Usher Hall forced to axe Festival concert after power failure

EDINBURGH City Council has admitted it is still trying to get to the root of power problems at its flagship concert hall after the last-minute cancellation of a high-profile Festival show.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Edinburgh International Festival performance was axed about ten minutes after it was due to get under way due to a power failure at the Usher Hall on Lothian Road.

The council is in dispute with ScottishPower over who was to blame, with the authority insisting the problems, discovered at about 6pm on Tuesday, were traced to the building’s external power supply.

The company, who sent staff to the Usher Hall to help restore power after the cancellation, has insisted there were no other problems in the area and that the building’s own power system was to blame.

Emergency back-up plans have now been drawn up in a bid to prevent any repeat, with the venue due to host Nicola Benedetti and the London Symphony Orchestra today. Welsh National Opera’s five-hour production of Tristan und Isolde went ahead as planned at 5pm yesterday.

The Festival, which has been hit with an angry online backlash after the cancellation, insisted it was “confident” all other shows booked into the venue would go ahead.

It had to issue a full apology and offer refunds to all ticket-holders as the event was unable to be rescheduled at the venue, which has bookings for other festival events until

1 September. The power supply is said to have remained “stable” since being restored

by ScottishPower.

A spokesman for the firm said: “There were no issues with power cuts in any of the other buildings in the area or out on the street. It was nothing to do with us.”

However, a spokesman for the council said: “There were intermittent problems with the power from around 6pm on Tuesday, with it going off completely around 7pm. Electricians tried to fix the problem until it was established that the problem was to do with the power supply coming into the building.”

One concert-goer, Alastair McLeish, said: “It wouldn’t have been as bad if this was an RSNO concert in mid-February, but for it to happen at the height of the Festival is a disaster.”

Karl Chapman, general manager at the venue, added: “The problem was investigated by ScottishPower and they managed to restore power to the building on Tuesday night. Power has remained stable since.

“However, the root cause remains unclear, so we are continuing to work with engineers and doing everything we can to make sure the situation is completely resolved. We remain confident that other performances can go ahead as planned but are working on back-up plans in case we have a repeat of the problem.”

Susie Burnet, head of communications at the Festival, said: “The Usher Hall power supply is back up again. We are confident there will be no other problems. However, any back-up plans are a matter for the Usher Hall.

“We would like to thank the audience for their understanding about the cancellation, but we are now looking forward to the rest of the Festival and the wonderful musicians who will be performing.”