Director of Edinburgh international festival warns cuts put its status at risk
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Nicola Benedetti calls for significant rise in public and philanthropic support to maintain its global reputation. The director of the Edinburgh international festival has warned it could lose its status as one of the world’s greatest arts events without significant increases in public and philanthropic support.
![[A smiling Nicola Benedetti posing with arms folded]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/45cdcbeed76d1159a8bba13759e93e1b92ffbe91/1861_1481_3611_2167/master/3611.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Nicola Benedetti, a Grammy-winning classical violinist who became the festival’s director in 2022, said in an interview with the Guardian she feared the creative arts that underpinned it were at risk of stagnating because of repeated funding cuts. She said an increase in Scottish government arts spending announced four weeks ago, while “a very welcome step in the right direction”, had come too late to prevent this year’s international festival being smaller.
“It’s too close to impact our 25 festival in any significant way,” she said. “There are one or two late levers we’d be able to potentially pull [to stage extra events], but even that will be down to late availability. So it’s not leaving us in a great place for the 25 festival.”.
The festival has this year been forced to cancel its opening event, which has previously included gala concerts and light projections staged at Edinburgh Castle, at Tynecastle Park football stadium and the Usher Hall. Benedetti said it was unclear whether the extra £34m secured in the budget by Angus Robertson, the Scottish government’s culture secretary, including £4m more for festivals, would lead to a significant boost to the international festival’s future funding.
