Edinburgh Festival is nothing to emulate

GARY Raymond’s feature (WM, August 14) suggesting Wales (or Cardiff in particular) should attempt to emulate the phenomenon that is the Edinburgh Festival fails to consider a number of factors.

Regrettably, while praising the groups that started the festival in 1947, he does not acknowledge the worldwide impact of the Llangollen International Eisteddfod, founded at about the same time. Llangollen, moreover, still remains a genuine folkloric and cultural gathering, not a cash cow.

Our eisteddfodau generally, at all levels, have considerably better performances on show than some I’ve seen in the last week in Islington on the Forth, honourable exceptions being a couple of talks by the Edinburgh Skeptics and an achingly hysterical Welsh-language performance by Elis James.

Much of the Fringe is slapdash and self-indulgent.

Yes, Edinburgh is an impressive city, but this is a result of its setting, its history and its visionary architects over a long period. It is also a city with an infrastructure which is struggling to cope with the tidal waves of tourism which, one suspects, may not survive global economic changes.

Moreover, the unfettered rise of Airbnb has had a catastrophic effect on the year-round availability of affordable and decent housing. Many residents of the city just stay away from the centre for the duration of the festival unless they work there.

It is not wise, surely, merely to try to emulate this festival, but concentrate on the smaller-scale events and attractions which we do well and which are far more sustainable and inclusive of local communities throughout Wales.

Tourism should never be the lynchpin of an economy, useful though its contribution may be. Helen Thomas Swansea