Edinburgh Festival Fringe: Organisers hit out after Creative Scotland funding bid is rejected

The Fringe Society says the festival is being left to ‘fall through the cracks’

Edinburgh Festival Fringe: Organisers hit out after Creative Scotland funding bid is rejected

Organisers of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe have demanded “urgent clarity” on how £100 million in promised new Scottish Government arts funding is to be allocated after losing out in a bid for crucial long-term support.

The Fringe Society has hit out after being rejected months after First Minister Humza Yousaf pledged to “more than double” arts spending in Scotland. The charity, which has overseen the event since 1958, was one of 66 out of 351 eligible applicants to fail to make the second round of an “extremely competitive” bidding process for Creative Scotland funding.

The Government’s arts agency is facing a potential funding gap of nearly £50m for its new three-year programme, which is due to run from 2025-28.

The Government said it expected the £87.4m ask from the cultural sector to “reduce” by the time the application process was completed by Creative Scotland. Its arts agency has suggested final decisions will be taken based on indicative future budges from the Government, but is still in the dark over how much will be available for the three-year programme as a result of the First Minister’s promise of an additional £100m a year for culture by 2028.

Creative Scotland is due to make final decisions in October on the remaining 285 applications, which are worth £87.4m.

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Fringe Society chief executive Shona McCarthy said the festival was being left to “fall between the cracks” of support for the the arts in Scotland. The festival, which featured around 3,550 shows and sold more than 2.4 million tickets last year, has been valued at more than £200m to the city’s economy.

Around £1m in Government investment funds work across the festival. However, the Fringe Society has not had core funding from Creative Scotland since it lost its long-term support in 2018.

Creative Scotland has pointed out that it has committed more than £2.85m to the Fringe over the past five years through alternative funding programmes.

Ms McCarthy said: “The Fringe Society has sought to be reinstated as a regularly funded organisation since before the pandemic. We are naturally disappointed that we continue to fall between the cracks for funding support from our national cultural agencies.

“The cultural sector is facing significant funding challenges and we need urgent clarity on how the Scottish Government’s recently announced £100m will be distributed. As we reflect on Creative Scotland’s decision, our role in advocating for the Fringe will continue, by exploring every avenue possible to support artists, venues and those working across the festival ecology.”

Lori Anderson, director of Scottish arts industry network Culture Counts, said: “The news that 66 applications to Creative Scotland’s multi-year funding programme 2025 have been unsuccessful at stage one will cause concern for those involved.

“We call upon Creative Scotland to work with those organisations to support them to identify other sources of funding. For those who will now apply to the second stage, there remains a big hill to climb.

“Whilst the programme has lost 20 per cent of applications, the total ask in terms of demand for the programme budget has reduced by only 9 per cent, leaving it massively oversubscribed and significantly underfunded. Transparency on how second stage decisions will be made is now vital.

“There is still time for the Scottish Government to act and boost the budget available to Creative Scotland. We welcomed the First Minister’s commitment in October to provide an additional £100m to culture by 2028/29, and a further £25m in 2025/26.

“However, the sector needs clarity on what funding will be available to support the programme. We call upon the Scottish Government to make as much of this funding available now, when it is most urgently needed.”

Jack Gamble, director of the UK-wide Campaign for the Arts, said: “Although the Scottish Government has made a welcome commitment to increase annual investment in culture by £100m over the next five years, Creative Scotland’s current budget is in fact 13 per cent smaller in real terms than the last time they confirmed regular funding for organisations in 2018.

“It’s vital that ministers move further and faster to invest in Scotland’s arts and culture, so that everyone can reap the rewards socially and economically in the years ahead.”

Creative Scotland had a 10 per cent budget cut re-imposed by the Government in the autumn, just weeks before the deadline for long-term funding applications.

Last month the arts body warned the Scottish Parliament that if it was still facing a “flatline” funding outlook when final decisions had to be made in October, they could end up leading to widespread “collapse” across the industry.

Creative Scotland chief executive Iain Munro said: “The range and breadth of applications received are testament to the ambition and potential that exists across Scotland’s culture and creative sector. This remains a live and extremely competitive process, and not every stage two application is likely to be successful.”

A Government spokesman said: “We provide significant funding to Creative Scotland and will continue to work with the sector to support its long-term recovery from the impacts of the pandemic.

“We expect the £87.4m indicative request figure for Creative Scotland’s multi-year funding programme to reduce once its completes the stage two application process.

“In 2025/2026 we aim to provide an additional £25m to the culture sector. This commitment to additional funding despite the challenging budget situation signals our confidence in the Scottish culture sector.

“The Fringe Society is not a current regularly-funded organisation, but will continue to be eligible to apply to Creative Scotland for funding through other sources.”