Festivals must grasp opportunity for rethink in support from Scottish Government

After two years of intense lobbying to bring an end to more than a decade of standstill funding and tackle an industry-wide costs crisis, the prospect of a new working group may well leave some at the sharp end on the brink of despair.

After all, it is only two months until the Scottish Government’s arts agency is due to decide on the future funding of dozens of festivals, as well as more than 200 other applications from arts organisations, without actually knowing its budget for the three-year period in question.

If festivals either lose existing funding deals or have their hopes of securing long-term backing for the first time dashed, the Scottish Government’s latest initiative will have proved to be entirely worthless.

It is easy to understand why Scottish festival organisers and their counterparts across the culture sector may be somewhat cynical given the government’s recent track record of unannounced cuts and undelivered promises of additional funding.

However, I would suggest festivals of all shapes and sizes seize this new opportunity to influence how these events are supported, staged and promoted – at home and abroad.

Much of this has been happening to some extent. 

Festivals all over Scotland have been at the heart of VisitScotland’s recent campaigns. They have been championed in multiple government strategies published over the last year, but without any sign of the new investment they have been crying out for.

It has been clear over the last year in particular that government intervention has been needed to ensure there is adequate ring-fenced funding for festivals – and not just those staged in Edinburgh and Glasgow, which are able to access a dwindling Festivals Expo Fund.

There certainly has to be a better way of doing things than expecting long-running festivals to submit repeated applications to Creative Scotland in the hope of making it through one of its fiercely-competitive funding rounds.

There have been glaring inconsistencies between how sporting and cultural events have been handled, with the latter expected to grapple with year-on-year cuts while the former have had huge sums of money invested in them, including in one-off cultural programmes.

Public transport arrangements for major festivals, including TRNSMT in Glasgow and the Fringe in Edinburgh, have been clearly inadequate and have acted as a clear deterrent to using public transport, flying in the face of the government's own policies. 

Supporting festivals across the country to survive and thrive should be a no-brainer, as long as common sense and a fair approach are applied across the board.

There is no point encouraging the development of new events, only to pull the plug on funding support after a few years.

It is also vital that high-profile publicly-funded events remain as accessible and affordable as possible if they are to maintain their audiences.

Festivals will also clearly need help as possible to attract commercial sponsors in future years, not potentially crippling restrictions on alcohol advertising, which are still lurking over the horizon.

Most importantly, the government’s decision to prioritise festivals given the huge benefits they generate must be a key factor when Creative Scotland has to make those long-awaited funding decisions.