Edinburgh Festival bosses slam ‘special treatment’ for Euro 2020 events
EDINBURGH festival bosses slammed “special treatment” for the Uefa Euro 2020s amid fears the £1 billion industry and 7,000 jobs are on the brink due to social distancing.
Organisers say it is “beyond credibility” that the performing arts are seen as more of a risk to public health than pubs and restaurants under Scotland’s current restrictions.
Fringe Society boss Shona Mccarthy said she no longer believed science was driving decisions. The industry has been lobbying for a review over two-metre social distancing.
A joint statement backed by the organisers of the Edinburgh International Festival, the Fringe, and the city’s film, jazz, visual art, science, book, children’s and storytelling festivals questioned why the Glasgow Green fanzone was allowed to go ahead.
The statement read: “We watched and supported the hospitality sector as they fought a long hard battle to secure such one-metre restrictions, trusting that the government would ensure such changes could then be fairly applied to cultural venues and events.
“However, that trust now seems misplaced and patience is running out with those who seem oblivious to both the anomalies in the current legislation and the precarious position of the festivals and their supply chain.
“To say we are frustrated with the current anomalies is an understatement.
“It makes no sense to allow groups of people to eat and drink together and then have to separate to watch live cultural events – and our frustration has been intensified by the apparent special treatment applied to events surrounding the current European football championships.
“Our festivals, and creatives across the sector, are effectively prohibited from trading our way through to recovery, while hospitality and sports are now being supported to do so to the maximum safe extent.
“It is beyond credibility that our Covid-mitigated live events pose a greater risk to public health than the conditions the public is now experiencing in pubs, restaurants, shops and sporting and leisure facilities up and down the country.
“We are not seeking special treatment but rather to be treated the same as others, especially the hospitality sector, and it is our deep hope that someone at the centre of government will realise that what is required now is one clear set of rules for all.
“Without immediate changes to the current social distancing guidelines, it is clear that we will see the bankruptcy of many well established and much valued cultural companies and their support businesses, with the probable loss of more than 7,000 jobs.
“A sector that has evolved over many decades into a worldrecognised Scottish success story stands on the brink, and we dearly hope that the recent cancellation of the Tattoo is not a harbinger of things to come.”