Edinburgh festivals and culture groups secure extra £1.1m from council

It follows a series of calls from cultural leaders to Edinburgh City Council to pass on a portion of visitor levy funds to support delivery of the festivals given rising costs.

A one-off 25 percent increase in funding, worth approximately £1.07 million, was agreed at a full council meeting for existing Third Party Cultural Grants partners, including the Edinburgh International Festival, Book Festival, and the Fringe Society as well as community organisations.

In addition, extra support for all eligible cultural and arts organisations, including those operating at a local community level, will be available via a new £2.62m Innovate fund, supported by the visitor levy, which will open for applications next week. Successful applicants will need to demonstrate how projects will benefit visitors to the city.

The meeting was attended in person by Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society chief executive Tony Lankester and Festivals Edinburgh director Lori Anderson, while Nicola Benedetti, director of the Edinburgh International Festival, spoke virtually from the US.

Mr Lankester welcomed the move, but warned that more needs to be done to distribute the visitor levy funds to cultural organisations.

He said: “Next year marks the Edinburgh Festivals' 80th Anniversary, making the coming 12 months pivotal to continuing Edinburgh's status as a world-class festival city. Therefore, we welcome the Council's decision to increase funding for cultural organisations across the city, despite the delay.

“The wider question of the extent to which the Council and, specifically, TVL funding can be deployed to support those who deliver the Fringe each year remains open. We look forward to continuing to engage around that need, to ensure that the Fringe can continue to play a role in making Edinburgh the world’s leading creative city.”

Francesca Hegyi, chief executive of the Edinburgh International Festival, said: “This is very welcome news, and we're grateful to the council for this decision. Rising costs have put real pressure on our organisation, and this uplift gives us the confidence and stability to manage them over the coming year.

“Most importantly, it means we can continue to bring some of the world’s greatest artists to Edinburgh’s stages and into its school and communities.”

Cllr Margaret Graham, Culture and Communities Convener said: “I have listened and heard the views and feedback of our cultural partners in recent weeks and the 25% uplift they have secured will provide certainty for the next year.

“I was absolutely clear, however, that this agreement could not be at the expense of our smaller cultural organisations across the city – many of which receive no funding at all. I have been a long time advocate of young people and communities and I know first-hand the value of local arts groups in our communities across the city.

“The funding package we agreed today will see all our cultural partners benefit, whatever their size or stature, but we need to find a fairer and more sustainable way of doing business in future – something that will high on the agenda at the round table discussion I will be calling in the coming weeks.”

Green councillor Dan Heap, whose proposal will increase funding by a quarters for the festivals, said his amendment “provided a compromise”.

Mr Heap said the party had done “a lot of due diligence” with finance officers to ensure his proposal was a “safe and financially responsible decision” for the council.

He admitted the move would need to be revisited in 12 months.

“We’re going to have to come back to the question of how culture funding is done in the future,” he said, adding that future funding needed to look outwith organisations based in the city centre, which currently account for 94 per cent of all funding.”

The culture committee last month backed proposals to ringfence £1.4m of income from the city’s tourist tax to increase support for the festivals and other major events.

The visitor levy came into effect in the capital last month, meaning visitors staying in Edinburgh overnight need to pay a five per cent tax.

Council officials had wanted to cap any increases in funding for the festivals to 11.5 per cent, however, SNP and Lib Dem councillors voted in favour of a 25 per cent increase.