City of Newcastle is aiming to launch a new flagship cultural festival in February next year.
The council has called for tenders from consultants to develop a name, brand and "visual identity" for the festival from February 12 to 21.
The Newcastle Herald reported last year that the city wanted to establish a fringe-style festival possibly bringing together some of the city's existing arts events.
The council appointed Kate Britton last year as a cultural events project manager to oversee the festival.
It had aimed to hold the first event in October but has revised that to February due to the likely continuation of COVID-19 social distancing measures.
Tender documents show the festival is designed to "put Newcastle on the radar nationally and internationally, as a creative city where exciting, ambitious and accessible contemporary art and culture grow and thrive".
The festival will include dance, theatre, visual arts exhibitions, public installations, live music, design and architecture, comedy and indigenous programming.
It will aim to activate hubs in the Civic precinct, the east end's "coastal locations and parks", Wallsend, the Summerhill tip, Wickham and Islington.
The tender also says the festival could include purpose-built events spaces such as shipping containers and artistic structures.
"The mission for the festival is to foster a prosperous, diverse and resilient economy and build capacity in the arts and cultural sector by delivering a contemporary cultural event that showcases Newcastle as a creative hub," it says.
"The key challenge for the creative team is to develop a flexible, overarching festival brand that will have impact in the marketplace and retain currency beyond year one."
Lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes told the Newcastle Herald that she hoped the festival would give the city's struggling arts sector optimism for the future.
The council has encouraged existing festivals, including This is Not Art, Newcastle Fringe, the proposed Newcastle City Festival and Newcastle Comedy Festival, to combine under one banner, but it is not clear whether the new event will encompass any or all of them.
TiNA is a four-day festival in early October which caters for experimental artists in a dozen venues across the city.
Newcastle Fringe Festival in late March offers a five-day program of music, theatre and poetry.
Newcastle Music Festival (August) and Newcastle Comedy Festival (May) are other cultural events which could come under the umbrella of a single event coordinated by the council.
Newcastle Writers Festival in early April is likely well enough established to remain on its own.
