Dale speaks to arts correspondent Brian Ferguson about cuts to the Edinburgh International Festival budget
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00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin for this Thursday.
00:05My name is Dale Miller.
00:06I'm Deputy Editor at the Scotsman and I'm joined by our Arts and Culture Correspondent,
00:11Brian Ferguson.
00:12Brian, we're going to get to you very, very shortly because the front page of today's
00:17Scotsman splashes on your story.
00:21Nicola Benedetti talking about heartbreak over cuts to the festival program.
00:26Now, this is the Edinburgh International Festival of which she is the head or director and there
00:33was an announcement, Brian, effectively about the program, but within that, Benedetti having
00:39to detail what she would probably want to deliver for next year, but she cannot due
00:45to funding cuts.
00:47Can you talk us through a bit about the situation, how we've sort of got here and what won't
00:52be on the schedule that we might've seen otherwise for next year?
00:55Yeah, absolutely.
00:56I mean, the thing to make clear really from the outset is that the Edinburgh International
01:03Festival's problems are being experienced by pretty much every big, every festival of
01:09any size, every theatre, every arts organisation in the country.
01:13The problem they've got is not only are they probably the flagship cultural event, certainly
01:19the Scottish Government funds gets by far the biggest subsidy, certainly the biggest
01:23subsidy of anything in the city.
01:26So they have the biggest budget that's reliant on public funding and everyone's in the same
01:32boat, but their boat just happens to be a hell of a lot bigger and more reliant on public
01:37funding.
01:38They've had certainly well over two million, you know, which comes from the government,
01:43which has come via Creative Scotland for as long as I can remember, the City Council's
01:48put in a similar amount, but that funding really has remained at the same level.
01:53The festival we're seeing this week, something like 17 years, it's remained at almost exactly
01:59the same level.
02:00There's been a few pots of come and gone, but really the core funding has not changed.
02:06It hasn't even gone up, it hasn't kept pace with inflation or rising costs or anything
02:11else.
02:12So there's been a long-term issue that the festival and other arts organisations and
02:18Creative Scotland have tried to get addressed.
02:22The last time this really came up, the last thing was a big kind of round of funding decisions.
02:28There was a little bit more money put into the pot, but there wasn't huge increases for
02:34any organisation at that point.
02:36Now, obviously, we've moved on since the last big round of decisions were six years ago.
02:41It's going to be seven years by the time those decisions, which are meant to be made in January
02:46now, but still, the Scottish government has not, there's been two years of debating and
02:54lobbying on this issue, but they still have not committed to do what they've promised
02:59to do a long time ago, is to kind of put three-year funding agreements in place for everyone really,
03:07for organisations that are funded by Creative Scotland, for the national performing companies
03:11like Scottish Ballet, who are going to be in next year's festival, National Theatre
03:16Scotland, all the rest of it.
03:18So they had promised to do this, it was a big manifesto commitment from the SNP, and
03:23they have just not yet delivered on that, basically.
03:27The big crunch was meant to be last month, when Creative Scotland were due to make decisions
03:34on something like 281 applications, worth about £87.5 million a year.
03:41So, you know, international festivals, the share of that is quite small, if they get
03:48anything like what they've had.
03:50That was supposed to happen last month.
03:51There was some very kind of late negotiations between the Scottish government and Creative
03:56Scotland ahead of that deadline, but the deadline has been missed, basically.
04:01The Scottish government has decided that it couldn't commit anything to Creative Scotland
04:08to allow them to make those decisions in time.
04:11It's caused a huge problem for just about everyone in Scottish culture, but it's caused
04:15a particular problem for the Edinburgh International Festival, because they basically planned so
04:22far in advance, they were waiting to see what the result of that funding application would
04:29be, to kind of press go on various things, but they've basically, like everyone else,
04:35has been basically put on hold until the end of January.
04:40We're kind of expecting those funding decisions.
04:43There should be a bit of a kind of indicator of how that might go when the Scottish government
04:48sets its budget in December, but I mean, you know, it's kind of anyone's guess how that
04:54may all pan out.
04:56I think the Scottish government really has to finally deliver or at least state what
05:01its priorities are at that point, but it's been a bit of a bleak picture.
05:04So yeah, the festival, I mean, understandably, they don't announce their programme until
05:11March, when they put tickets on sale, so I mean, it just exposes the madness of
05:17the difficulties they've got in planning ahead, where they don't know what the budget
05:25is going to be for next year's event, but they're kind of expecting to nail the whole
05:29thing down, so the safest way that they're going to be able to do that is to basically
05:34scale back everything they do.
05:37People might not, we don't quite know how that will manifest itself, but Nicola Benedetti,
05:42the festival director, was saying to me, there definitely won't be a big opening event as
05:46there has been pretty much over the last decade.
05:51Certainly the Usher Hall programme will not be of the same scale that it normally is,
05:55that has been a core of the festival programme since the event was instigated in 1947.
06:02I'd imagine some of the other venues that the festival uses will have reduced programmes.
06:08She did hint that not all of them would, but we'll have to wait and see how that pans
06:13out, and I'd be very surprised if there are events back in Leith Theatre.
06:19The festival's not used Leith Theatre for the last couple of years, there's an issue
06:23there around the cost of putting anything on because you have to bring in all kinds
06:27of equipment, toilets and all the rest of it, there's still a big issue there.
06:33There may be something in the Ross Bandstand, I think that there's a bit of pressure on
06:37the council and also from the council to try and get that facility back into a bit more
06:42use again, but I think there's no doubt about it, the festival next year will certainly
06:47not be of the scale that people are used to, but also people expect, I think there's a
06:51real expectation, that it will be of a certain scale.
06:55There was a bit of chatter about the festival maybe reducing in terms of how long it runs
07:01for, but I think they have managed to avoid that.
07:04I think that would have been a bit of a PR catastrophe, but it'll be difficult enough.
07:10Fingers crossed that there is a bit more clarity to give people a bit more reassurance to plan
07:19for the future years, but it just seems a nonsense that they've basically been left
07:22without any Scottish Government funding ahead of next year's event.
07:26But everyone else is in the same boat, as everyone's been pointing out.
07:31Brian, I know our editor, Alan Young, attended last year's opening event of the EIF and he
07:38said he didn't go along with massive expectations, but left really wowed by the event.
07:43So it is a real loss from the calendar.
07:47You can read Brian's story in full at scotsman.com, just to hear from Benedetta herself, how she
07:56feels about the funding challenge she's facing and the festivals facing at the moment.
08:01All Brian's latest coverage as well is available across the Scotsman.
08:06We're a big supporter of the EIF and the festivals as a whole, as a brand.
08:11So you will continue to read more coverage over coming months about the spending challenges
08:16and what's happening with next year's festivals as well.
08:19Please follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram and go out and buy a copy of the paper tomorrow
08:25for all the latest.
08:26Thanks, Brian, and thanks to everyone else for joining us.