Written evidence submitted by the Edinburgh International Festival (PSI0017)

The Edinburgh International Festival is one of the UK’s most significant assets. It is the world’s leading multi-genre arts festival and is unique, renowned and has informed the model for festivals around the world.

Co-founded by Rudolph Bing in 1947, a refugee who fled Austria and Germany in World War Two, the Festival was established as a world class event to bring together audiences and artists from around the world to foster mutual understanding and healing through cultural collaboration – an early example of soft power in practice.

Today, the Edinburgh International Festival maintains those values and presents a programme featuring the finest performers and ensembles from the worlds of dance, opera, music and theatre for three weeks in August, transforming Scotland’s capital into an unparalleled celebration of the performing arts and an annual meeting point for people of all nations.

The festival is currently led by internationally renowned and Grammy award-winning violinist, Nicola Benedetti.

• The Edinburgh festivals, of which Edinburgh International Festival is one, act as an economic powerhouse generating an annual impact of £280m in Edinburgh / £313m in Scotland.
• Together we attract annual audiences of more than 4.5 million, putting us on a par with the FIFA World Cup, both being second only to the Olympic Games.
• In 2022 EIF FTE jobs totalled 393 people across the year.

• We are a key asset in how the UK is perceived internationally, having built our reputation as a world-leading multi artform Festival over 76 years.
• We welcome some of the world’s greatest artists and ensembles to perform to audiences in venues across Edinburgh each August. More than 2,400 artists of over 45 nations performed in the 2022 Festival. This year representation of artists has increased to 49 countries.
• We attract people from more than 80 nations each year, making up around 10% of our audiences (2022).
• Our reputation and relationships with international partners are strong – from 2014 - 2022 we received over 90 instances of financial support from international governments in support of their artists and companies performing in our programme, including the USA, France, Canada, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Spain, Korea, regularly hosting diplomatic delegations and facilitating connections with governments/ organisations here.
• Similarly, we have collaborated on engagements for Scottish Government ministers internationally, for example in Paris, Brussels, and Beijing.
• Our European links are strong: we are a member of the European Festivals Association alongside 100 festivals for 40 countries including Ireland, Belgium, Finland, France, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands.

• We’re also a renowned global platform for presenting UK work - from Festival 2015 to Festival 2019 in our staged productions alone we presented a total of 624 performances. 53% of these were UK productions with 29% from Scotland and 24% from England.

A major challenge is the steady erosion of public sector funding for culture, creative industries, and major events across the UK.

The landscape of public sector funding is incredibly challenging and as a result the culture, creative industries and major events sectors are experiencing fragility as never before seen. Since 2009 our grant-in-aid has been cut in real terms by 41%, yet we are consistently expected to do more with less. This pressure, in the context of post-pandemic recovery, great inflationary pressures and stretched household spending, puts our future, and that of countless others, at risk.

In the recent Budget, we received confirmation of UK Government funding, however as things stand this funding is for one year only and will not be replicated.

Internationally, and particularly in mainland Europe, public arts funding is significantly higher than in Scotland and the UK. This places us at a major competitive disadvantage, in an increasingly competitive market where our competitors not only receive greater public sector support but still have access to EU funding. Yet, expectations on cultural organisations receiving public sector support remain high, often with requirements for ‘additionality’ even in the face of severe cuts. This can dilute the core activity and strength of organisations and restrict their ability to grow or operate internationally. Indeed, it can jeopardise the very future of an organisation.

In the face of these multiple pressures, we encourage the UK and Scottish Governments to consider supporting organisations to fulfil their core function to their best ability and focus on their strengths. The sector should be seen as delivering collectively across a range of measures and outcomes, as opposed to an individual organisation having to deliver to each. Streamlining the criteria and subsequent reporting requirements across the funding landscape would reduce the significant administrative burden placed upon those in receipt of public funds and allow for more focus on core activities and scaling ambition.

Crucially, funding must be multi-year: the year-to-year cycle is untenable. International activity takes long-term planning. To ensure longstanding impact of strengths across the economy, culture and major events sectors and soft power to be realised, governments must commit to more sustainable funding of organisations or risk the collapse of these benefits, or indeed the organisations themselves. Whilst there are major challenges on public sector finances, the culture, creative industries, and major events budgets of both governments represent a fracture of overall governmental spend and therefore there should be no barriers to committing to 3 – 5-year funding for such activities.

We also encourage more collaborative partnerships across the public sector. For example, considering our activity to be of importance not only to (D)CMS but to FCDO, business and trade departments, and external agencies, plus Scottish equivalents. The links between culture and creative industries and soft power, the economy and exporting may be acknowledged but rarely is policy coherence between them prioritised, despite their major growth potential and existing impact.

In Scotland, creative industries is a core part of the Scottish Government’s National Strategy for Economic Transformation but the public sector investment and policy coherence is not matching that level of ambition or commitment. The Vision for Trade links trade and culture however, again, policy action is not evident. The New Deal for Business Group brings multiple sectors of industry together – including tourism – yet does not have representation from culture, creative industries, or major events.

Proper alignment and coordination could reap great benefits and should be straightforward to achieve. Coordination could take place across ministerial visits abroad, but also in Edinburgh during August where connections with diplomats of priority countries could be facilitated. Similarly this can be replicated within the economic space – using the hive of activity in August to showcase Scotland and the UK as a centre for investment.

May 2023