and decided to stick with the current system.
Every year the city approves a calendar of special events planned for the following year and decides which organizations receive waivers for fees, facility-use and personnel, among other costs.
Last year, the council wanted to look at formalizing its waiver structure and asked staff to come back with different options on how to move forward with that process.
The decision for funding is based on the event’s contribution to the community, according to a staff report. In the past, the city often waived almost every charge for some events, and even provided funding, while other organizations had to pay all related fees.
According to Kelli Maples, the city’s senior management analyst, staff found that for the 22 special events held during 2025-2026, half of the organizations received fee waivers while the other half had to reimburse the city for all applicable costs.
The city spent over $370,000 funding the events and was only reimbursed just under $27,500 via fees, spending a net total of $343,500.
In all, 93% of the events’ costs were covered by the city.
“Our current special event waiver system is, kind of all or nothing,” Maples explained at the Sept. 1 meeting. “An approved event receives a full coverage of all eligible costs, while other organizers pay all of the applicable costs.”
Eligible costs include application fees, equipment and material and other event related costs.
Events that received full support during 2025-2026 were:
- Concerts in the Park
- Coronado Flower Show
- Coronado Fourth of July
- Coronado Holiday Parade
- Coronado Island Film Festival
- Coronado Memorial Day Ceremony
- Every 15 Minutes (a program that teaches students about the dangers and consequences of drinking while driving)
- Friends of the Library Book Fair
- Homecoming Parade
- Low Tide Ride and Stride
- MotorCars on MainStreet
Organizations that had to pay for their events during 2025-2026 were:
- 4th of July Open Water Swim
- A Taste of Coronado
- Art and Wine Festival
- Bike the Bay
- Bridge Run
- Crown City Classic
- CSTE Open Water Swim
- LOOSEFOOT 616 Run
- Silver Strand Half Marathon
- Swim for SOF (Special Operations Forces)
- Valentine’s Day 10K
The city decided to keep this framework, but moved Low Tide Ride and Stride from receiving funding support to paying the full cost.
“The big amounts of cost are holiday parade and Fourth of July, and they’re wonderful,” Council member Kelly Purvis said. “I can’t imagine not helping them in any way we can.”
The holiday parade, put on by the Coronado Chamber of Commerce, received $57,000 from 2025-2026 from the city for the event.
In those same years, the Fourth of July parade received a total $216,000 from the city to help fund the event.
For the banners along Orange Avenue, council members voted to alternate showcasing nonprofits versus artists each year. For the nonprofit-focused year, nonprofits would be advertised during the spring and fall months, while Coronado Fourth of July has the summer months and a shop- local initiative will be displayed in the winter.
