The federal government has decided it will not help to boost funding for two of Edmonton's most popular summer festivals.

Edmonton's Folk Festival and the Fringe Festival have been excluded from the federal government's tourism funding. Ottawa handed out millions of dollars to events across the country, but two summertime festivals have been left out.

The Folk Festival was hoping to use the $500,000 in funding to market into the United States.

The government has opted to boost funding for Edmonton's Indy and the Grey Cup instead.

The Indy will grab more than $800,000 and the Edmonton Eskimos will have more than $400,000 to promote this year's Grey Cup.

"We are absolutely thrilled that we were a successful applicant in the form of $821,000," said Brian Leadbetter Northlands' director of government and community relations.

But the man in charge of Edmonton's Folk Music Festival argues his event draws more people than the Indy.

 "The same organizations are being picked. Yes they are picking two per city, but in Montreal they picked Just for Laughs and the Montreal Jazz Festival for $3 million each. That's $6 million they got from this program -- we didn't get a penny," said Terry Wickham.

Industry Minister Tony Clement says the federal government implemented a cap of two events per city to ensure enough money could be spread around.

"We capped major urban centres like Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Edmonton -- a cap of two events so we could spread it around -- recognize the diversity of this country," said Clement.

Fringe Festival organizers tell CTV News they are disappointed with the government's decision. They say the money would have helped a great deal in promoting the event internationally.

The federal government has set up the $100-million fund to improve some of the country's biggest events.

With files from Kevin Armstrong