Martin Hannan: Festival needs to change its ways

Published on Tuesday 11 August 2009 09:52

IF someone was to design the Edinburgh Festival from scratch, they would surely come up with something rather different from the sprawling mess we now have here each August.

Which is why I say it is time to scrap the Fringe. And the International Festival. And the Mela. And the Book Festival. And the TV Festival. And the Art Festival. And the Jazz and Blues Festival.

Leave the Military Tattoo, because most people do not consider it to be part of the Festival, though anyone who knows its history will tell you that the Tattoo was very much part of the Festival from the start.

The Film Festival and Science Festival, the latter two sensibly being held at different times of the year from the main commotion, can also stay. The rest have to go, however, and be replaced by a new concept – the Edinburgh Festival.

The reasoning is simple. For all the optimism that has been expressed in the last few weeks, there are signs that the various festivals are suffering in the wake of the credit crunch. The 29th Edinburgh Comedy Awards, formerly the Perriers, has no sponsor this year and is keeping going only due to the generosity of producer and director Nica Burns.

Fringe Sunday, which cost around 70,000 to put on, has been cancelled due to a lack of sponsorship. The tale from many venues and producers is one of standstill budgets at best, and serious cutbacks at worst.

The proof of hard times can be found in the Fringe programme. Yes, I know there are more shows than ever before, but 35 per cent of the programme is taken up by comedy, which is a lot cheaper to put on than theatre.

The Fringe is now so dominated by comedy that I fear all other parts of the world's largest arts festival are being swamped. It is only thanks to the personal commitment to theatre of venue operators like Bill Burdett-Coutts at Assembly, Karen Koren at Gilded Balloon and Tony Alderson at the Pleasance that we are seeing decent theatre in the Fringe at all.

There is another reason why Edinburgh should act now. Though no other arts festival is yet of the scale of Edinburgh, there is increasing competition from other cities such as Manchester which has just held its second festival dedicated to showcasing original work only.

The Grahamstown Festival in South Africa is another which keeps growing, and Belfast's Festival – sponsored by the Royal Bank through its Ulster Bank subsidiary – is in rude good health, while Melbourne and Montreal's comedy festivals keep developing and are thriving.

The Salzburg Festival competes directly with our own International Festival as it is one of the few held at the same time as Edinburgh. Comparing their programmes, anyone in Europe who had only time to visit one music and drama Festival over summer would probably have gone there.

New festivals are springing up all the time, including several on the other side of the Atlantic, and unlike here, there seems to be no paucity of resources elsewhere, because other countries have proper long-term funding for the arts while we still get the festivals on the cheap.

In the long run, it will be even harder for the International Festival and the others to attract productions and performers of the highest calibre. Edinburgh's reputation is its biggest asset, but this city cannot live on past glories in a cash-strapped world.

Which is why I say we should consider a massive organisational and branding change. Bring all the festivals under one roof, answerable to a board and a chief executive.

A Festival Centre could be created to host the new organisation and stage events, while a single ticketing operation would be a boon. I would expect the same people who run the various festivals to transfer to the new organisation and do much the same job, but working for one overall festival would allow economies of scale – freeing money for productions – and better teamwork to take place. And surely some company out there would pay very handsomely to sponsor the (insert name here) Edinburgh Festival.

For the biggest change would be branding. Most people outside Edinburgh make no distinction between the various components of what they already call the Edinburgh Festival.

It is merely a recognition of reality to say we should end the differences and call them all by one name.

We already do have an overall festivals promotion vehicle, run by Faith Liddell who does excellent work on a limited budget. She and new Fringe chief executive Kath Mainland strike me as people who could take such an exercise forward.

The Edinburgh Festival needs to change if it is to stay the best in the world, as I firmly believe it still is. To have just one festival in Edinburgh each August would help in so many ways. I know it is not a new idea, but perhaps it is one whose time has come.

Tips of the Fringe

Now for the fun. Some shows which I can recommend as worth seeing are The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie at the Assembly Rooms; David Benson sings Noel Coward at the same venue; The Ginge, The Geordie and the Geek comedy trio at Just the Tonic @ The Caves; and the nightly BBC Comedy Presents at the Pleasance Dome, which is always good for seeing the funniest people on the Fringe.