Joe Goldblatt: Change of course could pay for festivals

Edinburgh’s festivals found some seats empty this year, but there are options, like venture philanthropy, which may help put a stop to that

CHRISTINE Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, has blamed politicians for causing a potential double-dip global recession. The world, she warned, is facing a prolonged recession unless political leaders show the necessary courage to change this course.

The Queen Margaret University International Centre for the Study of Planned Events has conducted multi-year studies of the Edinburgh and other Scottish festivals, and we see similar challenges emerging.

Historically, tough economic times have often resulted, as they did during the Great Depression of 1929, in stimulating attendance at cinemas and cultural programmes. This was certainly the case in 2010. However, a different picture has emerged in 2011. What will the potential double-dip recession mean for audiences and their festival makers in the future?

In a recent article in The Scotsman, Edinburgh International Festival director Jonathan Mills eloquently stated that the enduring mission of Edinburgh’s festivals is to “provide a platform for the flowering of the human spirit”. In the same article, Mills revealed that fewer individuals had attended the international festival in 2011 than in 2010 and that this was an expected outcome.

While I greatly admire the programming of the international festival, one is tempted to wonder how the human spirit may flower if some of these valuable, and some would argue, priceless, seats are empty?

This question is one that this year must be addressed by several of the Edinburgh Festival directors as empty seats were also found in 2011 at the Edinburgh International Book Festival as well as the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Whilst the Edinburgh International Festival Fringe experienced an increase in paid ticket sales, albeit a modest one, and many local Edinburgh businesses were generally pleased with their takings from the summer tourist trade, the question that is becoming the elephant in the room is how will Scotland ensure greater sustainability and longer-term planning for all Scottish festivals and events?

Kuan-wen Lin, a PhD student in Event Management at Queen Margaret University, conducted an in-depth analysis of the financial performance of the Edinburgh Festival in 2009. Lin determined that most, but not all, festivals required substantial public support to offset planned financial losses, those festivals which had reached maturity generally performed better over time. In a article written by myself, Lin and a German finance expert, Patrick Stein, PhD, the evidence we identified clearly demonstrated that festivals and cultural organisations could indeed change course to help insure their future financial stability.

For example, cultural organisations rarely pursue venture philanthropy to financially support their goals. Venture philanthropy enables not-for-profit organisations such as the Edinburgh festivals to seek funding to support their social goals and objectives and this funding is awarded by philanthropists whose desire is to see a strong return on their social investment.

According to Lady Susan Rice, managing director of Lloyds TSB Scotland and chair of the Edinburgh International Book Festival as well as the Edinburgh Festivals Forum, venture philanthropy should be considered as one potential alternative for funding cultural programmes. She also stated that cultural organisations may need to change their annual reporting cycle to match the requirements of alternative funding agents.

The recent impact study released by Festivals Edinburgh confirmed this assumption by providing evidence of overall positive results from the 12 Edinburgh festivals examined. This study was one of the most comprehensive ever undertaken by a destination the size of Edinburgh and raises the bar internationally in terms of measuring festival performance.

However, although the study effectively examines economic, social, cultural and even environmental impacts, its authors admit that one of the gaps and future research opportunities is the opportunity to determine the additional impacts of the Edinburgh festivals throughout the world.

In addition, as suggested by Lady Rice and others, these reports may need to be conducted and reported more frequently to meet the evidentiary needs of future funding agencies. If the global footprint of the Edinburgh Festivals is to widen, one way to accomplish this is through the possible addition of broadcasting select festival performances to cinemas throughout the world in a similar way to the successful models already adopted by New York City’s Metropolitan Opera (and the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, the Glyndebourne Opera, the Bolshoi Ballet and England’s National Theatre among others).

For example, the Metropolitan Opera annually broadcasts 11 or more operas that are seen in cinemas throughout the world by over 200,000 per performance as compared with only 3,800 who view this same performance in the New York opera house. Not only does the Metropolitan Opera cinema audience have access to one of the world’s great opera companies, but they also may be motivated to financially support the company. In addition, they may choose to visit New York City in the future to attend a live performance of the opera company. This additional financial support, according to Peter Gelb, general manager of the Metropolitan Opera of New York, represents millions of dollars of new earned income from ticket sales for the Metropolitan Opera and this does not include the new philanthropic gifts that may follow.

In 2010, the International Centre for the Study of Planned Events at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, conducted a study to identify new sources of funding for festivals and events in both Edinburgh and Glasgow. That study determined that there was the potential to seek an audience contribution of £1 per ticket to support these important events.

On receiving this study, leaders of the Festivals Edinburgh organisation recommended that a further study be conducted to determine if individuals would accept or reject the opportunity to contribute to these events. For example, in 2009 the New York City theatre owners added a $1.50 (£1.00) theatre restoration charge to each ticket sold. Over $10m (£7.5m) was raised during this period and no significant resistance from ticket buyers was met.

Therefore, in addition to Scottish Government core funding for cultural events, we must also envision ways to expand this support both within our government’s increasing limited resources as well as outwith it. A voluntary audience contribution may be one potential opportunity to investigate further.

A ticket to a cultural event is a highly perishable product. Unused tickets represent unfilled seats that void the experience of seeing a rare and meaningful live performance. What will it take to find new ways to insure that these experiences are not allowed to perish but instead flourish with new audiences being introduced to live performances?

Perhaps the time has now come to further ensure the human spirit continues to rapidly flower in Scotland and beyond through widening access to Edinburgh’s and other Scottish festivals. This may be achieved through first experiencing our riches in a local cinema and also offering these audience members both within as well as outwith Scotland opportunities to support these events with a systematic voluntary contribution. Through these additional voluntary contributions perhaps more empty seats may be filled through a further subsidised ticket scheme to ensure that the next generation of audience members has a early start in terms of experiencing our unique Scottish cultural riches.

After all, was this not the original dream of the founders of this world-renowned festival programme when they sought, following the darkness of the Second World War, to raise the spirits of Europe through offering the highest quality cultural programmes?

• Prof Joe Goldblatt, FRSA, is executive director of the International Centre for the Study of Planned Events at Queen Margaret University