THE new leader of Edinburgh’s city council has admitted more needs to be done to help those residents fed up with the annual summer influx of festival-goers.
The international art world descends on the capital for the annual arts festival every August, temporarily doubling the city’s population.
But while it brings the city millions of pounds in revenue, not to mention prestige, Adam McVey said the council’s in-boxes also bulge with complaints from residents trying to go about their everyday lives.
Mr McVey told the annual general meeting of the Fringe Society: “The council is absolutely committed to the festivals going forward.
“We see it as one of the life-bloods of the economy, of our culture and really what it means to be part of this city.”
But he added: “It’s difficult for the
council to see the festival as only a positive, because we get a huge amount of emails from people saying, ‘my bus was late’ or ‘there’s litter everywhere’.
“We have to strive, and we are striving, to try and make sure the little niggling things that come with having a population that doubles during the month of August are dealt with, and that our fundamental underlying infrastructure meets the challenges that the festival brings.”
Mr McVey noted he had, since becoming leader of the council, rapidly become
interested in the city’s “bin stats”, which show there were 27 per cent fewer complaints about bins and refuse issues in the first week of this year’s Fringe compared to in 2016.
He added: “We are trying to get better
and try to address the relatively small number of voices and relatively small number of concerns about the burden on the city, which is a great burden to have, but [improve] the small little things we can do...so [the festival] is only seen in positive terms, and people have a positive experience.”
Mr McVey, the city’s youngest council chief at the age of 30, revealed he worked for three years as part of the Fringe’s street team working with performers.
He said the festivals’ impact economically, injecting about £300 million into the
Scottish economy, was important and noted that the city’s hotels were full and “charging a fortune.”
Paisley-born Mr McVey, born in Paisley and raised in Renfrew, said: said: “Although the festival means a lot to our city in terms of numbers, it means a lot to our hotel industry, bringing so many people here, and allows so many people to access culture...the Fringe is a probably the only time of the year when a lot of people engage with
the concept of culture, and going to see a live show, and its a hugely beneficial thing, not only for our city but for people’s well being.”
The AGM also featured a lively debate about the amount of comedy at the Fringe.
This year, comedy takes up 32% of the programme but one of the performers present said quotas should be introduced.
The topic, a perennial subject of debate, was led by Alan Ireby, a veteran participant, both amateur and professionally, at the Fringe, who said: "I am well aware that the Fringe does not judge anyone, it's a free-for-all market, I served on the board and I am well aware of that.
"But unfortunately, the free for all is inevitably subsumed down to the lowest common denominator which is this kind of show [comedy].
"There has been a huge expansion of stand-up comedy....the size of the visiting audience is more or less finite, thus the drain of audiences to stand up comedy means a dramatic fall in audience for theatre groups, and this is reflected in the TV and radio coverage which has almost entirely featured stand up comics."
This view was refuted or queried by other Fringe members present, and Professor Sir Timothy O'Shea, chair of the society, said the open access principal of the Fringe would not change.
"We are not about to impose quotas on comedians or anybody else," he said.
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