Fringe organisers urge ‘root-and-branch review’ of funding for the arts in Scotland
Organisers of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe have called for a “root-and-branch review” of arts funding in Scotland after having to be rescued from insolvency months into the Covid crisis.
The Fringe Society is seeking “financial parity” with other arts organisations and events in Scotland after being plunged into a “perilous situation” by the pandemic.
An official report for the Scottish Parliament has admitted that the economics of the event, which attracted an audience of more than three million in 2019, were “creaking at the seams” before the pandemic. It claims the Society and many of the venues, producers and artists involved in the event – which is normally said to support more than 3,400 jobs each year – “fell through the cracks” of public funding support during the extended Covid shutdown.
This year’s Fringe was only able to go ahead after the Scottish Government and the city council agreed to provide £1 million to help nine venues stage shows with reduced capacities.
The Fringe Society says it is believes it is the only cultural charity in the country to be given a loan to help it survive the pandemic rather than direct financial support, as arts centres, theatres, cinemas and other festivals and events have received.
It has called for Scotland’s cultural recovery to be pursued by policy-makers “hand in hand” with a funding review to ensure that financial support across the arts scene does not “drift back to historic ways of public funding distribution”.
Holyrood’s culture committee launched a call for views on the future of arts funding in Scotland in August, which it is hoped will influence decisionmaking on the Scottish Government’s budget in December.
A submission from Anne Diack, the Fringe Society’s head of external relations, states: “The Fringe is the single most effective talent progression platform and cultural export market in the UK. It was left in a perilous situation by the pandemic.
“As we head into our 75th anniversary, we are seeking financial parity with other festivals and national cultural assets in Scotland.”
The Society, which is headed by chief executive Shona Mccarthy and chairman Benny Higgins, has issued a new plea for financial help weeks after launching a multi-million-pound fundraising appeal to “Save the Fringe”.
Its report for MSPS adds: “Both the Fringe Society and a great many of our vitally important artists, producers and venues fell through the cracks due to not meeting the application criteria both in Scotland and the UK government funding bodies. A wide range of our cultural partners were required to take out loans to ensure their survival.”
The Scottish Government provided more than £5.4m in additional funding to help Edinburgh’s festivals return over the summer.
Although the nine Fringe companies received direct financial support to return, there were just 528 in-person shows in the official programme, against more than 3,800 in 2019.