Light at end of tunnel as Arthur's Seat gets spectacular 2012 spin-off

Published on Thursday 27 January 2011 18:13

THE head of the Cultural Olympiad has vowed the vast marketing clout of the London Olympics will be used to pull tourists into Scotland.

Ruth MacKenzie spoke as the Legacy Trust, one of the Cultural Olympiad's major backers, put 750,000 into an event that will bring Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh alive with a light show involving 20,000 volunteers and athletes in August 2012.

The Olympics will boast "one of the best marketing machines in the United Kingdom" with e-mail addresses of up to ten million people who have visited their websites by the time of the Games, she said.

With tickets to the Olympic and Paralympic Games expected to sell fast, marketers can concentrate their efforts on events in the Cultural Olympiad, the programme of cultural events. "It is indisputable we can bring benefits," Ms MacKenzie said.

"It's happening as a result of London 2012, but its benefit is for Edinburgh and for Scotland as cultural tourism in the next few years after 2012."

It was also part of gearing up for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, she added.

The Legacy Trust has announced 3 million in funding for four community arts events around the UK that will involve thousands of people.

The "Speed of Light" event, by Scottish company NVA, will get about 750,000, securing its future. The project, running over three weeks during the Edinburgh International Festival, will see thousands of people moving across Arthur's Seat with hi-tech lighting gear to create flowing patterns of light.

It will also include a 21-day endurance race, 21x21, with hundreds of runners doing daily half-marathons around and over the famous landmark, running nearly 300 miles.

"It will get people who have never been to Edinburgh going 'my goodness that looks amazing'," Ms Mackenzie said. "It will put Edinburgh and Scotland on the map round the world."