Scotsman Daily Bulletin Wednesday 12 June

The Scotsman

Transcript

00:00 (upbeat music)

00:02 - Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin

00:09 for this Wednesday.

00:10 My name's Dale Miller, I'm Head of News at the Scotsman.

00:13 And I'm joined by our Arts and Culture Correspondent,

00:15 Brian Ferguson.

00:16 Brian, it is summer, which means, well,

00:19 we can't look out the window,

00:20 but we're close to the festival.

00:22 - Yeah, indeed, not too long to go.

00:24 Less than two months, would you believe?

00:25 - Less than two months.

00:26 The countdown is on.

00:27 I feel a countdown clock in the wanting

00:30 for the Scotsman site to the first day

00:33 of the Fringe and International Festivals.

00:36 Brian, we're talking about the Fringe because,

00:38 and we'll take a look at the front page of today's Scotsman.

00:41 We splashed on an interview that you did

00:43 with Shona McCarthy, Head of the Fringe Society.

00:48 And she is warning that arts and culture events

00:51 have become unattractive to sponsors

00:53 and that there are concerns about sponsorship now.

00:56 We all know what's happened with Bailey Gifford.

00:58 We've covered that extensively at scotsman.com.

01:02 The decision by, a mutual decision,

01:05 it was said by the International Book Festival

01:07 and Bailey Gifford to part ways

01:10 and for the company to no longer be a sponsor.

01:13 We know that's spread to other book festivals

01:15 across Scotland.

01:17 And clearly, Brian, it leaves a funding challenge.

01:22 It's on easy climate, as you've written,

01:24 to actually get new sponsors.

01:26 And this decision has robbed some of these festivals

01:29 of a lot of money to actually put on a programme

01:32 and show us.

01:33 Can you just talk through a little more detail

01:35 about what Shona had to say?

01:37 - Yeah, basically, Bailey Gifford

01:41 certainly have been sponsoring at the last count,

01:44 something like 20, 25 arts organisations

01:47 and festivals in Scotland.

01:49 They're based in Edinburgh.

01:50 They've had a big interest in loads of different festivals.

01:53 They certainly have been the main headline sponsor

01:56 of the Book Festival and International Festival

02:00 in recent years.

02:01 And certainly have been,

02:04 and this year are still one of the major sponsors

02:07 of the International Festival.

02:10 And they're also involved in theatres,

02:13 they've been involved in art galleries,

02:14 museums and exhibitions as well.

02:16 And they're one of many sponsors of the new fringe programme.

02:22 They're listed as one of the main sponsors

02:24 for the community and education and access programmes.

02:29 So they're not the major sponsor of the fringe,

02:32 they are one of the major sponsors of the fringe society.

02:35 But, and the fringe society is not awash with money.

02:40 They're not putting in a huge amount,

02:43 but it hasn't actually been disclosed what they're putting in

02:45 but it would be a massive amount of money,

02:46 certainly compared to the six figure sums

02:48 they've been putting in elsewhere.

02:50 But, it's obviously been a tension for any organisation

02:55 that's now has any kind of involvement

02:58 with Bailiwick Inverter,

02:59 there's potentially a problem there

03:00 because the Fossil Free Books campaign,

03:05 the thing that brought this to a head for book festivals

03:08 is basically the threat of destruction.

03:10 And that was pretty much why the Hay Festival

03:15 and then the Book Festival had to take decisions

03:17 because one of the elements

03:22 which shouldn't affect potentially an event like the fringes,

03:27 do you know the pressure that was put

03:28 on individual performers to pull out of those festivals,

03:33 I can't really see that being an issue for the fringe at all.

03:37 But certainly for book festivals to lose performers,

03:40 particularly at the last minute as was happening

03:42 with the Hay Festival in Wales was a huge issue

03:44 that potentially could have been catastrophic

03:47 for the Book Festival as well.

03:49 But it's the threat of disruption

03:51 and the prospect of protest

03:53 that certainly was giving the Book Festival

03:56 a kind of added anxiety.

03:57 And I think they did touch on that in their statement

04:00 that it's very difficult for them to guarantee

04:03 a kind of safe event and a sustainable event

04:06 if they were losing people,

04:09 but also this prospect of protest.

04:11 So that has been and will be one of the things

04:14 that the Fringe Society will be thinking about.

04:17 And it's a very complex picture.

04:19 You know, one of many sponsors,

04:23 certainly the fringe is not entirely

04:25 and has never been reliant on one particular sponsor,

04:29 but obviously the Royal Mile and where the Fringe Society is

04:34 is a very, very busy place in August.

04:37 I don't think anyone involved with the Fringe Society

04:40 or the police or the council will particularly welcome

04:43 that prospect of any big protests.

04:45 Having said that, the Fringe is no stranger

04:47 to protests, activism, demonstrations.

04:51 I mean, it kind of goes with the territory of the Fringe.

04:55 And obviously the Fringe from day one

04:58 has always been about freedom of expression

05:01 and being an open access event.

05:03 So, and later on top of that as well,

05:07 we have the whole debate which is ongoing

05:10 about who's the festival for in Edinburgh.

05:13 Is it something that, you know,

05:15 I mean, I firmly believe it's very, very popular

05:17 with the people of Edinburgh,

05:18 but there are people in outlying areas of the city

05:20 who for one reason or another

05:22 just don't come into the city centre, particularly in August.

05:25 So interestingly, Bailey Gifford, a lot of their work

05:28 is that the fund has really been about kind of widening

05:33 access to the festival to community groups

05:35 and also, you know, paying for performers to go into it

05:40 in different parts of the city.

05:42 But quite frankly,

05:43 they don't have much experience of culture at all.

05:46 So it's a very tricky picture.

05:49 And it's a picture that's been shifting as well.

05:52 The book festival's always had a bit of a hard time

05:55 in Edinburgh for that decision, which is, you know,

05:59 there's not too many people happy about it, to be honest,

06:01 including the book festival themselves.

06:03 So it's a very tricky thing for people to grapple with.

06:06 And I'd say there has been a significant backlash

06:10 within the cultural sector as well.

06:13 So, you know, it's not a story that's gonna go away

06:17 any time soon.

06:18 Certainly I think it'll be something that

06:20 has got a few twists and turns left in it.

06:23 - Brian, you've covered for today as well

06:25 that just the number of shows that are being put on,

06:27 there's been a lot of criticism about costs,

06:30 access to accommodation,

06:32 also from Shona McCarthy talking about her concerns

06:35 about the lack of direct support

06:36 from bodies like the state government.

06:39 But there is still a very healthy programme

06:41 being run this year.

06:42 Can you just in a nutshell, very quickly,

06:45 pick out a couple of highlights from the programme?

06:47 What are you excited about seeing in August?

06:50 - The one show, I mean,

06:53 there's obviously quite a lot of interest and concern,

06:56 actually, about one of the best

06:58 and biggest fringe venues, Summer Hall.

07:00 And obviously I think they're running a campaign

07:03 to try and get people to go there.

07:05 I would encourage people to seek out June Carter Cash,

07:08 the woman, her music and me,

07:10 which is a new stage show created by a Glaswegian actress

07:15 and country singer, Charlene Boyd,

07:18 partly inspired by her kind of long-time love

07:22 of country music,

07:23 but also a growing interest she's had in June Carter Cash,

07:26 who was the wife of Johnny Cash

07:28 and a hugely successful award-winning performer

07:32 in their own right.

07:33 There's gonna be, Nashville's Bluebird Cafe

07:36 is gonna be recreated at Summer Hall this summer

07:38 for the new National Theatre of Scotland show.

07:41 And I'd also mention there are gonna be not one,

07:44 but two new stage shows inspired

07:47 by Gwyneth Paltrow's ski crash

07:49 and the ensuing legal battle.

07:52 One of which, well, one of which stars Diana Vickers,

07:57 which some viewers and readers may remember from,

08:01 she was propelled to fame on "The X Factor."

08:03 So she has got the starring role as Gwyneth Paltrow

08:06 in one of them, which is called "I Wish You Well,"

08:08 which apparently it was Gwyneth Paltrow's parting words

08:12 in the courtroom.

08:13 So that's, but there's 3,300 shows

08:19 in this year's Fringe Program.

08:21 So despite endless debate and anxieties

08:24 about the affordability of the event,

08:27 which is still a massive issue,

08:29 the number of shows has turned out to be 10% more

08:32 than last year.

08:33 And at the last count,

08:36 the program will be the fourth biggest

08:38 in the 77 year history of the event.

08:41 And that is, it's worth pointing out,

08:43 that's without Gilded Balloon's biggest venue,

08:46 which is closed this year.

08:47 And the absence of a couple of notable venues

08:50 in the new town.

08:50 So the picture's, it always shifts every year,

08:54 but it'll be certainly a very interesting year.

08:57 But I don't think people in Edinburgh

08:58 will get the sense of it being anything smaller

09:01 than it has been over the last decade or so.

09:03 Certainly of the same scale.

09:06 - Brian, I'll be interested in saying

09:07 whether Trump's courtroom battle

09:09 also inspires any perhaps comic performances

09:12 at the Fringe this year as well.

09:14 You can read all the stories that we've spoken about today

09:17 at scotsman.com, the coverage around the Fringe,

09:20 Sharon McCarthy's comments,

09:21 and also the future of Summer Hall,

09:24 which is being put up as a venue for sale.

09:27 Clearly a lot of people in the arts and culture sector

09:29 are very concerned about that move.

09:31 Brian, thanks for joining us.

09:33 Everyone, please follow us on Facebook X

09:36 and head direct to the website

09:38 and buy a copy of the paper tomorrow.

09:41 Thank you.

09:42 (upbeat music)

09:45 (upbeat music)

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