Burns Night celebrations in Edinburgh fall flat after festival is hit by funding problems

Edinburgh’s Burns & Beyond festival was first staged in 2019.

Burns Night celebrations in Scotland's capital city are being scaled dramatically back - just six years after the launch of a major new event.

Organisers of an annual festival inspired by the life and legacy of Robert Burns pulled the plug on their programme in the face of funding problems.

Edinburgh’s Burns & Beyond festival was first staged in 2019. | Unique Events

Burns & Beyond, which was launched across six days in 2019, was staged across Edinburgh's Old and New Towns.

Run by Unique Events, long-time producers of Edinburgh's Hogmanay festival, Burns & Beyond was aimed at extending the city's winter festival season, which gets under way in November with the launch of the Christmas market and fairground rides.

Ricky Ross has been among the performers to appear at Edinburgh’s Burns & Beyond festival since it was launched in 2019. | Unique Events

However the event has failed to secure the backing of the Scottish Government since it decided to scrap a dedicated winter festivals fund in 2022.

City centre business chiefs also withdrew their support for the festival, which was staged across venues like the Assembly Rooms, Greyfriars Kirk, the Freemasons' Hall, the Liquid Room and St Giles' Cathedral.

St Giles' Cathedral has been among the venues used for Edinburgh’s Burns & Beyond festival since it was launched in 2019. | Unique Events

The Scottish Government has insisted that events are still able to apply for funding from its agencies EventScotland and Creative Scotland.

However Unique Events said Burns & Beyond did not meet criteria for EventScotland funding because the event is based in Edinburgh and added that Creative Scotland’s had rejected applications for support to its open fund.

KT Tunstall, Edwyn Collins, The Twilight Sad, Ricky Ross and Callum Easter were among the acts to appear at the festival, which was also backed by the whisky brand Johnnie Walker previously.

However it is understood that the city council was the only remaining backer of the festival, which had to be called off in 2021 and 2022 due to Covid restrictions put in place over the winter, and had been scaled back to a three-day event last year.

The festival will only be promoting Burns events which are being independently organised, including at the National Museum, the National Gallery of Scotland, Mary King's Close and Holyrood Distillery.

Burns & Beyond has been effectively shelved despite a pledge by the Scottish Government to ringfence an additional £4m for festivals across Scotland in the next financial year.

The Edinburgh celebration has been shelved a year after the cancellation of another of Scotland's biggest Burns-inspired festivals.

However the Big Burns Supper in Dumfries, which said it was unable to go ahead last year due to the scrapping of the government's winter festivals fund, will be making a comeback later this month.

Live music, poetry, storytelling, theatre ceilidh dances, visual art installations, whisky tastings and comedy all featured in Burns & Beyond.

Other performers who appeared included Pictish Trail, Rachel Sermanni, Adam Holmes, the Kinnaris Quintet, Aidan O’Rourke, Stanley Odd, Kevin Williamson, Christopher McArthur-Boyd and Tam Dean Burn.

The news about Burns & Beyond has emerged after Unique Events and co-producers Assembly were forced to call off the major outdoor events in Edinburgh’s Hogmanay festival due to bad weather.

A spokesperson for the festival said: "We are deeply saddened that Burns & Beyond is unable to deliver a programme of live events this year.

"Since the inaugural event, we have presented some of Scotland’s leading musicians, singer-songwriters and poets to perform at our celebration of The Bard.

"We will continue discussions with funding partners and hope to return to a live events programme next year.

"There are wonderful Burns Suppers, ceilidhs and events taking place throughout the city. We encourage people to embrace these."

A spokesperson for the Scottish Government said: "As set out in our programme for government, we intend to review the way the culture sector is supported, and ensure the £34 million increase for culture in the draft 2025-26 budget delivers for Scotland.

“Events across Scotland can still apply for support from EventScotland and Creative Scotland, but ministers have no role in funding decisions around individual events.”

Unique Events director Al Thomson said: “From 2018-2022, Burns & Beyond was a recipient of funding support from the Scottish Government Scotland’s winter festivals fund, but it was discontinued in October 2022.

“Despite meeting artistic and audience criteria, the festival is unfortunately ineligible for EventScotland national or international funding due to being located in Edinburgh.

“Previous applications to Creative Scotland open fund for cultural funding support have been unsuccessful.

“With costs to produce events increasing significantly in recent years, we hope that cultural funding will be available for a return to Burns & Beyond live events in 2026, which is crucial to support Scottish artists and the event supply chain at the start of the year.”