Visitor levy to cost Edinburgh festivals more than £1.1 million a year as crunch meeting looms

In a deputation submitted to the council ahead of a Tuesday morning committee meeting on the city’s visitor levy, the festivals called for a “proportionate share” of the levy income to be reinvested in the events and the wider cultural infrastructure that underpins the city’s visitor economy - warning that without further investment, their “reach and impact” will be greatly reduced.

The joint statement also called for an urgent “longer term approach” to festivals funding from the council.

The document, filed in papers to be considered by councillors, said the tax places a “new and increased financial burden” of £150,000 a year on the administration of the festivals, while the bill will hit more than £1.1m when the costs for promoters, venues and artists at the Fringe are included.

Tony Lankester, chief executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, and Jenny Niven, director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, are expected to speak at the meeting, where they will answer questions from councillors about the deputation.

The festivals’ joint statement called for the council to “recognise the festivals as strategic city infrastructure” and establish a longer-term approach to festivals investment.

Last week, festivals and venue bosses, including Edinburgh International Festival director Nicola Benedetti, warned that more cash from the levy, which adds an extra five per cent to overnight stays in Edinburgh, needed to be put back into the festivals. Ms Benedetti said the levy would cost the EIF an extra £50,000 a year, while William Burdett-Coutts, director of venue group Assembly, said his company was paying out £60,000 for the levy this summer.

The deputation said: “Their [festivals’] contribution should be assessed not simply through cultural grant outputs, but through their wider economic, social, cultural, civic and international value to Edinburgh.

The statement added: “The risk of underinvestment is not that the festivals suddenly disappear, but that their programmes are constrained in ambition and their reach and impact are gradually reduced - fewer premieres and commissions, less experimentation and innovation, reduced national and international activity, erosion of brand and appeal.

“We risk losing the things that gives Edinburgh the edge over other festival cities.”

However, the festivals warned that visitor levy income should not replace core funding from the council through the Third Party Cultural Grant programme.

They said core funding from the council to the festivals has remained broadly static for more than a decade, while the cost of delivering world-leading cultural organisations and events has risen substantially.

They said: “The Visitor Levy provides an important opportunity to strengthen the Festivals and the wider cultural and visitor economy. We support the principle that visitors should contribute towards the costs and impacts of tourism, with the resulting income benefiting both residents and visitors.

“Given the significant role the festivals play in attracting visitors to Edinburgh, a proportionate share of visitor levy income should be reinvested in the festivals and the wider cultural infrastructure that underpins the city’s visitor economy. However, visitor levy investment must complement, not replace, core council cultural funding.”

They added: “The Third Party Cultural Grant programme has provided vital multi-year support, giving festivals the stability to invest in the people, infrastructure and operations on which their success depends. Any proposal to replace core funding with visitor levy income risks undermining that stability and creates a fundamental problem of additionality. What is needed now is investment in the core.”

The council has previously defended the introduction of the levy, saying it will use the funds “to reinvest in everything that makes Edinburgh so special”.