Exclusive:Scottish arts festivals promised more priority and new funding to 'flourish' under Government rethink

A rethink has been promised by ministers to ensure cultural events of all sizes around Scotland are allowed to “flourish” and “maximise their contribution” to the country.

The Government has announced plans for a new “partnership” with arts festivals to effectively put them on the same footing as the country’s food and drink sector, and the Scottish tourism industry.

The nation’s festivals, which are believed to be worth more than £500 million to the economy, have been hailed as a “jewel” in the Scottish culture sector and in Scotland’s national life.

Culture sector Angus Robertson has published an “open letter” urging arts festivals to come forward with ideas of how they can be best supported by the Government.

However, it is hoped the venture will lead to more secure government funding, better promotion in national and international tourism campaigns, and improved public transport services to get festival goers to and from events.

The government’s Creative Scotland and EventScotland agencies, who both fund festivals around the country, are being asked to support the new partnership.

Event organisers have been promised a share of an additional £100m, which the Scottish Government has committed to the culture sector over the next four years.

It is not clear how and when new funding will be allocated to the festivals, despite warnings for nearly two years they have been struggling with a perfect storm of factors, including rising costs, standstill funding and changes in ticket-buying habits since the pandemic.

However, the Government has stressed the importance of cultural events to the country just two months before Creative Scotland is due to decide on £87.5m of applications, many of which are from festivals, for three-year funding.

And it has pledged the new initiative, which has been announced in the first week of Edinburgh’s main summer festivals season, is expected to involve cultural events of all sizes and formats around the country.

The festivals initiative has been announced months after the launch of a long-awaited new national events strategy for Scotland. It highlighted signature events such as the Edinburgh International Festival, the Fringe, the Tattoo, Glasgow’s Celtic Connections music festival, the Wigtown Book Festival in Dumfries & Galloway, Shetland’s Up Helly Aa fire festival and the Hebridean Celtic Festival, on the Isle of Lewis.

A separate vision for culture in an independent Scotland stated: “Scotland has a rich tradition of providing the world with a stage on which to perform, by hosting arts and culture from around the globe, as well as hosting globally significant events. Scotland hosts over 200 arts, music and community festivals a year.”

However, the new events strategy, which was published in May, warned of a “significant threat” to the capacity and viability of the Scottish events industry due to the combined impact of the pandemic, Brexit, skills shortages, new regulations and a squeeze on public sector funding.

Edinburgh’s festivals warned last year they had been left “hanging by a precarious financial thread after more than 15 years of declining investment”.

Organisers of cultural events have also accused the Government of neglecting them in favour one-off sporting events like the Commonwealth Games and the UCI World Cycling Championships, which were staged across Scotland last year.

Shona McCarthy, chief executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, described the level of support for the event as a “national embarrassment” in April. Francesca Hegyi, chief executive of the Edinburgh International Festival, suggested Scotland was at risk of losing “big chunks” of its cultural life unless the Government started rolling out its promised new £100m investment within months.

The Government's move is expected to increase pressure on national arts agency Creative Scotland not to cut the funding of any of Scotland's high-profile festivals when decisions are made on its next round of long-term funding applications in the autumn.

A number of high-profile festivals have had funding applications turned down by Creative Scotland over the past year, including the Edinburgh Deaf Festival, the Lammermuir Festival, which stages classical music events across East Lothian, the Fringe Society, the Aye Write book festival in Glasgow and Fringe by the Sea, the annual arts festival in North Berwick, which was snubbed months after being named Scotland’s outstanding cultural event in the national tourism awards.

In his open letter to festivals, Mr Robertson said: “Scotland's arts festivals are a jewel in the culture sector and national life. They provide an invaluable platform for our performers and creatives, help provide hundreds of millions of pounds to the Scottish and local economies, are a cultural shopfront to the rest of the world and much more besides.

"Working in partnership with festivals during and since the pandemic, it has been impressed on me the importance of the Scottish Government and its public agencies taking a strategic approach to supporting and promoting arts festivals to ensure that they flourish and maximise their contribution to Scotland.

"It is my intention to now formally initiate a strategic partnership for Scotland's arts festivals, to which we will invite Creative Scotland and EventScotland. With the help of the sector, which has already identified many of the necessary next steps, I want to ensure that we are best supporting festivals.

"This will include additional Scottish Government funding, which is committed to raise additional annual spending on culture and the arts by £100m by 2028/29, aiming for an increase of £25m next year. I would warmly welcome the input of Scotland's arts festivals and those who care about them.”

Mr Robertson told The Scotsman: “We have had repeated feedback about a need for greater co-ordination and coherence in support of Scotland’s arts festivals. We need to do everything to get the Scottish Government, Creative Scotland, EventScotland and other public agencies to work strategically to help these festivals survive and thrive.

"We’ve already done this in a number of other areas, including through the Brand Scotland partnership, which promotes Scotland at home and abroad, and through Scotland Food & Drink.

"There has already been closing working between the Government, festivals and other cultural organisations since the pandemic. I’m keen to take that co-operation to the next level, to bring together public agencies and festivals to work out, in a spirit of partnership, the areas where we collectively agree that action, improved coordination and policy coherence is necessary.”