Scotsman Daily Bulletin Wednesday 12 June
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin
00:09 for this Wednesday.
00:10 My name's Dale Miller, I'm Head of News at the Scotsman.
00:13 And I'm joined by our Arts and Culture Correspondent,
00:15 Brian Ferguson.
00:16 Brian, it is summer, which means, well,
00:19 we can't look out the window,
00:20 but we're close to the festival.
00:22 - Yeah, indeed, not too long to go.
00:24 Less than two months, would you believe?
00:25 - Less than two months.
00:26 The countdown is on.
00:27 I feel a countdown clock in the wanting
00:30 for the Scotsman site to the first day
00:33 of the Fringe and International Festivals.
00:36 Brian, we're talking about the Fringe because,
00:38 and we'll take a look at the front page of today's Scotsman.
00:41 We splashed on an interview that you did
00:43 with Shona McCarthy, Head of the Fringe Society.
00:48 And she is warning that arts and culture events
00:51 have become unattractive to sponsors
00:53 and that there are concerns about sponsorship now.
00:56 We all know what's happened with Bailey Gifford.
00:58 We've covered that extensively at scotsman.com.
01:02 The decision by, a mutual decision,
01:05 it was said by the International Book Festival
01:07 and Bailey Gifford to part ways
01:10 and for the company to no longer be a sponsor.
01:13 We know that's spread to other book festivals
01:15 across Scotland.
01:17 And clearly, Brian, it leaves a funding challenge.
01:22 It's on easy climate, as you've written,
01:24 to actually get new sponsors.
01:26 And this decision has robbed some of these festivals
01:29 of a lot of money to actually put on a programme
01:32 and show us.
01:33 Can you just talk through a little more detail
01:35 about what Shona had to say?
01:37 - Yeah, basically, Bailey Gifford
01:41 certainly have been sponsoring at the last count,
01:44 something like 20, 25 arts organisations
01:47 and festivals in Scotland.
01:49 They're based in Edinburgh.
01:50 They've had a big interest in loads of different festivals.
01:53 They certainly have been the main headline sponsor
01:56 of the Book Festival and International Festival
02:00 in recent years.
02:01 And certainly have been,
02:04 and this year are still one of the major sponsors
02:07 of the International Festival.
02:10 And they're also involved in theatres,
02:13 they've been involved in art galleries,
02:14 museums and exhibitions as well.
02:16 And they're one of many sponsors of the new fringe programme.
02:22 They're listed as one of the main sponsors
02:24 for the community and education and access programmes.
02:29 So they're not the major sponsor of the fringe,
02:32 they are one of the major sponsors of the fringe society.
02:35 But, and the fringe society is not awash with money.
02:40 They're not putting in a huge amount,
02:43 but it hasn't actually been disclosed what they're putting in
02:45 but it would be a massive amount of money,
02:46 certainly compared to the six figure sums
02:48 they've been putting in elsewhere.
02:50 But, it's obviously been a tension for any organisation
02:55 that's now has any kind of involvement
02:58 with Bailiwick Inverter,
02:59 there's potentially a problem there
03:00 because the Fossil Free Books campaign,
03:05 the thing that brought this to a head for book festivals
03:08 is basically the threat of destruction.
03:10 And that was pretty much why the Hay Festival
03:15 and then the Book Festival had to take decisions
03:17 because one of the elements
03:22 which shouldn't affect potentially an event like the fringes,
03:27 do you know the pressure that was put
03:28 on individual performers to pull out of those festivals,
03:33 I can't really see that being an issue for the fringe at all.
03:37 But certainly for book festivals to lose performers,
03:40 particularly at the last minute as was happening
03:42 with the Hay Festival in Wales was a huge issue
03:44 that potentially could have been catastrophic
03:47 for the Book Festival as well.
03:49 But it's the threat of disruption
03:51 and the prospect of protest
03:53 that certainly was giving the Book Festival
03:56 a kind of added anxiety.
03:57 And I think they did touch on that in their statement
04:00 that it's very difficult for them to guarantee
04:03 a kind of safe event and a sustainable event
04:06 if they were losing people,
04:09 but also this prospect of protest.
04:11 So that has been and will be one of the things
04:14 that the Fringe Society will be thinking about.
04:17 And it's a very complex picture.
04:19 You know, one of many sponsors,
04:23 certainly the fringe is not entirely
04:25 and has never been reliant on one particular sponsor,
04:29 but obviously the Royal Mile and where the Fringe Society is
04:34 is a very, very busy place in August.
04:37 I don't think anyone involved with the Fringe Society
04:40 or the police or the council will particularly welcome
04:43 that prospect of any big protests.
04:45 Having said that, the Fringe is no stranger
04:47 to protests, activism, demonstrations.
04:51 I mean, it kind of goes with the territory of the Fringe.
04:55 And obviously the Fringe from day one
04:58 has always been about freedom of expression
05:01 and being an open access event.
05:03 So, and later on top of that as well,
05:07 we have the whole debate which is ongoing
05:10 about who's the festival for in Edinburgh.
05:13 Is it something that, you know,
05:15 I mean, I firmly believe it's very, very popular
05:17 with the people of Edinburgh,
05:18 but there are people in outlying areas of the city
05:20 who for one reason or another
05:22 just don't come into the city centre, particularly in August.
05:25 So interestingly, Bailey Gifford, a lot of their work
05:28 is that the fund has really been about kind of widening
05:33 access to the festival to community groups
05:35 and also, you know, paying for performers to go into it
05:40 in different parts of the city.
05:42 But quite frankly,
05:43 they don't have much experience of culture at all.
05:46 So it's a very tricky picture.
05:49 And it's a picture that's been shifting as well.
05:52 The book festival's always had a bit of a hard time
05:55 in Edinburgh for that decision, which is, you know,
05:59 there's not too many people happy about it, to be honest,
06:01 including the book festival themselves.
06:03 So it's a very tricky thing for people to grapple with.
06:06 And I'd say there has been a significant backlash
06:10 within the cultural sector as well.
06:13 So, you know, it's not a story that's gonna go away
06:17 any time soon.
06:18 Certainly I think it'll be something that
06:20 has got a few twists and turns left in it.
06:23 - Brian, you've covered for today as well
06:25 that just the number of shows that are being put on,
06:27 there's been a lot of criticism about costs,
06:30 access to accommodation,
06:32 also from Shona McCarthy talking about her concerns
06:35 about the lack of direct support
06:36 from bodies like the state government.
06:39 But there is still a very healthy programme
06:41 being run this year.
06:42 Can you just in a nutshell, very quickly,
06:45 pick out a couple of highlights from the programme?
06:47 What are you excited about seeing in August?
06:50 - The one show, I mean,
06:53 there's obviously quite a lot of interest and concern,
06:56 actually, about one of the best
06:58 and biggest fringe venues, Summer Hall.
07:00 And obviously I think they're running a campaign
07:03 to try and get people to go there.
07:05 I would encourage people to seek out June Carter Cash,
07:08 the woman, her music and me,
07:10 which is a new stage show created by a Glaswegian actress
07:15 and country singer, Charlene Boyd,
07:18 partly inspired by her kind of long-time love
07:22 of country music,
07:23 but also a growing interest she's had in June Carter Cash,
07:26 who was the wife of Johnny Cash
07:28 and a hugely successful award-winning performer
07:32 in their own right.
07:33 There's gonna be, Nashville's Bluebird Cafe
07:36 is gonna be recreated at Summer Hall this summer
07:38 for the new National Theatre of Scotland show.
07:41 And I'd also mention there are gonna be not one,
07:44 but two new stage shows inspired
07:47 by Gwyneth Paltrow's ski crash
07:49 and the ensuing legal battle.
07:52 One of which, well, one of which stars Diana Vickers,
07:57 which some viewers and readers may remember from,
08:01 she was propelled to fame on "The X Factor."
08:03 So she has got the starring role as Gwyneth Paltrow
08:06 in one of them, which is called "I Wish You Well,"
08:08 which apparently it was Gwyneth Paltrow's parting words
08:12 in the courtroom.
08:13 So that's, but there's 3,300 shows
08:19 in this year's Fringe Program.
08:21 So despite endless debate and anxieties
08:24 about the affordability of the event,
08:27 which is still a massive issue,
08:29 the number of shows has turned out to be 10% more
08:32 than last year.
08:33 And at the last count,
08:36 the program will be the fourth biggest
08:38 in the 77 year history of the event.
08:41 And that is, it's worth pointing out,
08:43 that's without Gilded Balloon's biggest venue,
08:46 which is closed this year.
08:47 And the absence of a couple of notable venues
08:50 in the new town.
08:50 So the picture's, it always shifts every year,
08:54 but it'll be certainly a very interesting year.
08:57 But I don't think people in Edinburgh
08:58 will get the sense of it being anything smaller
09:01 than it has been over the last decade or so.
09:03 Certainly of the same scale.
09:06 - Brian, I'll be interested in saying
09:07 whether Trump's courtroom battle
09:09 also inspires any perhaps comic performances
09:12 at the Fringe this year as well.
09:14 You can read all the stories that we've spoken about today
09:17 at scotsman.com, the coverage around the Fringe,
09:20 Sharon McCarthy's comments,
09:21 and also the future of Summer Hall,
09:24 which is being put up as a venue for sale.
09:27 Clearly a lot of people in the arts and culture sector
09:29 are very concerned about that move.
09:31 Brian, thanks for joining us.
09:33 Everyone, please follow us on Facebook X
09:36 and head direct to the website
09:38 and buy a copy of the paper tomorrow.
09:41 Thank you.
09:42 (upbeat music)
09:45 (upbeat music)