So the Edinburgh Festival's future is under threat. Really?
Money is usually at the heart of it, in two areas specifically. First, funding and support for the arts at governmental and council level. Second the costs associated with coming to Edinburgh in August either as performer or punter.
The major complaint on that front is the soaring price of accommodation, the result in part of an ugly tendency among private landlords in the capital for (let's call it what it is) naked profiteering. The pernicious effect of American online rental behemoth Airbnb and other companies like it doesn't help either. In Edinburgh, their presence has helped industrialize the hollowing out of the city centre, a process which has paved the way for sky-high August prices.
At the same time, the council now requires those who may only let out a room or sub-let while on holiday to apply for a licence (and possibly also planning permission). This has taken some accommodation out of the market, which affects supply. Airbnb says it hasn't prevented rising costs, nevertheless the company is among those lobbying hard for its repeal.
There may be a shortage of money for the Arts but there is always plenty of 'street theatre' (Image: free) Meanwhile a year-round 5% visitor levy, or tourist tax, is due to be introduced in time for the 2026 Edinburgh Festival, though it remains to be seen how much (if any) of the mooted £50 million windfall will be sent in the direction of the August festivals, or used to address their various infrastructure needs.
The most vocal complainant and advocate for change and improvement tends to be the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, which runs the Fringe, the biggest player in Edinburgh's portfolio of summer festivals.
In April newly-appointed chief executive Tony Lankester told The Herald: 'When discussions are happening on the visitor levy, the Fringe's voice is really important. We are not looking to the visitor levy as a way of feathering our nest or benefiting hugely financially from it. We might make an ask for certain projects, such as around our street events, but by and large our seat at the table will be to lobby for investment in the kind.'
Ahead of the launch of the 2025 Fringe programme, others have voiced similar concerns about the pressures facing the Edinburgh Festival and the Fringe in particular – and in more strident terms. 'We have to do something to bring the cost of accommodation down,' says Anthony Alderson, director of the Pleasance Theatre Trust. 'By having made it so expensive to be here during August, for visitors and performers alike, we are slowly killing the Fringe.'
On the other hand, the Fringe has now moved into a new home, something it has long campaigned for. It has seen its funding boosted. And earlier this month it announced that this year's event was on track to be the third largest in history. Meanwhile the Edinburgh International Book Festival is settling into its new home in the über-swanky Futures Institute, and the Edinburgh International Film Festival goes from strength to strength (though admittedly it started from a pretty low base).
So are things as black as they are painted? Yes and no, which is another Edinburgh Festival tradition – everything's terrible until August rolls around, at which point everything's brilliant.
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Birthday presence
Everywhere you turn these days somebody, somewhere is celebrating the anniversary of something or other. Big or small, niche or mainstream, well-planned or half-arsed, it's coming at you.
Last year we had Edinburgh 900, a rather lacklustre effort to commemorate 900 years since King David I created the royal burgh in which the capital sits. In January, Glasgow 850 launched, a rather more muscular and imaginative affair aimed at celebrating 850 years of the Dear Green Place. One of its key events, the three-day music festival Clyde Chorus, kicks off on Thursday.
Back in the capital, 2026 will see the 200th anniversary of the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA), which is both building and organisation. It's also, some might argue, something close to a state of mind for its members, the Academicians.
The Royal Scottish Academy will be 200 years old next year (Image: Gordon Terris) As befits an august institution which continues to move with the times, the anniversary celebrations unveiled this week are ambitious and, importantly, take the RSA out of its gilded stone palace on the Mound and into venues across Scotland, such as Shetland, Skye, Aberdeen and Berwick-upon-Tweed – a cheeky act of cultural colonisation given that it's actually in England.
But if none of that grabs you, I'm sure there will be another anniversary along behind it. Orkney's St Magnus Festival turns 50 next year and Glasgow's Kelvin Hall notches up its centenary in 2027. You can bet that somebody, somewhere already has a spreadsheet open – or a pencil over the back of a fag packet.
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And finally
The Herald's dance critic Mary Brennan continues her trawl through the best of the Dance International Glasgow mini-festival at Tramway with reviews of The Violet Hour, and Dance Is Not For Us and Bottoms, a double bill. The first is a new work by Scottish dancer and choreographer Colette Sadler, a multi-media piece built around three dancers and nodding to Greek myth. Dance Is Not For Us is solo show by Lebanese dancer Omar Rajeh while Bottoms, by migrant and disabled-led performance company Two Destination Language, brings five dancers to the stage – and a little mooning, which is what gives the piece its title.
Elsewhere theatre critic Neil Cooper was at the King's Theatre in Glasgow for a touring production of satirical musical The Book Of Mormon and at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh for something completely different – Sylvia Dow's Blinded By The Light, which tells (and reflects upon) the story of the 1982 sit-in at Kinneil Colliery in Bo'ness.
Finally music critic Keith Bruce was at St John's Kirk in Perth for a Perth Festival of the Arts performance by the 18-strong Ora Singers of unaccompanied vocals works ranging from Renaissance polyphony to Sir James MacMillan's Misere.
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My solo trip to China taught me to be brave — and that bravery takes different guises. Sometimes it's bungeeing into a literal abyss, sometimes it's dancing with strangers in the dark and sometimes it's as quiet as taking a walk in a foreign park. Kia Abdullah travelled independently. G Adventures has 14 nights' room-only from £2,999, including some extra meals ( Fly into Beijing and out of Shanghai What Happens in the Dark by Kia Abdullah (HarperCollins £16.99) is out now. To order a copy go to Free UK standard P&P on orders over £25. Special discount available for Times+ members
