The Future of the Edinburgh Festivals

Trawling Edinburgh Festival for the sites of my old publicity stunts, celebrated in the #Twithibition I have just launched, has been a contemplative experience. The stunts celebrated 25 years of mischief, but that was then. What is now? I thought it worth considering how the Festival has evolved as I trekked around the city putting up posters.

I have been going to Edinburgh for years and there is always much that is astonishing, vibrant and beautiful on offer at the Festival – of this year’s crop, Sian Williams’ one-woman show for The Kosh at the Gilded Balloon and Shed Simove at Belushi’s are two to look out for. Sian Williams is the same age as Madonna and considerably sexier; she is compelling to watch. Shed, inventor of the Clitoris Allsorts, is like Trevor Baylis on crack.

But despite the amazing things that are, as ever, on offer, it’s clear that Edinburgh is at a crossroads. Arguably, some City grandees are not able to organise a piss up in a distillery. Princess Street has been dug up just as the Festival started. What planning genius came up with that one? Producers report resources have been pulled away from the Festival; the Assembly Rooms, mid-renovation, was a building site in week one, with one of its auditoria unfit for purpose - the council should be shot for not readying it for the Fringe. The insanity of moving the Film Festival to June is nearly as bad as serially under-funding the International Festival.

I believe that the blame for all this lies at the door of the city fathers, who appear to be unconsciously frittering the spectacle of Edinburgh away, dissipating the energy that has, for many years, seen journalists fighting tooth and nail to get up there every August to run up their expense account and discover the latest bright young things on the international arts scene. Even the bright young things are being discouraged from coming, as student accommodation gets ever more expensive in the city.

Venue controllers bemoan the lack of media attention outside of Scotland. Spreading out the festival over five weeks is a mistake; they should be condensing it to three! Considering it is the largest Festival of its type in the world, the coverage Edinburgh gets, outside a few broadsheets, is pitiful, with little or nothing in the news pages. The fledgling Manchester Festival seemed to get it right, but Edinburgh has slipped - it’s not seen as one of the greatest shows on Earth any more.

Tellingly, the BBC sent fewer staff to cover Edinburgh than went to T in the Park. Even the Scotsman is only using six reviewers. In a tenuous economic climate, it is foolhardy of the Edinburgh council to disregard the impact, and undermine the vitality, of the Festival and the revenues it brings.

There is, at least, good digital representation being developed to help build audiences – I am addicted to the iFringe app for iPhone - but the Festival needs to keep drawing in new talent and audiences and media. It can’t rest on past laurels as, to punters in their 20s, the Festival icons of 30 years ago are vastly distant and mostly irrelevant. Forget the past – the Festival needs to focus on what’s happening now. Stretching the Festivals out so that the Music, Film, Book and Fringe, etc, become ever more separated is preventing the sort of international coverage that Cannes enjoys from happening in Edinburgh. Something needs to change if the Festival is to remain relevant in another 30 years time.

Mark, thanks for posting your op-ed from The Independent with suggestion of collapsing Edinburgh's Summer festivals into a three week festival. (And yes Sian Williams is one to look out for).

You may be right that the city council has a lot to answer for. It's not known for its alacrity when it comes to getting things done. In fact, any public works in Edinburgh seem to take a staggering amount of time. But blaming the council for everything that you see as wrong with the festival...? The festivals are much more freewheeling than that and I doubt it'd be able to co-ordinate a three week fest even if it wanted to. I can see the advantages of having the 3-week-fest package from a promoter's point of view, although I kinda like the rambling nature of the various festivals where there is a bigger window to turn up in town and dip in.

Re moving the film festival to June - far from being "insanity" - I think it has worked out. Okay, it's a pity that there's less of that cross fertilisation of film and live performance worlds that you had before when both festivals ran in August. The film fest parties have lost something by not having all these interesting Fringe actors turn up. But now there's time to take in shows from both film and stage and correspondingly there's a little less pressure on accommodation and venues.

As for media coverage of the festival outside Scotland - this has been a long-running problem. Organisers of the Big Four venues echoed many of your sentiments about the festivals profile south of the border when they set up the Edinburgh Comedy Festival. The umbrella group Festivals Edinburgh or Edinburgh's Festivals or whatever it's called is meant to be marketing all the festivals although many people think it's clearly not working. I don't know why it is so invisible - are they reading this now? Please feel free to comment...

I also can't understand why the Beeb is increasingly shunning the festival - it has been drawing back its coverage for years and years. But with all the MSM pulling in the horns - due to credit crunch and internet - isn't arts coverage across the board getting hit - not just Edinburgh's Festivals?

Can't end my post without mentioning the trams: there's little love for the trams in Edinburgh right now. Everyone blames the trams for, well, everything practically. But hopefully the pain now will be worth the reduction in usual gridlock that Edinburgh experiences at festival time.

Incidentally, the Princes Street trams work actually was slated to start in February, and stop during the festival. But it was delayed for a month over a dispute with the contractors. So work is continuing on Princes Street through August so that it can open by Christmas/Hogmanay.

All I can say is welcome to Edinburgh! This is how the city council has let one of the most splendid city centres become and we that live here have had to tolerate it for years now. I feel the festivals themselves have never felt healthier, the moving of the film festival to June is a great idea as there is simply so much on in August anyway. There is a great atmosphere in town following a truly awful period for the city following the council's eagerness to wildly overdevelop (not helped by failing to resolve bin strikes in time for the festival period).

Ah, the constant arguments that the Fringe embroils.

Having worked during the Fringe for six years in various roles, but mostly journalistic, I have to say that in all honesty it is a festival that has been through some tough times despite its institutional stature (last year’s ticketing fiasco case in point, resulting in many resignations). However this does give the opportunity to breathe life into the festival with, hopefully, a fresh and encouraging approach to its future – which isn’t bleak and shouldn’t be viewed as such.

New records are reached every year with the festival, this year being no exception despite the messy business of the trams, which is an eyesore for the tourists who flock here. It is a nightmare (anyone who’s watched Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow will know that the residents of Edinburgh are sick to death of the “bloody trams”), and while they may seem unnecessary, edg brings up a good point that they may have caused disruption for one year but will hopefully decrease congestion in the future.

Coverage outside of Scotland is an issue that has been ongoing and has hit headlines in the past. The new conglomerate of Edinburgh Festivals is still a fledgling so hopefully (optimistic head on) their future marketing and PR, teamed with the efforts of the venues will increase media traffic. There is the issue that the festival isn’t newsworthy, as it rarely appears in the pages of the media except to the confined festival sections included for the month, and this is an issue that does need to be tackled.

As for resting on laurels vs. fresh focus on emerging talent – although there is a tendency for well-known comedians to re-appear every year and overshadow fresh, exciting and challenging work, looking at ticket sales alone, this is merely giving the public what it wants. The age-old question of how we get the masses to embrace challenging theatre from unknowns is an infuriating concept.