Edinburgh International Festival: Nicola Benedetti defends ‘dynamic pricing’ plans as discount offers are revealed

Half of Edinburgh International Festival tickets will be £30 or under

Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) director Nicola Benedetti has defended the use of dynamic pricing to sell tickets for its shows – as she unveiled new measures aimed at ensuring the event is as affordable as possible this summer.

The festival has refused to publish full ticket prices and will instead be deciding what to charge for its theatre, opera, dance and music events based on demand in the coming months. Its official programme, which is published today, only lists the standard minimum price of tickets.

However, Ms Benedetti has insisted the use of dynamic pricing, which has drawn criticism for its use in the live events industry, is allowing the festival to expand its range of free and concession tickets.

The EIF has unveiled a new initiative to make a limited number of £10 tickets available in advance for every performance in its programme and has also insisted at least 50 per cent of its tickets will be pegged at £30 or under. Young musicians from across Scotland will be able to claim a pair of free tickets for up to three concerts at the Usher Hall, The Hub and the Queen’s Hall.

Ms Benedetti has insisted the festival will set an upper limit on its ticket prices, but would not disclose what this would be.

This year’s festival is being backed by well over £5m in public funding, including around £1.6m in new investment from the UK government, as well annual funding from the Scottish Government agencies Event Scotland and Creative Scotland, and the city council.

Nicola Benedetti is in her second year as director of the Edinburgh International Festival. Picture: Mihaela Bodlovic

Ms Benedetti said: "Our team began working very early on how generous and ambitious our ticket concession offer could be. We are obviously in a time of economic squeeze, but this is deeper than that for me personally and therefore for the whole organisation, which is supported and funded, and has a civic duty to make what we do as available and accessible as possible.

“That’s not just about resources and finance. It's about how we communicate to people, what kind of environment we create for people, how welcome people feel when they walk through our doors and how much of a sense of belonging they feel. We’ve looked at it every which way, so there is no barrier to enjoying what we have to offer. I think we’ve made progress on all those fronts.

"We are going to have our most generous concession ticket offer to date, with 50 per cent of our tickets being £30 or under. We will have £10 affordable tickets across all performances and we will have 2,000 free tickets for aspiring musicians aged eight to 18.

Nicola Benedetti is in her second year as director of the Edinburgh International Festival. Picture: Jess Shurte

“The whole principle we’ve been working hard on behind the scenes is how to ensure that for people who have any kind of financial, logistical or practical barrier to come to the festival, then we will remove that barrier. We’re really proud of what we’ve been able to achieve, especially within the current climate.

"For those people who need concession tickets the most, they will be available. It takes a lot of time, effort, care and data analysis to get that right."

It emerged in the run-up to last year’s EIF the event had adopted dynamic pricing at its box office, although the move was never publicly announced.

Ms Benedetti said: "There was some criticism last year, but overall there was very little. With dynamic pricing, there is an element of it that is down to algorithms and there is an element of it that is controlled by our decisions. We work very carefully with the software.

The Edinburgh International Festival will be joining forces with whisky brand The Macallan and producers Pinwheel to create an outdoor opening event for more than 10,000 people in August. Image: Laurence Winram

"At any juncture, we can interfere, cap and change whatever we need in order to make it as fair as possible. I understand there are principled arguments against dynamic pricing. But there are people who can afford more expensive, premium tickets for the festival.

“Every single one of the measures that we look at, including dynamic pricing, is in order to make concession tickets available for those who need them most. We’re not doing it for fun. We’re not a money-making industry.

"There will be constant, live analysis from the minute things go on sale. But we will be doing it with people and principles in mind, and what it is that we’re trying to achieve.”

The EIF has been one of the most vocal critics of the level of public funding available for the arts in Scotland and the 77-year-old event in particular, citing a 41 per cent real-terms cut over the past 15 years.

In common with the majority of arts organisations in Scotland, the EIF has no confirmed government funding in place after next spring, with Creative Scotland not expected to decide on successful applicants for its next long-term funding programme until October.

However, new EIF backers this year include the UK government and whisky brand The Macallan, which is supporting an all-ticket opening event for 10,000 people.

Asked how uncertainty over its future funding was affecting the festival’s ability to plan ahead, Ms Benedetti said: “It’s a healthy challenge. Contingency planning is a necessity. We have an excellent team and an excellent board. We have all the things in need in place, like protective measures and due diligence, that allow us to plan ahead, with a very stringent outline where risk cannot be taken.

"People have been creative with smaller funds all over the world all the time. We have to use all of our resources – but some are creative, some are about human connection, some are about the meaning of this festival to people in Edinburgh and Scotland, and some are about where else we get resources from.

"You can guarantee that we’re beavering away in every single direction while having a very responsible contingency plan.

"There are ongoing discussions and conversations taking place with the Scottish Government all the time. But when I say contingency planning, what that means is planning for something that is not necessarily the model of growth we’ve like to see. But we’re not alone in that.”