A NEW funding scheme for Edinburgh’s Festivals worth £15m over five years, has been announced.
The new scheme, involving the capital’s council, Edinburgh Festivals and the Scottish Government, is called PLACE, or Platforms for Creative Excellence.
The first section o f funding, worth £5.8m will be for the first three years, and decisions for another £4.2m will be made in 2021/22.
This package will include £5m from the participating festivals themselves, to create the overall £15m sum.
The money, the festivals said, will be used for “new commissions, global and European premieres, multi-year national and international programming partnerships and onward tours of work.”
One will be a “programme bringing Scottish and international writers together to explore hotspots in world politics and share inside stories of their journeys with audiences.”
The Edinburgh International Festival will receive £1.2m, and the Fringe, £500,000 while the city’s book festival will receive £585,000 in funds for a series of projects.
One of the Edinburgh International Book Festival projects will be Citizen, a three-year residency programme, "empowering communities across Edinburgh to engage in democratic discourse and build a relationship with the August Festival".
The EIF funding will be used to increase its community engagement, among other plans.
Each partner has made an "annual in-principle commitment of £1m" for the duration of the programme, and the programme will run for a period of five years.
City of Edinburgh Council Leader Adam McVey, said: “Borne out of our productive City Region Deal discussions with the Scottish Government, this joint funding package is a commitment to protect the legacy and support the future of our festivals.
"Between them, the festivals attract audiences of over 4.5m and are vital to our city’s success and reputation, adding £313m to the Scottish economy every year.
"It is a huge milestone to announce this first phase of investment.
"The funding will support some really pioneering projects, ones which without our joint support could not take place."
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