New special events are slated for rural Nevada, including a quirky cooking festival that involves steam engines, as well as an event celebrating the 20th anniversary of the land-speed record.

Both are among projects funded by the Nevada Division of Tourism through its rural marketing grants program. TravelNevada distributed $983,400 to 159 projects promoting tourism in rural Nevada. Grants were approved Wednesday by the Nevada Commission on Tourism, the advisory group for TravelNevada. TravelNevada is part of the Nevada Department of Tourism and Cultural Affairs.

Among the funded projects:

·    Lake Tahoe Incline Village Crystal Bay Visitors Bureau was granted $10,000 for the North Lake Tahoe Luminaries social media campaign, which will promote area events in December. Funding will cover video production, drone footage, still imagery, content development and social media advertising costs.    

·    NCOT also awarded $10,000 to the Carson City Visitors Bureau for a statewide project, Nevada’s Singletrack Mountain Bike Adventure campaign, which targets mountain bike enthusiasts as they travel across the state. Funds also will support two media familiarization tours.

·   The Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe received $8,000 to design, produce and host a new website that will be compatible with smart phones and will include an events page, contact form and links to the tribe’s social media networks. Tribal staff will be able to update and add content to the site, hosted by WordPress.