Fringe chiefs agree deal to work with UK Government overseas

The Herald Scotland

15 hours ago

It will take centre stage in efforts to promote "the best of Scotland" overseas around the world.
The Fringe Society, which oversees the 78-year-old festival, will be working with the Scotland Office on future trade missions, ministerial visits and other overseas events under the agreement, the first of its kind with the Government.
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The Fringe will become part an official 'Brand Scotland' campaign, which was instigated by Scottish Secretary Ian Murray in the wake of Labour's General Election victory to help secure new investment in Scotland.
He has described the initiative as "a fantastic opportunity to promote all that is great about Scotland around the world, and show investors the opportunities of Scotland".
Tony Lankester is chief executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society. (Image: Gordon Terris) In a keynote speech today, Mr Murray is expected to highlight the role played by arts and culture in the UK's "soft power" and how the Scottish cultural sector "opens doors right around the world".
The Fringe Society said the agreement would help put the festival "at the heart of a global conversation".
The new deal has been announced by Mr Murray months after it was revealed that the Government and the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo had agreed to work together for the first time.
Ukrainian performer Nina Khyzhna is appearing in the Fringe show Someone Like Me. (Image: Supplied) The Government said official Brand Scotland visits were planned to India, Japan, France, Canada, Spain, New Zealand, Australia, Germany and Sweden over the next few months.
Speaking at the Filmhouse during the first week of the Edinburgh International Festival, Fringe and Tattoo, Mr Murray will warn of the risk of the benefits of arts and culture being 'taken for granted".
Scottish Secretary Ian Murray is launching a new partnership with the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society at the Filmhouse cinema in Edinburgh today. (Image: Ian Georgeson) The Fringe Society has agreed to work with the UK Government following a prolonged campaign to secure more support from the Scottish Government, its agencies and the council.
Shona McCarthy, the Fringe Society's chief executive, last year claimed the level of support for the event in Scotland was a 'national embarrassment' and warned the event was becoming 'almost impossible' to deliver.
She was left furious after the Fringe Society was turned down for long-term Scottish Government funding by its arts agency Creative Scotland without making the final stage of decision-making.
A subsequent open letter by Ms McCarthy, published as the 2025 festival drew to a close, warned that artistic risk and ambitions were being 'hamstrung' at the Fringe, and admitted emerging artists were being 'squeezed out' of the event. She announced she would be leaving her role in September.
In a keynote speech in Edinburgh today, Mr Murray is expected to praise the key role played by the Fringe in widening access to the arts.
He will pledge that the new partnership with the Fringe Society will deliver 'economic growth that will put more money in people's pockets."
However it is not yet known if the Government will keep supporting a 'Keep It Fringe Fund,' launched by Fleabag star Phoebe Waller-Bridge to helps artists and companies from across the UK to meet the costs of putting on Fringe shows.
When the Conservatives were in power, the Government committed £7m for a long-awaited project to create a permanent new headquarters for the Fringe Society.
The Fringe Society last year secured permission from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to use £1m of the £7m it had been allocated for 360 Keep It Fringe bursaries for the 2024 and 2025 festivals.
Tony Lankester, who took over as Fringe chief executive in April, said: 'The Fringe is arguably one of the UK's finest cultural exports.
"In recognising that, this partnership gives us the opportunity to proudly put it at the heart of a global conversation.
'We're proud of the artists and audiences who make the Fringe possible and who create this joyous celebration of creativity each year.
'Putting the Fringe at the centre of 'Brand Scotland' recognises that work, and opens up a world of new platforms for participants.'
Mr Murray is due to speak at the Filmhouse cinema, which recently reopened with the help of £1.5m in Government funding, which was also signed off by the Conservatives.
Mr Murray said: 'Scotland's excellent arts and culture sector opens doors right around the world.
'From the global stage of the Edinburgh Fringe to the pageantry of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, our arts and creativity don't just entertain - they build the relationships and showcase the innovation that drives real economic returns for communities across Scotland.
'Our partnership deal with the Fringe will help us sell Brand Scotland around the world, helping us deliver the economic growth that will put more money in people's pockets."
Mr Murray was speaking at the Filmhouse days after First Minister John Swinney pledged place to the arts "at the heart of Scotland's future" and said the cultural sector was "absolutely essential" to Scotland's economic prosperity.
He told a gathering of cultural leaders: "There is so much more that you do to enrich our nation that can't be measured in pounds or pence. Those wider benefits ripple throughout our society. Culture gets to the very heart of our shared history and our national identity. It shapes our public spaces and our environments. It contributes to education, to social dialogue, and to social justice."
In his speech at the Filmhouse, Mr Murray is expected to say: 'For some, culture is a tool of power, of wealth. For others, it is a tool of nation building, of defining who we are and who we are not.
'For me, it is something which transcends states and systems, and teaches us something about the human condition which other experiences simply cannot do.
'But that value, that treasure, that ability for our cultural pursuits to let us see into our souls and those around us is something we cannot take for granted.'