Music tourists making till bells ring as they travel from far and wide to Scotland
● Music industry body report reveals fans’ spending
They are the eagerly-anticipated highlights of every music fan’s year, worth braving mudsplattered fields and surviving in a flimsy pop-up tent for the chance to see music legends, emerging raw talent, or even a potential future prime minister addressing the crowd.
Now a report out today shows music tourism is a burgeoning business, helping generate £334 million for the Scottish economy last year – up 13 per cent on 2015.
Whether it is attending large festivals such as T in the Park at Strathallan Castle in Perthshire, concerts at the 13,000 capacity SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Groove Loch Ness, one of the UK’S newest dance festivals, or smaller intimate gigs in the underground cellars at night clubs such as Edinburgh’s Cabaret Voltaire, distance is no object to many fans.
UK Music’s “Wish You Were Here 2017” economic study shows a huge 31 per cent rise in the number of music tourists attending festivals and gigswith 1.2 million fans attending live music events north of the Border.
Figures from the commercial music industry body report also highlights the vast majority of fans travelled from other parts of the UK or oversees – with just 38 per cent of live music event goers being Scottish.
Music tourists spent a total of £199m in Scotland – £126m on concerts and £73m on festivals.
As well as direct and indirect spending on items such as tickets, transport, meals and clothing, live music events support 3,928 full-time jobs in Scotland – as well as tempoland rary work such as student bar staff and security workers. Ukwide, live music fans contributed £4 billion to the economy in 2016 – up 11 per cent from 2015 – with a record 30.9 million fans attending live British music events last year.
Michael Dugher, UK Music’s chief executive, said live music was a “tremendous success story” for the UK but that it was campaigning to save cashstrapped smaller venues and to safeguard artists from Brexit changes.
“Music fans poured into a huge range of festivals like T in the Park, the Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival in Inverness-shire, Glastonbury, the Great Escape in Brighton and Green Man in the Brecon Beacons,” he said.
“They also enjoyed the best British new talent in smaller venues which are a vital part of the live music industry. Live music in the UK is a tremendous success story and makes a massive contribution to our culture and general wellbeing, as well as our economy. It showcases our talent to the world and brings pleasure to millions every day.
“But this success is being put at risk. That’s why UK Music will continue to campaign to safeguard smaller music venues, many of which are fighting for survival.
“And, we will be pressing the government to make sure the impact of Brexit does not damage our export trade or make it harder for UK artists to tour abroad and for overseas acts to come here.”
Fiona Hyslop, MSP, culture secretary, said: “These figures show the music sector in Scot- going from strength to strength. The fact these numbers have increased so significantly is testament to the efforts of the sector to make Scotland such an attractive destination for music fans across the UK and the world.
“We continue to be committed to supporting music in Scotland.”
COMMENT “Live music in the UK is a tremendous success story and makes a massive contribtion to our culture, general wellbeing and economy” MICHAEL DUGHER Chief executive, UK Music
Camille O’sullivan is frequently hailed as the “Queen of the Fringe”, a crown she wears lightly and at a jaunty angle, being as down-toearth offstage as she is immersed and possessed onstage. This Irish chanteuse – singer just doesn’t quite cut it – earned her regal soubriquet for her ecstatically received performances at the Edinburgh Fringe, first as a member of La Clique’s motley crew of circus, cabaret and comic performers, then as a solo purveyor of dark, dramatic themed musical extravaganzas, but she is also a veteran of the Dublin, Adelaide and Brighton fringes.
“You can have a gin and tonic and enjoy yourself in those other festivals,” she says. “You might need to see a therapist for the full month of October after Edinburgh! It’s like a pregnancy, you forget how tough it was.”
But if there’s no pain, then there’s no gain. O’sullivan always pushes herself to debut new shows at the Fringe, using it as a testing ground for her femme fatale renditions of songs by mostly male titans of their trade, from the Berlin cabaret tradition of Kurt Weill and Hanns Eisler to modern fabulists such as Tom Waits and Nick Cave.
“A fringe festival is where you get to prove yourself again for the next year,” she says. “I always tell people if they want to become a singer ‘go to the mothership’. You go there to be brave and fearless with it, and sometimes you’re going to get knocked down, but the Fringe is a wonderful place to educate yourself as a singer.”
While O’sullivan enjoys her most intense relationship with the Edinburgh Fringe, she has never forgotten her first Fringe fling in her native Dublin. She was still an architecture student in the city when the Dublin Fringe launched in 1995. Unlike Edinburgh’s open access sprawl, Dublin is a curated festival looking to give Irish companies a showcase alongside international groups.
“Dublin is the more laidback sister of the Edinburgh Fringe,” says O’sullivan. “It definitely is a smaller thing but it really has grown. There’s some amazing Irish companies and performers who have come through the Fringe like The Corn Exchange and Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre and I wonder how well their careers would have gone if they hadn’t had that.”
O’sullivan has been involved with the Dublin Fringe from its earliest days and has now performed there about a dozen times. “I remember the first year when we did Kurt Weill and Jacques Brel,” she says. “What I didn’t know was that was the beginning of a career, that was the shop window, and then I remember trying to get a gig outside it and being told ‘You’re singing these songs? You’ll not get a gig if you sing this dark stuff ’. [Spiegeltent impresario] David Bates was the one who said ‘that’s what you should be singing, just go and do what’s in your record collection’.”
O’sullivan still follows her gut and her record collection in creating new work. This year she brings Where Are We Now? to the Edinburgh Fringe, looking for succour and wisdom in the works of David Bowie and Leonard Cohen among others. “I keep on thinking it will be a hymnal show because where we’re at I need some kind of respite and music is a good thing to give people a bit of joy.”
The Queen of the Fringe has some sage stately advice for aspiring Fringe performers. “Don’t worry about the money or the accolades, because it’s really about if you want to be an artist in this mad business. The Fringe is where you’re allowed to be bonkers or do something different – some of the best shows I ever saw were at the Edinburgh and Dublin Fringes.
“I can tour non-stop, but the kicks up the bottom are doing the fringe festivals. I actually don’t think I’d be performing now if I hadn’t gone to Edinburgh and Dublin.” Camille O’sullivan: Where Are We Now?, Underbelly’s Circus Hub on the Meadows, 4-26 August, www.edfringe.com