A leading digital festival will receive £173,000 of funding over the next two years.

The money, in addition to sponsorship from Brighton digital businesses including Brandwatch and Pure360, will help deliver more digital art events and strong content throughout the month.

The Festival also hopes to extend its partnership with American Express for 2014 and beyond.

The Brighton Digital Festival is supported over the next two years using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England’s Grants for the arts programme, funding which will also provide management, coordination and marketing for two years. It will also fund the two year appointment of a new Festival Director.

A number of commissions will be made available through the Grassroots Fund, which awards grants for projects that utilise and connect art with design and technology. More details about the call for applications and deadlines will be announced soon.

This year the Festival consortium has expanded to support the diverse range of community event organisers behind the conferences, exhibitions, workshops, hackathons and performances that make up the festival. The consortium was created in 2014 and consists of support, expertise and funding from Brighton based arts and digital media organisations, including Clearleft, Brandwatch, Wired Sussex, Lighthouse, Fabrica, South East Dance, Fugu PR, Phoenix Brighton, Brilliant Noise and Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, plus Brighton Dome.

The Arts Council funding is designed to help grow and sustain the festival through 2014 and 2015, enabling it to develop its reputation as a celebration of digital culture both at home and abroad.

Cate Canniffe, Director, South East, Arts Council England, said: “Brighton Digital Festival is a really important part of the arts and culture ecology in the South East and one that we are pleased to be able to support. It provides an important opportunity for organisations – such as Lighthouse, Brighton Museum and South East Dance – to showcase digital work and reinforce the critical link between arts and culture and the economic success that is such a feature of the creative industries.”

Brighton Digital Festival is a month long celebration of digital culture, which takes place throughout September. The Festival is led by the digital and arts communities across the city to deliver a broad programme of conferences, exhibitions, installations, workshops, outdoor events and meet-ups alongside an education programme.

Last year’s festival featured over 170 events (67% more than 2012) and was attended by over 40,000 people. In 2012 and 2013, the Festival was supported by, and received funding from, Arts Council England, Brighton & Hove City Council, American Express and RAP interiors with co-ordination from Wired Sussex in association with Lighthouse.