Exclusive:Edinburgh Festival Fringe chief demands crisis summit to secure new funding support for event

Shona McCarthy describes level of backing as a ‘national embarrassment’

The chief executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society is calling for a crisis summit amid claims the level of support for Scotland's biggest event has become a “national embarrassment."

Shona McCarthy is demanding the Scottish Government, its funding agencies and the city council rethink their approach to the event amid warnings it is becoming “almost impossible” to deliver.

She has suggested the festival is being singled out for poor treatment and “exploited” after the Fringe Society suffered a series of funding blows while being championed as a “jewel in the crown” for Edinburgh and Scotland.

Assembly Festival George Square. Assembly is one of the biggest venue operators at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Picture: William Burdett-Coutts

Ms McCarthy said the complexity of the event appeared to have been used as an “excuse” not to support it, claimed funding decisions were being made on “hearsay and gossip,” and suggested there was an “unconscious bias” against the festival.

She has accused the Scottish Government and the city council of passing the buck over concerns about the availability and cost of accommodation during the Fringe, saying they were “playing each other off” over exemptions from controversial new short-term letting rules during the event.

Ms McCarthy also suggested that negative “messaging” about Scotland’s new hate crime law “flies in the face” about the festival's commitment to freedom of expression and the “uncensored nature of the Fringe.”

She has spoken out days after stand-up comics Gail Porter and Jason Manford raised concerns about the cost of accommodation in Edinburgh during the Fringe.

Street entertainers perform on Edinburgh's Royal Mile during the 2023 Fringe.

Scottish culture secretary Angus Robertson, Creative Scotland chief executive Iain Munro, Edinburgh’s Lord Provost Robert Aldridge and city council leader Cammy Day have been urged to take urgent steps to stabilise both the Fringe Society and the festival’s infrastructure.

She has stepped up pressure for action after the Fringe Society, which is currently grappling with a financial deficit of around £400,000, had two applications for financial support rejected by Creative Scotland and had its annual funding cut by the city council.

Ms McCarthy wants the government to agree an emergency grant of £1 million to wipe out a loan which was approved to help the Fringe Society withstand the impact of the 2020 festival being cancelled due to the Covid pandemic.

She has also called for the Fringe Society to receive core funding of around £250,000 annually from the Scottish Government and for the council to provide £150,000 a year.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe has been running since 1947. Picture: Jane Barlow/Press Association

Ms McCarthy said she had made repeated efforts in recent weeks to persuade officials, politicians, funders and decision-makers to take urgent action and commit new investment for the 77-year-old festival.

In an exclusive interview, Ms McCarthy told The Scotsman: “I've told them that if anybody wants to understand exactly how the Fringe Society works and what our 21st century job is then get everybody in the room, I’ll bring my entire senior management team and they can ask us anything. I’ve asked them to tell us everything they need from us in advance.

"It's just tenable for everybody to look to this small charitable organisation to come up with all of the answers for the world’s biggest performing arts festival and marketplace whilst giving us no support.

"We’re really trying to find funding for artists, source affordable accommodation and come up with solutions for everything that is beyond our control, but I really am at the end of my tether with it now.

Fringe Society chief executive Shona McCarthy.

"We’ve been offered a cross-agency meeting but we still don’t have a date for it. I’ve written to everyone setting out the current situation and what the meeting needs to address. It has to lead to a direct solution around investment."

She described the lack of backing for the event in Scotland as “mind-boggling” and said the only meaningful support the Fringe had secured in the last year had come from the UK Government, which has agreed to bankroll a new headquarters for the festival and invest in a new support fund for artists.

She said: “When you ask people if they actually want the festival they’ll say: ‘Don’t be ridiculous. The Fringe is absolutely essential to the cultural ecology of Scotland. We recognise how important it is.’

"Yet they’re still prepared to let it fall through the cracks. It is just not sustainable, it is just not tenable and something has to be done about it. We get warm words and sympathetic looks, but what good is that to anyone?

"At the moment, I think the name, the brand, the impact and scale of the Fringe is exploited when people want to tell great stories and show off. There is a very extractive attitude to the Fringe and it has to stop.

“I also think there is an exceptionalism that happens around the Fringe. It’s probably the most misunderstood of all the festivals in Edinburgh. The complexity of it becomes an excuse not to support it.

Fringe Society chief executive Shona McCarthy. Picture: Lisa Ferguson

"The real shame is that, hand on heart, the only people that I can honestly say that have done anything to help the Fringe in the last year is the UK Government. I just think that’s a national embarrassment.”

Ms McCarthy said the combination of a lack of financial support with the “policy environment” was making the Fringe increasingly “impossible to deliver.”

She said: "It is mind-boggling to me that the Fringe is a jewel in the crown of Edinburgh and Scotland, and is featured in the national and international culture strategies and national events strategies and yet in 2024 the only core funding that we’ve had has been removed.

"We asked the city council for an agreed three-year package of £150,000 a year to save us having to come back and made the case year after year, and save everyone the bureaucracy.

"We now have no core funding, which basically pays for Fringe Society staff.

"We are effectively being mandated to manage street events which the council originally asked us to do more than 20 years ago.

"It used to come with specific investment but that’s been whittled away over the years.

“One of the things we scored low on with Creative Scotland was internationalism. I mean, on what planet are they on? I’ve said to them: ‘Are you telling me policy around the Fringe is being made on hearsay and gossip?

“We’re a bit concerned that there are some very dated ideas, from people who have been around a long time, about what the Fringe is and isn’t, and that there might be some unconscious bias.”

Ms McCarthy said she was concerned about the impact of the “messaging” around the country’s new hate crime law.

"Official guidance says ‘threatening or abusive’ behaviour could arise in ‘any setting,’ including ‘when performing, including in a play or a show on stage or in a film.’

She said: "I'm less worried about the police coming in and harassing comedians or other artists at the Fringe. I think they have better things to do with their time.

"What worries me more is the cumulative effect of the messaging coming out of Scotland, which seems to counteract everything that we say about the Fringe.

“We describe it as the biggest platform for creative freedom of expression in the world. We’re really proud about the uncensored nature of it and that whoever you are or wherever you’re from you can have a voice at the festival. I’ve always said that it speaks to Scottish values of freedom of expression. The wider narrative at the moment seems to fly in the face of that.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: "We value the significance of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, stewarded by the Fringe Society, and remain committed to supporting this world-renowned event.

“We will continue to discuss the funding situation with the Fringe Society and do everything within our powers and resources to protect the entertainment, economic and skills development opportunities the Fringe provides.”

Cammy Day, leader of the city council, said it had decided that the Fringe Society’s annual grant of £75,000 should be used towards the cost of “facilitating” the festival’s street events programme, which the Scottish Government agency EventScotland is also contributing to.

He added: “This is a vital part of the Fringe and needed to be secured for the future.

"Strategic partnership funding for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society has not been cut.

“We are, and will continue to be, in dialogue with the Fringe Society and other public funders to ensure the long term sustainability of one of Edinburgh's, Scotland's, and the UK's most impactful cultural events.

“We remains the lowest funded council in Scotland. I’ve met with funders and the Fringe, we’re working together to come to a sustainable solution to keep the Fringe thriving for years to come.

“We need a new settlement with all partners to ensure the Edinburgh Festival Fringe remains a global icon.”