Why Edinburgh, Scotland and the whole world need the Edinburgh Festivals

To paraphrase Samuel Johnson, if you are tired of Edinburgh in August, then perhaps you are tired of life. The streets of the city centre are, of course, crowded with people, there is much hustle and bustle, and mime artists aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but this truly is living.

Those who girn about the festivals’ negative effects should be careful what they wish for. If Edinburgh turns against these marvellous geese and they fly away to another city, we will undoubtedly rue the absence of its many golden eggs. For a vision of such a future, we can look back to the Covid lockdowns when the streets were empty and businesses only survived because of massive state intervention.

Surely, the idea of the Manchester Festival Fringe taking place in some future August, while Edinburgh is eerily quiet, is appalling enough to persuade even the most dedicated naysayer to change their mind.

In all, the city’s festivals support more than 7,000 jobs and contribute more than £400 million to our economy – tangible benefits that make a real difference to people’s lives. However, the festivals are clearly about so much more than money. The shows make us laugh, move us to tears, make us think and enrich Scotland’s cultural life in a myriad of ways. In short, they make us better, more interesting people.

But perhaps the most important reason of all was part of the international festival’s founding vision in 1947: that, after the devastation of the Second World Word, people from across the world should be reunited through great art.

Speaking at the time, conductor Bruno Walter said: “It was of the utmost importance and most to be desired that all the ties which had been torn should be re-united… What you have seen here in Edinburgh is one of the most magnificent experiences since the war. Here, human relations have been renewed.”

In increasingly troubled times, the world needs Edinburgh Festival.