The festivals need our support, not fobbed off

Perhaps we should not be too surprised that this has happened in a city which currently has its main public transport thoroughfare closed during the world’s biggest arts festival.

Unbelievably, the council report on Third Party Cultural Grant Funding 2027-28 was withdrawn from the agenda of the committee meeting on the technical basis that it had been submitted a “couple of hours late” by officials.

It means festival representatives – including Fringe chief Tony Lankester, and book festival director Jenny Niven – who were due to attend the meeting will now not be able to make their case while the festival is happening all around the councillors.

“We’re disappointed that we weren’t given the opportunity to make the case for the Fringe or the wider Festivals, and frustrated that an already lengthy process is now made longer – with continued uncertainty and the absence of any meaningful engagement with the affected festivals,” Mr Lankester says.

We are not surprised. The lack of urgency displayed by both the city council and ministers on a range of issues in favour of delaying tactics is of serious concern.

We have long said the Scottish Government needs to realise both the huge contribution of Edinburgh’s festivals, and the risks of complacency in treating them as a cash cow. Assuming they will always be there is dangerously foolhardy.

The same it seems applies to the city council.

There is no more important topic for the council’s ‘culture committee’ to be discussing than what is happening on their doorstep until the end of August. The loss of the Edinburgh TV Festival should have been treated as the biggest of red flags.

Our politicians need to realise the consequences of failing to act, and the loss to Edinburgh and Scotland which is staring them in the face.

Postponing this vital meeting is not a good start.