‘Trojan Horse’ fears raised over shake-up for Edinburgh’s winter festivals

Fears have been raised that a revamp of Edinburgh’s Christmas festival amid the coronavirus pandemic could be a “Trojan Horse” for increased commercialisation of city streets this winter.

Heritage experts and community groups have also expressed concern over market stalls being spread over a much larger part of the city centre than previously, including the Royal Mile, George Street and Castle Street, as well as Princes Street Gardens and The Mound precinct.

There are also worries that spreading out attractions will increase the risk of a spike in Covid-19 cases and a local lockdown due to difficulties in ensuring social distancing, health and safety measures, and test and trace systems, are all in place.

A ban on pop-up bars and food stalls is being demanded to avoid them competing with city centre businesses during the six-week festival.

The Cockburn Association and the five community councils also want attractions such as the Big Wheel and Star Flyer removed from Princes Street Gardens.

Events company Underbelly, which has an annual contract worth up to £800,000 with the city council to run the winter festivals, has overhauled plans to ensure that some Christmas attractions can go ahead this year with social distancing in place, while protecting the gardens, which hosted the city’s biggest ever market last year, but did not fully reopen to the public until July.

The joint statement, published before councillors discuss the festivals today, said: “Recent experience from Scotland and elsewhere strongly associates the transmission of Covid-19 with food and drink establishments and it is not clear how this will be managed, especially given this has been a major element of past offerings.

“No loss of public circulation space should result from measures put in place. For the avoidance of doubt, such management and social distancing measures must not be a ‘Trojan Horse’ for increased commodification of public spaces including streets.

“There should be no pop-up bars and food outlets, especially as these create direct competition, not additionality, to local all-year round businesses such as bars and cafes

“We also feel that pop-up bars would be particular problematic to the effectiveness of any test and trace system.

“The proposed dispersal of operations across the city centre does not equate to a scaleddown version of the winter festivals.”