On the day that one of the jewels in Scotland's culture, the Edinburgh International Festival, unveiled a fascinating, innovative and in some way unprecedented programme for 2015, it seems almost impolite to mention something as crude as money.

However, an annual extravaganza of opera, classical music, theatre, dance - and this year, for the first time, pop, folk and jazz - of the scale and ambition of the EIF does not run on air, and indeed this year's festival will cost around £11m to stage.

In his first year, the event's director Fergus Linehan has been keen to stress the key financial contributions of sponsors and supporters, and also the festival's entrepreneurial desire to raise as much money as it can of its own.

However, its core funding has been and remains public funds, from the City of Edinburgh Council and Creative Scotland, with additional funds from the Scottish Government. These funds, he says, could be seriously compromised in coming years by continuing austerity and squeezed civic budgets.

The EIF has maintained its reputation and scale by being big: big on ambition, size, and, inevitably, scale comes at a cost. Linehan said the answer to his question of what kind of festival Scotland wants could well be 'a cheaper one'. But the consequences would a lesser event, for Edinburgh, Scotland and the world.