Why it’s a summer of discontent for arts festivals | Ents & Arts News

In a city with multiple arts events, in Edinburgh this weekend you’ll find two different stances on festival funding.

Running alongside Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival, begins Edinburgh Book Festival.

Brilliant cultural platforms in their own rights, both of whom have traditionally welcomed sponsors to help them stage their various artistic and literary endeavours.

But when it comes to accepting money from investment management firm Baillie Gifford, they’ve ended up in opposite positions.

After on-stage protests at the literary event last year over the firm’s links to Israel and fossil fuel companies, the Book Festival ended its sponsorship deal with Baillie Gifford.

While the Fringe, on the other hand, hasn’t.

In one interview, its CEO Shona McCarthy stated arts organisers feel a “brokenness” right now, expected to be the “most values-driven organisations on the planet” while struggling financially.

Comedian Michael Kunze told Sky News he gets it, saying: “I have friends who work at arts organisations and they’re all doing the best they can, they care so deeply about arts, they’re so passionate about it, and it’s frustrating, you know, where is the clean money?”

But Mark Thomas, who also has a run of stand-up shows in Edinburgh, said the Fringe was wrong to accept them as sponsors.

“I know Shona and I like her, she said that there’s no such thing as clean money,” he said.

“Well, if that’s the case, why haven’t you got vape companies sponsoring kids shows? Why haven’t you got Putin involved? Why haven’t you got money coming from Colombian cartels?”

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Renewed scrutiny of financing has made this a summer of discontent for arts festivals.

This has included Barclays suspending its ties to music festivals in response to band boycotts over its links to arms companies.

And various Baillie Gifford boycotts are now responsible for nine literary festivals and three art galleries no longer receiving money.

While campaigners argue it’s not about tearing down the arts but building them up, not everyone agrees with them.

Edinburgh Book Festival’s director Jenny Niven told Sky News: “It’s great to have a wide range of perspectives on how you build up the arts.”

Ms Niven – who took over the festival in June 2023 – said: “I do think that you have to be very careful to preserve what you already have. And it’s a tricky environment for all of us at the moment.”

In a statement, Baillie Gifford said just 2% of its clients’ money is invested in companies with links to fossil fuels, compared to the market average of 11%.

It also said “assertions it has significant amounts of money in the occupied Palestinian territories is offensively misleading”.

Former culture secretary Ed Vaizey said he believes activists are going after the wrong targets.

He said: “[Festivals] need sponsorship and they get it from legitimate companies… and if you then force a boycott, these literary festivals go to the wall. How does that help anyone?”

One of the UK’s biggest independent music festivals, Green Man in the Brecon Beacons, has built a loyal following.

When it begins on 15 August, many people there have returned year after year.

Fiona Stewart, its managing director and owner, has always refused to be tied into any corporate deals and she said she sees that as a selling point.

“We’ve never had corporate sponsorship ever, we’ve been offered it quite a lot,” she said.

“If the public are putting money into it and buying products, as it were, from that organisation and they don’t feel happy about the associations those festivals are in, they have a right to say something.”

Samir Eskanda, a Palestinian artist and activist, said activists were increasingly combining forces, influenced by the situation in Gaza and the urgency of climate change.

He said: “What is happening now, and moving forward, is that this critical mass of artists are demanding better from arts institutions, including record labels, music festivals, publishers, galleries and on and on.

“That’s deeply moving to me as a Palestinian musician and human rights defender in the UK… I think that it shows the power that musicians and artists more generally have when we work together in strategic and smart ways.”