4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
More than half of festivals funding still to be rolled out
The national roll-out of direct government funding for festivals was first announced exactly a year ago by culture secretary Angus Robertson.
Read more:
At the time, additional funding was promised to provide greater recognition of festivals as 'a jewel in the culture sector and national life.'
However the additional funding has only been allocated to major events in Edinburgh and Glasgow so far.
The Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow is among the events which have had an increase in their Scottish Government funding recently.
The additional investment in festivals announced in December was part of a proposed £34 million boost for the cultural sector hailed as 'game-changing' by Mr Robertson.
The Scottish Budget includes £6m set aside for festivals – up from £2m last year.
The Hebridean Celtic Festival is held in Stornoway, on the Isle of Lewis, every summer.
Of this £3m was earmarked for a significant expansion of the Scottish Government's Festivals Expo Fund to allow it to be expanded across Scotland.
Originally created in 2007 with a £2m billion budget, the fund has been opened to a number of events in Glasgow in recent years, including Celtic Connections, Sonica and the Glasgow Film Festival, however its budget had dropped to as little as £1.7m in recent years.
The Granite Noir festival is staged in Aberdeen each year. (Image: Aberdeen Performing Arts)
Mr Roberson has promised that the revamped Festivals Expo Fund would be more than doubled in value to extend its reach beyond Edinburgh and Glasgow, while government arts agency Creative Scotland has told Holyrood's culture committee that it expected an additional £3m in new Expo funding to be rolled out this year.
However the government has only confirmed a £1.1m increase for the Expo Fund to date, to boost support for event in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Further additional funding has been confirmed for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society and the Edinburgh International Book Festival, who have each secured £300,000 in recent months.
The currently £2.3m shortfall has emerged a year on from the controversial shutdown of a Scottish Government 'open fund' for artists after more than £10m worth of arts spending commitments were put on hold or cancelled.
The government eventually released £8.4m, including £3m which allowed the open fund run by Creative Scotland to return, following an angry backlash across the cultural sector and on-stage protests from performers as Edinburgh's festivals drew to a close.
The spending squeeze had emerged weeks after the government promised more investment in cultural events and launched a new 'strategic partnership for festivals.'
Other events which have been involved in talks over potential funding include the the Dumfries and Galloway Arts Festival, the Findhorn Bay Festival in Moray, the Hebridean Celtic Festival in Stornoway, the St Magnus International Festival, the Wigtown Book Festival and Aberdeen Performing Arts, which organises a number of festivals in the city.
At the time, Mr Robertson said: 'Scotland's arts festivals are a jewel in the culture sector and national life. They provide an invaluable platform for our performers and creatives, help provide hundreds of millions of pounds to the Scottish and local economies, are a cultural shopfront to the rest of the world and much more besides.'
In a recent opinion column, Mr Robertson said Edinburgh was the 'undisputed centre of the cultural world' this month thanks to its festivals.
He added: 'At every stage of their planning and their delivery, Scotland's festivals are renowned for ambition, creativity and excellence at home and overseas.
'As well as their outstanding work on stage, festivals provide hundreds of millions of pounds to the Scottish and local economies, supporting a pipeline of jobs and businesses.
'Festivals, like the entirety of the culture sector, have been hit hard in recent years by a series of challenges. Recovery from the pandemic and addressing the challenges brought by Brexit have been made more difficult by increased costs and inflation, together with a challenging public funding environment.
'The 2025/26 Scottish Budget has provided an important foundation for the work of festivals, recognising the importance of stability and certainty through long term sustained multi-annual funding to support festivals' ambitions for the future.
'Increasing investment in festivals, as part of the biggest ever increase in funding for culture, underlines the value the Scottish Government places on the arts.
'Through this increased investment we want to drive up opportunities for participation in creative pursuits, support the festivals commissions and collaborations on new and exciting works, ensuring Scotland's cultural output have platforms at home and abroad.'
A spokesperson for the government said: 'As a result of this year's culture funding uplift, a record number of cultural organisations are now benefitting from multi-year funding, around a third of which run a festivals.
'In total, 251 culture organisations across Scotland, from Argyll and Bute to Shetland, Na h-Eileanan Siar, and the Borders now have stable, year-on-year funding, with 141 of those receiving multi-year funding for the first time, and those previously in the portfolio receiving a significant uplift.
'The Scottish Government has so far provided £2.8 million for the Festivals Expo Fund, £300,000 for the Fringe Society, £300,000 for the Edinburgh International Book Festival's school programme, and £200,000 for Festivals Edinburgh.
'We are committed to expanding the reach of the Expo Fund across the whole of Scotland.
'The culture secretary is working with festivals across the country through the Strategic Festivals Partnership to realise this commitment in the coming months.
'Ministers are committed to delivering the remaining funding promised for festivals this financial year. Details will be announced shortly.'
