Dance music festival under threat over gardens rules
● Council chiefs accused of ‘cultural snobbery’ over bandstand event
Council chiefs have been accused of“cultural snobbery” over claims that a dance music festival staged in Princes Street Gardens for the past three years is facing cancellation over strict new rules over the staging of events in the park below Edinburgh Castle.
Organisers of Fly Open Air, which has attracted crowds of up to 3,000 to the Ross Bandstand, say conditions being demanded by the city council would make it “impossible” to stage the event there in future. They have demanded a rethink over conditions aimed at cutting down the amount of space used in the gardens for all-ticket events as they would cut its capacity by a third and make the event “unsafe, overcrowded and unviable”.
They have blamed “heightened scrutiny” on the use of the park for the new clamp - down, which has been pursuing plans for a £25 million revamp of the gardens.
The authority came under fire last summer for its handling of a series of new pop and rock concerts in the gardens.
Parks officials and councillors have told organisers of the dance music event they are not allowed any infrastructure, including medical facilities, catering vans or toilets outside the bandstand arena.
Fly Open Air’ s organ isers have written to ever y city councillor to ask the festival either be exempted from the new rules or treated as a “large event”, which would close the gardens to the public.
Edinburgh-based promoters Fly Events say the festival, which expanded into a second day last year, has become Scotland’s largest youth music event, which has generated nearly £10m for the economy and sells around 53 per cent of its tickets overseas.
Fly Events claims it is “grossly unfair” they have been hit with new restrictions due to “heightened scrutiny” on events since the new Summer Sessions concerts last August.
Controversy flared after black-out barriers erected on PrincesS tree ton the insistence of the city council to ensure public safety on the road and pavements blocked out views of Edinburgh Castle. The number of Summer Sessions concerts has been almost doubled from five to nine this year. It emerged last month that a new series of concerts had also been approved.
Fly Events director Tom Ketley said: “Council staff could not have been more supportive in helping this event grow and thrive. However, having operated successfully in Princes Street Gardens for the past three years, we have now been told that September’s event must scale back in size and cannot have the same footprint it did previously.
“Council officers have said the event must be restricted to the confines of the Ross The - atre and unfortunately these changes would make it impossible for our event to go ahead.
“It would be unsafe and overcrowded with no space for queue management and search lanes. Plus, all medical, food, power and bar provisions would need to be placed on the dance -floor, creating additional overcrowding and significantly impacting on the show’s capacity. These suggestions make the showunv iable .”
Nick Stewart, owner of music venue Sneak yPete’ s and a leading figure in the recent Keep Music Audible campaign in Edinburgh, said: “It sounds like the council is not being supportive of a very well run event that has given joy to a huge amount of Edinburgh’s youth. An element of cultural snobbery may be taking place.”
A city council spokeswoman said: “We are still in discussions with the Fly Events around arrangements for their proposed September events.”