FERGUS Linehan, the director of the Edinburgh International Festival, was speaking in sadness more than anger last night about the imminent cut to the festival’s finances.
He seemed confident that the looming £200,000 cut it is facing can somehow be weathered, at least for the time being. But he needs to see the long term plan from the city for the festival: is an annual cut the only possible future now? Is is sustainable to champion a Festival City while at the same time continually cutting its funding?
Councils across the country are hard pressed. Edinburgh is too. Other vital council services need funding and support. And, it appears, the EIF is in relatively robust financial shape.
But with successive cuts, the slicing will show in the programme. Free opening concerts, which have been a signature of the festival since Mr Linehan took his position, the much-praised expansion into Leith Theatre: these cost - of course - money. The city may see the EIF contract if such cuts continue. Mr Linehan wants to see the city’s long term plan: is there one?
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here