Essay: Time for festivals to get act together

Published on Friday 7 August 2009 22:03

EDINBURGH is the only city in the world that hosts nine festivals in one summer month: a diverse mix of theatre, books, art, politics, comedy, opera, dance and conversation.

It opens with the Jazz and Blues Festival, includes a Mela, explodes with the Tattoo and closes with television.

And yet, there are visitors who go to only one: just the book festival, or only the Festival of Politics, or remain solely devoted to the International Festival, barely recognising that the others are on round the corner.

Directors and managers formally acknowledge one another, but privately act as if they are on a different planet.

We have festival apartheid. Each guards its performers, audience and patch of land. Attendees are fiercely loyal. TV executives step off the train at Waverley, taxi to the conference centre, drink in the George Hotel and return to London, without witnessing the mayhem of the Royal Mile. Fringe performers concentrate on their act alone.

To have all this talent in one place for four weeks is unique. But we are not making the most of the opportunities for the partnerships this presents. There is a need to mix it up, to talk to each other, share ideas and join forces.

Of course, it is much better co-ordinated than it was. Finally, the Art Festival is part of the package. The Edinburgh Festival Expo Fund, supported by the Scottish Government, is a creative success. Festivals Edinburgh, run by dynamo Faith Liddell, is making real inroads; whipping the big beasts and taming them into teamwork. An outsider looking at the unusually user-friendly website can see it is a successful brand.

Infrastructure is in place and more is planned, such as a joint box office. An online TV channel has just been launched. Major film stars are to act as international ambassadors, as is reported in our story below. But it is not good enough to leave Festivals Edinburgh to sort it out. Collaboration from all players is needed.

This is a call to arms. We need to break down the barriers between the festivals and bring together their artists and audiences and impose some intellectual coherence on the whole event.

This month, it is possible to listen to the directors of fringe festivals from across the world speaking about their work, but not to see them on a platform with producers from the other festivals in this city.

Let's have a night when the different directors from Edinburgh are in one place in conversation with each other. They can discuss their programming and choices, and draw out what is similar or different about the work they support.

Individual festivals need to promote each other. The International could market Fringe shows that complement or contrast with its own. The book festival could work with the politics festival, drawing together serious thinkers in joint events.

There is so much on, it is easy to get lost and retreat into what you know and what is safe. We need an intellectual guide with an overview, to encourage people to see the parallels and disjunctures between them.

There are no large debates involving all the festivals that address the big themes raised in every venue. We should mount major cross-festival debates. It wouldn't be hard to pick topics. It is good to get people out of their genres. It would encourage audiences to mix and mingle.

Edinburgh University provides many of the venues, but its impact on the content of the festival is hard to find. Are all its public intellectuals on holiday? A decade ago, it held an Edinburgh Festival Lecture. High-profile participants included Pierre Boulez and Alfred Brendel. George Steiner's is still talked about.

One of the biggest press events of the year is the MacTaggart Lecture at the International Television Festival. We should not leave the headline-grabbing to sharp-suited television executives. Reviving a festival lecture would be good idea. The university is an ideal position to do so.

Despite thousands of shows, there is no space to reflect on what you have produced or watched. Talks on marketing, touring and legal advice are advertised in the Fringe programme, but there is no formal place to discuss the content of your show.

A few years ago I helped to run the Roundtable Rumbles, which brought together a panel of writers, directors, performers and critics from the festivals with an audience in a lively late-night environment.

Theatre critic Robert Dawson Scott took up the baton, with a similar format, the Panel. The idea of both was to create a forum where theatre people, authors, film-makers and music groups could discuss their work with critics and audiences, in an informal but more structured environment than is found in the bars.

The enthusiastic attendance and quality of argument showed the hunger for such a do.

Think about it. You've come hundreds of miles and spent thousands to strut your stuff. You get a press hit of 400 words – if you're lucky. And then that's it. For all your blood, sweat and tears, you hear nothing more. For acts to gain from the experience they need more feedback.

Cross-festival partnerships and debate that mixes up audiences and maximises the different programmes could be homage to Enlightenment traditions – the theme of this year's International Festival. We should promote the summer as multi-disciplinary, emulating a Renaissance man. But this time we could all be involved.

&#149 Dr Tiffany Jenkins is director of the arts and society programme at the Institute of Ideas.