Liam Rudden: The Leith Festival organisers' hearts in the wrong place

Published on Friday 30 April 2010 10:40

IDENTITY is about under-standing history. Ask any Leither. So the decision to launch this year's Leith Festival programme from an Edinburgh venue – the Arts Complex in St Margaret's House on London Road – has left me bemused.

As someone born and raised in the port, my love/hate relationship with what the Leith Festival has become in recent years is no secret. Less and less it seems to be about the people of the area, more and more about the entertainers and businesses taking part, but that's commercialism for you.

Of course, the heart of the Leith Festival is still the Gala Day and Pageant (see 1954 picture below), which now span more than a century. The Port of Leith's story goes back far further.

Original separated from Edinburgh by the Water of Leith, it was granted its own Town Council and became an independent Burgh in 1833 – the old Council Chambers, above Leith Police Station, have been preserved and are well worth a visit.

In 1920 Leith was again amalgamated with Edinburgh, despite a referendum in which Leithers voted 26,810 to 4340 against the merger. The locals, however, have always retained their own separate identity, surviving the poverty of the ship building decline and Train-spotting years of the 1980s.

All in the past, of course, and we must move on, but anyone who really believes that it is acceptable to launch the Leith Festival from anywhere but within the boundaries of the port itself is fooling themselves and showing an insensitivity towards the area they represent.

More importantly, they are playing into the hands of the politicians who would quite happily see the name of Leith wiped off the map completely. After all, it's not that long ago that there were attempts to have Leith rebranded North Edinburgh and Leith Docks, the Edinburgh Docks.

So why The Arts Complex at Meadowbank? Well, one insider told me that the move was forced on them as there 'were no suitable venues' in Leith. If that is the case and, as implied, the businesses and people of Leith would not support their own Festival with a launch location, perhaps its days are numbered.

Or perhaps the choice of venue was the result of organisers confusing a community festival with a generic arts festival, where location is inconsequential as long as it is worthy. You get funding that way.

I find it hard to believe there were no Leith alternatives available. In previous years Ocean Terminal and Cruz, the floaty boatie on The Shore, have been only too happy to provide a launch location.

Personally I believe that the Leith Festival must aim to enhance the identity of the port, not diminish it. Launching the 2010 Festival from a city that has so many festivals it needs an umbrella title to contain them all sends out the wrong message. Can you imagine the annual Old Town Festival launching from Portobello? No? Neither can I.

In a final ironic twist, the launch of the 2010 programme next Tuesday is sponsored by Scotmid who, two days later, follow the Leith Festival organisers' example and beat a retreat from the heart of the port when they close their Duke Street store for good.

Enough said.