# EVENT SPONSORSHIP AGREEMENT
## Important warning
This fictional, unsigned specimen is an educational worked example and is not legal advice, an advertising clearance, a grant agreement, a ticketing contract or a promise that an event will proceed. The parties must check the Companies Act 2006, the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, the CAP Code, the Bribery Act 2010, the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018, VAT treatment, charity restrictions, insurance, health and safety, music and image licences, safeguarding, accessibility and any venue conditions applicable on the facts. A sponsor does not buy editorial control merely by paying a fee, and an organiser does not guarantee attendance, media reach or regulatory approval. All names, dates, addresses, figures and references are fictional.
Date: 12 February 2027
## 1. Parties and purpose
(1) Northstar Instruments Limited, a company registered in England and Wales under number 11840271, whose registered office is 41 Meridian Park, Cambridge CB4 0WS and whose project email is sponsor@northstar.example.test, is the Sponsor.
(2) Bristol Science Festival Community Interest Company, a company registered in England and Wales under number 14290731, whose registered office is 8 Anchor Square, Bristol BS1 5DB and whose event email is festival@bristolsci.example.test, is the Organiser. The Organiser is not represented as a registered charity by this agreement.
The parties will collaborate on the public event called Bristol Future Science Festival 2027, at Harbour Exchange, Bristol BS1 6DG, from 17 to 19 September 2027. The purpose is to fund public science activities and to give the Sponsor the promotional benefits in Schedule 1. Neither party may describe this agreement as an investment, charitable donation or endorsement of a scientific claim unless that description is accurate and lawfully approved.
## 2. Term and status
This agreement begins on 12 February 2027 and ends when the parties have completed the event, reporting and payment obligations, expected by 31 October 2027. It creates a commercial relationship between independent contractors. It does not create employment, partnership, joint venture, agency or authority for either party to bind the other. Each party is responsible for its own staff, tax, permissions and costs unless this agreement expressly says otherwise.
The Organiser will use reasonable skill and care to plan and deliver the Festival, but attendance, venue availability, weather, speaker participation, press coverage and programme content are not guaranteed. A material change to the event date, venue, name or principal format requires the Sponsor's prior written consent, not to be unreasonably withheld or delayed. A change to a minor session or speaker does not require consent if the Organiser provides a comparable replacement.
## 3. Sponsorship fee and payment
The total sponsorship fee is £36,000.00 plus VAT if properly chargeable. The Sponsor will pay £18,000.00 within 10 working days after the date of this agreement and £18,000.00 by 1 August 2027. At an illustrative VAT rate of 20 per cent, each £18,000.00 instalment produces £3,600.00 VAT and an invoice total of £21,600.00; the two instalments therefore total £36,000.00 net, £7,200.00 VAT and £43,200.00 including VAT. A statutory rate change alters VAT, not the net fee. Payment is not conditional on achieving an unguaranteed audience target.
The Organiser will issue valid invoices to Northstar Instruments Limited and will not change bank details by an unverified email. Overdue undisputed sums carry simple interest at 4 per cent above the Bank of England base rate from the due date until payment, subject to the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 and any limit on recovery. The Sponsor may withhold only an amount genuinely disputed in good faith and must pay the balance on time.
## 4. Benefits and deliverables
In return for the fee, the Organiser will provide the benefits in Schedule 1, including the designation “Principal Technology Sponsor”, a 4 metre by 2 metre exhibition space, six named delegate passes, logo placement on the Festival website and programme, one sixty-minute public workshop and two newsletter acknowledgements. The Organiser will provide a draft logo proof by 30 April 2027 and a post-event report by 15 October 2027. The report will contain ticketed attendance totals, sessions delivered, digital impressions reasonably available to the Organiser and a short narrative of funded activities; it will not disclose personal data or invent audited reach.
The Sponsor must supply approved artwork, brand guidelines, workshop speakers, risk information and copy by the dates in Schedule 1. If the Sponsor misses a deadline, the Organiser may use the last approved material or omit the affected benefit without being in breach, after giving five working days to cure. The Organiser controls programme curation, editorial independence, speaker suitability, ticket terms, safety decisions and any statement about science. The Sponsor may review factual statements about its own products but may not require a misleading claim, unlawful comparison or exclusion of a competing speaker.
## 5. Brand, content and intellectual property
Each party keeps its pre-existing trade marks, copyright, designs, photographs, know-how and materials. The Sponsor grants the Organiser a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence during the term and for twelve months after the Festival to use the Sponsor's supplied marks solely to provide the agreed benefits. The Organiser grants the Sponsor a matching licence to use the Organiser's name and approved Festival mark solely to state the sponsorship, subject to prior written approval of each public use. Neither licence transfers ownership or permits alteration except for reasonable resizing.
The Sponsor is responsible for claims, permissions and clearances in its copy, products, demonstrations and giveaways. It must not distribute regulated medical claims, unlicensed music, unsafe equipment, political advertising or material that is discriminatory, defamatory or likely to mislead. The Organiser may reject or remove material that reasonably appears unlawful, unsafe or inconsistent with the Festival's family audience, and the Sponsor must promptly replace it. The Organiser owns new Festival editorial content and may photograph the event; identifiable individuals require a lawful basis and appropriate notices.
## 6. Event operation, data and compliance
The Organiser will maintain public liability insurance of at least £5,000,000 for each claim and event cancellation cover where commercially available on reasonable terms. The Sponsor will maintain employers' liability insurance as required by law, public and product liability insurance of at least £5,000,000 for each claim, and cover for its equipment and personnel. Each party will comply with venue rules, risk assessments, fire and crowd-management instructions, equality law, modern slavery requirements and the reasonable directions of the event safety manager.
The parties are separate controllers for personal data each collects for its own purposes, unless a written data-processing arrangement states otherwise. The Organiser will not give the Sponsor a raw attendee list merely because sponsorship is purchased. A consented lead may be shared only through a clear notice and lawful opt-in that names the Sponsor. Each party will maintain security, respond to rights requests for its own processing, notify the other without undue delay of a relevant incident and delete or anonymise data when its documented purpose ends.
## 7. Cancellation, termination and consequences
The Organiser may postpone once, to a date within six months, where venue closure, serious safety risk or a force majeure event makes the planned dates impracticable. The parties will try in good faith to carry the benefits to the replacement date. If the Organiser cancels without arranging a reasonable replacement, it will refund the unused proportion of the net fee: for clarity, £18,000.00 is allocated to pre-event promotion and planning and £18,000.00 to delivery and reporting. If cancellation occurs before delivery and no replacement is accepted, the refundable allocation is the proportion not reasonably incurred for completed benefits.
Either party may terminate for a material breach not remedied within 15 working days after written notice, or immediately if the other becomes insolvent or continued association would reasonably expose the terminating party to serious illegality or reputational harm. Termination does not affect accrued rights. The Sponsor must pay for benefits already delivered and the Organiser may stop using the Sponsor's marks. Clauses on payment, intellectual property, confidentiality, data, liability, records and governing law survive.
## 8. Liability, confidentiality and notices
Neither party excludes liability for fraud, fraudulent misrepresentation, death or personal injury caused by negligence, or any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded. Subject to that, each party's aggregate liability under this agreement is capped at £72,000.00, being twice the net sponsorship fee, except that the cap does not apply to unpaid fees, misuse of the other party's intellectual property, breach of confidentiality, data-protection liability caused by a party or its personnel, or a party's indemnity for its own unlawful materials. Neither party is liable for loss of profit or indirect loss, but this does not remove a direct refund expressly promised here.
Confidential information may be used only for this agreement and disclosed to staff, insurers and professional advisers who need to know and owe equivalent duties. This does not cover information already public without breach, independently developed or required by law. A contractual notice must be in writing and sent by hand, recorded post or email to the addresses above; an email received before 5.00 pm on a working day is treated as received that day if no delivery failure is reported. This rule does not replace a statutory or court service requirement.
## 9. General and signatures
This agreement is the entire agreement about the Festival sponsorship and replaces earlier discussions, but it does not exclude liability for fraud. A variation must be written and signed by authorised representatives. Neither party may assign this agreement without consent, except that a group-company transfer is permitted if the transferring party remains liable and the transferee can perform. Invalid terms are severed only to the necessary extent. The law of England and Wales governs this agreement and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction, subject to mandatory law.
Signed for Northstar Instruments Limited: ____________________ Name: Eleanor Ruth Shaw, Commercial Director Date: __________
Signed for Bristol Science Festival Community Interest Company: ____________________ Name: Marcus Daniel Reed, Festival Director Date: __________
## Schedule 1 — delivery calendar
By 15 March 2027 the Organiser will confirm the venue layout, access times, safeguarding contact and insurance requirements. By 30 April it will send the first logo proof and proposed wording. By 30 June the Sponsor will deliver final artwork, a workshop outline, speaker names and equipment list. The exhibition stand is open for three public days, with set-up from 9.00 am on 16 September and removal by 7.00 pm on 19 September. The workshop must be educational, last 60 minutes and contain no unapproved product sales pitch. Six passes are included; additional passes cost £45.00 each including VAT if the Organiser's ticketing system charges VAT. The Organiser will keep a benefits ledger showing each placement, approval and delivery date.
## Schedule 2 — fictional completion record
The Organiser's 15 October report records 4,800 ticket scans, 2,940 unique workshop attendees estimated from session registers, 18,600 website page views and 2,100 newsletter recipients. These figures are operational counts, not an independent audit and are not a warranty of future performance. The Sponsor supplied the approved Northstar word mark on 25 June, six delegates on 1 September and a workshop outline on 10 July. The parties will retain invoices, approvals, consent records, risk assessments and the report for seven years or longer where law requires.