Virgin behind gunpowder plot to save the Festival fireworks

Published on Wednesday 23 February 2011 17:10

Virgin Money will be unveiled as the new backer of the Edinburgh International Festival fireworks concert, The Scotsman has learned.

The future of the event, a festival highlight watched by an estimated quarter of a million people and a global symbol of the city's August arts bonanza, had been in doubt when the Bank of Scotland ended a 16-year sponsorship deal, worth an estimated 250,000 a year.

Virgin and the festival organisers insisted yesterday that no deal has been signed. Some details remain to be finalised ahead of the festival programme launch on 23 March.

"We would hope for a title sponsor for an event of this quality and scale," a festival spokesman said.

Running for 28 years the concert has been a spectacular but costly festival finale, with over 100,000 fireworks exploding over Edinburgh Castle as the Scottish Chamber Orchestra play live in the Princes Street Gardens.

"The point about events like this is they are seen by so many people and are such a signature part of a festival that there is obviously a tremendous advantage to be gained by a sponsor being seen to do it," said Stewart Collins, chairman of the British Arts Festivals Association.

"The other side from the festival point of view is that these are expensive to run and without a sponsor they become a weight around your neck. The fireworks display is clearly highly valued by a local population and would be a major disappointment if it was withdrawn."

Earlier this month Virgin Money announced a three-year partnership with the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, worth close to 750,000, after Royal Bank of Scotland dropped out. The cash will underwrite street performance spaces on the Royal Mile and The Mound and the Half Price Hut for discount tickets.

Virgin Money this week confirmed plans to open a new head office in St Andrew Square and add 300 staff to the 60 it already employs in the city. Owned by the Virgin Group, the company has 2.5 million customers but is aiming to expand as major player in retail banking.

The fireworks deal will confirm the financial firm's place at the heart of two vital cultural events on Edinburgh's summer calendar and underline an apparent changing of the guard after the credit crunch forced the two Scottish banks to reassess their priorities. Another Edinburgh financial institution, Standard Life, cut back heavily on a string of arts sponsorship deals last year.

Virgin Money chief executive Jayne-Anne Gadhia has been a key player in the firm's closer involvement in the city. A Virgin spokesman said yesterday: "Talks are ongoing, and negotiations can sometimes be protracted."

The fireworks concert has had just two title sponsors in its history, Glenlivet and the Bank of Scotland.Last year the EIF director, Jonathan Mills, said it was looking at a "family of sponsors" to underwrite the event.

Councillor Steve Cardownie, Edinburgh City Council's "Festival Tsar", said: "The fireworks concert has been synonymous with the festival and its closing, a huge draw that introduces people to classical music for the first time. It's just a spectacular show and it's iconic to the city.

"I'm delighted if the future is secure because there is no better sight than these fireworks bursting over the battlements of the castle. It would be unthinkable if we lost the fireworks concert."