Edinburgh International Festival suffers funding cut in capital’s cultural overhaul
The Edinburgh International Festival is to lose nearly 10 per cent of its funding from the city council over the next two years under the biggest shakeup of support for arts and culture in modern times.
The Edinburgh International Festival is to lose nearly 10 per cent of its funding from the city council over the next two years under the biggest shakeup of support for arts and culture in modern times.
Organisers of the 72-yearold event, which generated £3.8 million worth of ticket sales in 2018, have warned the event faces slipping into decline after a decade of continual cuts from the council.
Director Fergus Lin eh an suggested the festival could even end completely if the council continued with its “salami slicing” strategy.
The funding overhaul is set to have a major impact on some of Scotland’s leading arts organisations after they were either targeted for cuts or told to share resources in order to open up funding to other organisations and events.
Boss es running the F es tival, King’s, Royal Lyceum and Traverse theatres will have to collaborate for the first time on their programme to secure a share of a £1m funding pot under plans, which will take effort in the spring of next year if they are approved by councillors next week.
The Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature Trust, the Scottish Book Trust, the Scottish Poetry Library and the Scottish Story telling Forum have lost direct financial support and been ordered to work together under the banner of “Edinburgh’s Literary Quarter to get a share of £100,000.
A new £200,000“flexible fund” is to be opened up to arts organisations across the city, including a new music industry taskforce which will be created ahead of the rede - velopment of the Ross Bandstand and Leith Theatre, and the creation of a £45m concert hall in the New Town.
The ring fenced cash pot, which will go up to £300,000 in 2021, could also benefit events like Hidden Door and Leith Late.
Among those to lose out are the Collective Gallery, which has just moved to a new home on Calton Hill, the Glasgowbased Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Scottish Fiddle Festival, which is held in Edinburgh. However the Scottish Chamber Orch estra, which will be based in the new concert hall venue on St Andrew Square, has won extra funding, as have the visual art, book and children’s festivals.
All those previously fund - ed have had a 10 per cent cut imposed since 2016. But the EIF, which will have its grant cut by nine per cent to £1.9m by 2021, said the longer trend meant it had now lost half a million pounds.
EIF director Fergus Linehan said: “The big question for me is when is this going to stop? A decade ago the festival’s core funding from the council was £2.47m, which is around £3m in today’s terms. No-one is saying it is ever going to stop. If anything this looks like an acceleration of what has happened over the last decade.
“We’re going back to levels of funding more than a decade ago when the festival nearly went bankrupt. Do you just keep cutting or is there a point at which the festival ends? In three years time will all roads just lead to a swamp? Is the only strategy to keep on salami slicing? If that is the case then the festival will end.”
Council culture leader Donald Wilson said: “While we recognise realigning our existing resources in new ways means change for some, it also allows opportunities for others. The aim is to nurture more new work and emerging artists and enable greater access to our funding programmes for previously unfunded groups.”
COMMENT “In three years time will all roads just lead to a swamp? Is the only strategy to keep on salami slicing? If that is the case then the festival will end” FERGUS LINEHAN EIF Director