The Scotsman Bulletin Thursday November 14 2025 #EIF #Benedetti

The Scotsman

Dale speaks to arts correspondent Brian Ferguson about cuts to the Edinburgh International Festival budget

Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin for this Thursday.

00:05My name is Dale Miller.

00:06I'm Deputy Editor at the Scotsman and I'm joined by our Arts and Culture Correspondent,

00:11Brian Ferguson.

00:12Brian, we're going to get to you very, very shortly because the front page of today's

00:17Scotsman splashes on your story.

00:21Nicola Benedetti talking about heartbreak over cuts to the festival program.

00:26Now, this is the Edinburgh International Festival of which she is the head or director and there

00:33was an announcement, Brian, effectively about the program, but within that, Benedetti having

00:39to detail what she would probably want to deliver for next year, but she cannot due

00:45to funding cuts.

00:47Can you talk us through a bit about the situation, how we've sort of got here and what won't

00:52be on the schedule that we might've seen otherwise for next year?

00:55Yeah, absolutely.

00:56I mean, the thing to make clear really from the outset is that the Edinburgh International

01:03Festival's problems are being experienced by pretty much every big, every festival of

01:09any size, every theatre, every arts organisation in the country.

01:13The problem they've got is not only are they probably the flagship cultural event, certainly

01:19the Scottish Government funds gets by far the biggest subsidy, certainly the biggest

01:23subsidy of anything in the city.

01:26So they have the biggest budget that's reliant on public funding and everyone's in the same

01:32boat, but their boat just happens to be a hell of a lot bigger and more reliant on public

01:37funding.

01:38They've had certainly well over two million, you know, which comes from the government,

01:43which has come via Creative Scotland for as long as I can remember, the City Council's

01:48put in a similar amount, but that funding really has remained at the same level.

01:53The festival we're seeing this week, something like 17 years, it's remained at almost exactly

01:59the same level.

02:00There's been a few pots of come and gone, but really the core funding has not changed.

02:06It hasn't even gone up, it hasn't kept pace with inflation or rising costs or anything

02:11else.

02:12So there's been a long-term issue that the festival and other arts organisations and

02:18Creative Scotland have tried to get addressed.

02:22The last time this really came up, the last thing was a big kind of round of funding decisions.

02:28There was a little bit more money put into the pot, but there wasn't huge increases for

02:34any organisation at that point.

02:36Now, obviously, we've moved on since the last big round of decisions were six years ago.

02:41It's going to be seven years by the time those decisions, which are meant to be made in January

02:46now, but still, the Scottish government has not, there's been two years of debating and

02:54lobbying on this issue, but they still have not committed to do what they've promised

02:59to do a long time ago, is to kind of put three-year funding agreements in place for everyone really,

03:07for organisations that are funded by Creative Scotland, for the national performing companies

03:11like Scottish Ballet, who are going to be in next year's festival, National Theatre

03:16Scotland, all the rest of it.

03:18So they had promised to do this, it was a big manifesto commitment from the SNP, and

03:23they have just not yet delivered on that, basically.

03:27The big crunch was meant to be last month, when Creative Scotland were due to make decisions

03:34on something like 281 applications, worth about £87.5 million a year.

03:41So, you know, international festivals, the share of that is quite small, if they get

03:48anything like what they've had.

03:50That was supposed to happen last month.

03:51There was some very kind of late negotiations between the Scottish government and Creative

03:56Scotland ahead of that deadline, but the deadline has been missed, basically.

04:01The Scottish government has decided that it couldn't commit anything to Creative Scotland

04:08to allow them to make those decisions in time.

04:11It's caused a huge problem for just about everyone in Scottish culture, but it's caused

04:15a particular problem for the Edinburgh International Festival, because they basically planned so

04:22far in advance, they were waiting to see what the result of that funding application would

04:29be, to kind of press go on various things, but they've basically, like everyone else,

04:35has been basically put on hold until the end of January.

04:40We're kind of expecting those funding decisions.

04:43There should be a bit of a kind of indicator of how that might go when the Scottish government

04:48sets its budget in December, but I mean, you know, it's kind of anyone's guess how that

04:54may all pan out.

04:56I think the Scottish government really has to finally deliver or at least state what

05:01its priorities are at that point, but it's been a bit of a bleak picture.

05:04So yeah, the festival, I mean, understandably, they don't announce their programme until

05:11March, when they put tickets on sale, so I mean, it just exposes the madness of

05:17the difficulties they've got in planning ahead, where they don't know what the budget

05:25is going to be for next year's event, but they're kind of expecting to nail the whole

05:29thing down, so the safest way that they're going to be able to do that is to basically

05:34scale back everything they do.

05:37People might not, we don't quite know how that will manifest itself, but Nicola Benedetti,

05:42the festival director, was saying to me, there definitely won't be a big opening event as

05:46there has been pretty much over the last decade.

05:51Certainly the Usher Hall programme will not be of the same scale that it normally is,

05:55that has been a core of the festival programme since the event was instigated in 1947.

06:02I'd imagine some of the other venues that the festival uses will have reduced programmes.

06:08She did hint that not all of them would, but we'll have to wait and see how that pans

06:13out, and I'd be very surprised if there are events back in Leith Theatre.

06:19The festival's not used Leith Theatre for the last couple of years, there's an issue

06:23there around the cost of putting anything on because you have to bring in all kinds

06:27of equipment, toilets and all the rest of it, there's still a big issue there.

06:33There may be something in the Ross Bandstand, I think that there's a bit of pressure on

06:37the council and also from the council to try and get that facility back into a bit more

06:42use again, but I think there's no doubt about it, the festival next year will certainly

06:47not be of the scale that people are used to, but also people expect, I think there's a

06:51real expectation, that it will be of a certain scale.

06:55There was a bit of chatter about the festival maybe reducing in terms of how long it runs

07:01for, but I think they have managed to avoid that.

07:04I think that would have been a bit of a PR catastrophe, but it'll be difficult enough.

07:10Fingers crossed that there is a bit more clarity to give people a bit more reassurance to plan

07:19for the future years, but it just seems a nonsense that they've basically been left

07:22without any Scottish Government funding ahead of next year's event.

07:26But everyone else is in the same boat, as everyone's been pointing out.

07:31Brian, I know our editor, Alan Young, attended last year's opening event of the EIF and he

07:38said he didn't go along with massive expectations, but left really wowed by the event.

07:43So it is a real loss from the calendar.

07:47You can read Brian's story in full at scotsman.com, just to hear from Benedetta herself, how she

07:56feels about the funding challenge she's facing and the festivals facing at the moment.

08:01All Brian's latest coverage as well is available across the Scotsman.

08:06We're a big supporter of the EIF and the festivals as a whole, as a brand.

08:11So you will continue to read more coverage over coming months about the spending challenges

08:16and what's happening with next year's festivals as well.

08:19Please follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram and go out and buy a copy of the paper tomorrow

08:25for all the latest.

08:26Thanks, Brian, and thanks to everyone else for joining us.

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