Stage is set for artistic April Fools Day protest against new red tape

There appears to be widespread confusion across the country over new rules, which would mean organisers need to seek an official licence for all free events.

A day of artistic “disbodience” is being planned for April Fool’s Day in Edinburgh if the city council enforces legislation on Friday.

More than 600 people have now joined a Facebook site set up over the weekend to promote A Little April Tomfoolery, which will start in the early hours of the morning, to coincide with the date councils can deploy the new legislation.

Talks are underway to extend the initiative across the country, with growing numbers of councils planning to enforce the new rules, despite claims they threaten to kill off grass-roots arts activity by imposing too much red tape and bureaucracy.

Publicity material for the April event urges anyone currently involved in free arts events to deliberately plan one for the day.

It states: “Find a location and do your thing. Publicise it or don’t. Show off your pictures, burst into song, wax poetical, make a scene, find an audience. Just don’t apply for a licence.”

Organiser Jen McGregor said she had been “amazed” at the response to the idea, after posting the idea on websites against the new legislation over the past few days.

She told The Scotsman: “A lot of people have already come back to say that they will definitely organise something now and I think they’ll go ahead regardless of what councillors decide later this week, as the issue is not going to go away in Edinburgh, Glasgow, or anywhere else.

Councillors in Edinburgh are under mounting pressure to overturn legal advice from their officials that they must enforce the new legislation, rather than exempt poetry readings, art exhibitions, live music events and acrobatics performances.

Glasgow City Council announced last month that it was putting charges for free events on hold while a six-month review of the legislation is carried out. A similar move has been announced by Perth & Kinross Council, but authorities in West Lothian and Orkney have warned only organisers of art exhibitions are definitely exempted, while Aberdeen has exempted literary events.

However, in Dumfries & Galloway and Argyll & Bute, both of which have many arts events in rural areas, only large-scale concerts and theatrical performances are likely to be affected.

Perth & Kinross Council’s legal manager, Sarah Rodger, said: “We will not require anyone to have a licence for a free event until we have reviewed and if necessary amended our resolution to bring free events into the licensing regime locally. Our position is that at the time the resolution was passed, councillors would not have had free events in mind and, on that basis, it would not be appropriate to extend the licensing requirements to free events without further review.”