A major cash injection to T in the Park was justified and saved the country's biggest music festival from "jeopardy", the culture minister has insisted.

Fiona Hyslop said that it would have been "extremely odd" to not meet Geoff Ellis, chief executive of DF Concerts, when he raised financial concerns about the festival, which this year was staged at Strathallan Castle for the first time.

She noted that the funds, £150,000, were not just for this year but for future years of the festival at the site.

The cash injection has proved controversial as Jennifer Dempsie, a former SNP government adviser who was working for DF at the time, had a key role in the meeting between Ms Hyslop and T in the Park’s promoters.

DF Concerts applied for aid on June 29, and Ms Hyslop approved a package on July 2, eight days before the festival began.

Ms Hyslop, speaking on a day where she attended a series of events at the Fringe and the Edinburgh Art Festival with The Herald, said: "It's not controversial: it's the biggest music festival in Scotland.

"It has had some public money for certain things in the past, this was an important year for its transition, and when the chief executive [Geoff Ellis] contacted me to say that they were some issues with its transition - and also its viability at staying at that site in future years - of course it was sensible to not only meet him, but for the department to look at what support could be given.

"I think people would have thought it extremely odd had the Scottish Government not met with the director of the biggest and most popular festival in Scotland and its future viability for the next few years was in jeopardy."

Ms Hyslop has attended a series of festival events, including the "simply stunning" Harmonium Project at the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF), Dragon, From Scotland With Love, 887 by Robert Lepage and Antigone also at the EIF.

The culture secretary has also attended events at the Edinburgh International Book Festival - Wayfaring Strangers and Celebrating Yeats - as well as Beauty of the Beast at Dancebase, Swallow at the Traverse, and Charles Avery and Hanna Tuulikki's shows for the Edinburgh Art Festival.

Ms Hyslop also intends to see more EIF shows next week, including Lanark, the National Youth Choir of Scotland and the closing fireworks concert.

She said work was ongoing to try to bring a Scottish film studio, likely in Cumbernauld, to fruition.

"We are working very hard on the film studio," she said.

"We are working with a commercial partner so therefore we cannot give out information that is related to a commercial confidentiality of their operations. I am very focussed on this, I have my government department very focussed on this, but we have to get the right solution."

She said that she 'expected' so have some news on the studio this year.

On the future funds available for the arts from Scottish Government, with a spending review looming, she said: "The Scottish Government will argue for the centrality of culture, not only to the identity of Scotland, but a whole range of other issues, not least tackling inequalities, giving opportunity for young people, the arts is a very good way of doing that."

She said the Edinburgh festival was confirming its "pre-eminence" in world culture.

"I am enjoying it, there's a huge energy in Edinburgh at this time, the artistry and the confidence of what I have seen, and the quality of what I have seen, is very attractive," she said.

"A lot of the success is that international aspect - we are bringing the world here to showcase international talent and Scottish talent - you are getting so many people from across the world, festival directors, producers, and taking what they see in Edinburgh and taking it around the world, they want to be in Edinburgh first."