The new funding announced by The Scottish Government, The City of Edinburgh Council and Festivals Edinburgh today was born out of the City Region Deal, but this cash injection does not include any UK Government money in the way the City Region Deal does.
That deal is worth £1billion to the capital and the immediate council areas. You can read more about it here.
The announcement was made at St Bride’s Community Centre this morning to tuneful accompaniment from a young jazz trio and the Linten Adie Community Singing Group who usually rehearse at St Bride’s each Tuesday.
St Bride’s will become a new jazz performance centre which will allow the Jazz and Blues Festival to operate 365 days a year. They will work on the puppets and costumes for their carnival from here and will also take their work out to others in the city.
The funding was welcomed by all and in particular the Culture Convener Councillor Donald Wilson who said : “Edinburgh is the Festival City but we must constantly work at that and invest in it. It is easy to look at Edinburgh as it is today as this great cultural centre and think that somehow this all happened by itself. Well of course it didn’t.
“It is things like this which makes these things happen. It works internationally and locally. St Bride’s is very close to my heart and the project involving St Bride’s and the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival epitomises what this funding is about. It has various elements which have come together to make this a perfect way to take the festival forward. It is a clarification of the role and importance of the festivals going forward.
“The festivals were deliberately designed to be a platform for the flowering of the human spirit.
“This is a deliberate attempt to actually direct the benefits of the festivals, both cultural and economic to the communities and citizens of the whole of Scotland and of course visitors too. It is an attempt to spread it out and to widen it and to increase the diversity of participation in the event. That is why I am so passionate for example about this because it is not just a geographical widening of the festivals but it is also an unlocking of potential
“The potential of this building is very clear. It is a very successful community centre.
“You can see as you go about the centre how busy it is and it is very lively, but the very potential has slipped in recent years.
“The potential here is enormous and was largely unused. This allows the Jazz Festival to go forward in ways it would not otherwise have been able to do. This money allows this to happen.”
He continued : “This is the biggest reorganisation of the festivals, the biggest unlocking of potential. It is hugely important for the festivals. The benefits will be felt across the whole of Scotland.”
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
