My three-year old grand-daughter enjoyed a random overview of the Edinburgh Festival sitting on my shoulders as we waded through the crowds on the Royal Mile.
We passed buskers playing the theme tune from “Titanic” on a violin and guitar. Then we heard an opera singer reaching for her high notes, a diva with a shock of white hair and tattoos on her legs. Next was a dancer apparently floating above the crowd advertising her show about Orpheus in the underworld.
Another performer was trying to ride a very high “penny farthing” bicycle but spinning out his act to 15 long minutes. There were statues, which would suddenly move, fortune-telling booths and street artists doing instant portraits. Large groups of visitors followed tour guides holding umbrellas in the air. And buzzing all around were the leafleteers pressing flyers into our hands for a-cappella shows and stand-up comedy, a lot of comedy.
It was a carnival of the absurd, all happening between the grim tenements of the Royal Mile and the black Presbyterian buildings of St Giles Cathedral, the City Chambers and the civil and criminal courthouses.
All this is big business for Edinburgh, £400 million worth, according to the latest study commissioned by the City Council in 2022. The figure includes spending at all the festivals – the “official” international festival, the Fringe with its 3,700 shows, the book and film festivals, the art and sacred arts festivals, the TV festival and the Hogmanay festival. Together they attract 700,000 visitors and create 7,000 jobs. So the £11 million of public subsidy, generates a handsome return.
It shows that if the government wants to grow the economy, investment in the arts is one way it can do it. It employs people quickly, without large capital costs and without much damage to the environment. It’s like education and sport, and it should be made a growth sector of the economy, rather than heavy industries, like manufacturing or construction, which are slow to start, capital intensive and environmentally costly.
Overall, the 16 “creative industries” in Scotland are worth £5 billion to the economy, according to the government. They employ 70,000 people – that’s more than the oil and gas sector or agriculture – and that’s without counting freelancers and students. The so-called “creatives” range from advertising to music, art, computer games, film and broadcasting, writing and craft work.
The state of the arts in Scotland is a subject of anxious debate during the festivals. It’s led this week to a dozen of the country’s leading theatres organising a “summit” to discuss the distribution of government subsidies after an unseemly row last year. But, in my view, the debate about the arts needs to be about more than theatre subsidies. It’s about the role of the arts in our national life and in our individual lives.
When we are looking for meaning and purpose, the arts are an inspiration, at any level. They are an infinite space for giving us something to do that feels worthwhile. Artistic effort springs partly from the individual soul but it also needs family support, a good education system and public support though ticket sales, sponsorship and government subsidies. At present, there is a lack of all of the above.
The arts also need leadership from established writers, painters, sculptors and musicians. Judging from this month’s festival season, I’m not sure the Scottish “culture” is in good shape. Over 40 per cent of the shows are low comedy. In the book tent there’s a lot of “Scottish noir novels” and writings of despair and disfunction. On the pop festival stages there’s rage and noise and long sad anthems. At the television festival the celebration is for shows of violence and disturbing behaviour. Nothing has a happy ending any more.
Artists should not just reflect life, they should provide answers and hope of something better. As violinist Nicola Benedetti, CBE, the International Festival Director, says in her introduction: “The audacity of vision, in the aftermath of the Second World War, to create an arts festival so rooted in reconciliation……moves me to tears of compassion. This urgent desire to pursue truth through art continues to guide and inspire us.”
