International Culture Strategy

The Edinburgh International Festival was born out of a will to create international cultural connections. Lead by Rudolph Bing, a Jewish refugee who fled to the UK during the rise of Nazi Germany, the Festival was co-established in 1947 to bring people together, heal wounds and foster shared connections through cultural experiences in post-war Europe.

That purpose sits at the core of the Festival to this day, and we continue to bring people of all nations together through a shared love of art and culture.

We are proud to curate annual programmes featuring the finest performers and ensembles from the worlds of dance, opera, music, and theatre for three weeks in August, transforming Edinburgh into an unparalleled celebration of the performing arts.

Last year we hosted over 2,400 artists from 45 countries, and audiences from 85 countries.

We believe we are a key asset in how Scotland is perceived internationally, having built our reputation as a world-leading multi artform Festival over 76 years, and as such are a major driver of tourism in Scotland and the UK.

In bringing major international artists to the Festival, we open doors to collaborations and partnerships with governments and agencies from across the world. Under Fergus Linehan’s tenure as Festival Director (2015 – 2022), we received over 90 instances of funding from international governments in support of their artists and companies performing in our programme, including the USA, France, Canada, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Spain.

We have also held Memoranda of Understanding with several countries on audience development, artistic skills building, and education programmes.

We have supported visits from Ambassadors to the Festival and have worked with the Scottish Government on facilitating wider programmes for their time in Edinburgh, including audiences with the First Minister.
The draw and recognition the Festival has is significant, and we are uniquely placed to deliver on international objectives through both a domestic and global platform.

As well as hosting visits for dignitaries, we have arranged engagements for Scottish Government ministers internationally, for example in Paris and Brussels where we have showcased Scotland’s culture sector alongside fellow Scottish organisations, and in Beijing where we formed part of the former First Minister’s programme of announcements.

Our wider international operations serve to support the core functions of the Festival; the discovery of artists and works; the targeting of international audiences through marketing; and, the development of collaborations on commissioning works/ exchanging knowledge and expertise.

For example, on the latter, we are a member of the European Festivals Association alongside 100 festivals for 40 countries including Ireland, Belgium, Finland, France, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, and many others. The group’s central purpose is to contribute to the artistic life of Europe through interaction between festivals, public authorities, and other stakeholders across Europe.

International activity is at the heart of the purpose and operations of the Edinburgh International Festival. We exist to:

• Present a wide range of performances from the world’s leading artists to the widest possible audience
• Offer affordable international culture to audiences from Scotland, the rest of the UK and the world
• Offer an international showcase for Scotland’s rich culture
• Present innovative performances and programming and a commitment to new work
• Actively welcome and make it possible for all sections of the Scottish and wider public to experience and enjoy the International Festival
• Encourage everyone to participate in the arts throughout the year

We are a curated Festival, selecting world-class artists from all parts of the globe to perform across three weeks in Edinburgh each August.

Participation is a highly prized achievement and supports an artist’s career and gains the attention of international governments, agencies and businesses as well as audiences.

International activity is at the heart of the existence of the Edinburgh International Festival. We exist to:

• Present a wide range of performances from the world’s leading artists to the widest possible audience
• Offer affordable international culture to audiences from Scotland, the rest of the UK and the world
• Offer an international showcase for Scotland’s rich culture
• Present innovative performances and programming and a commitment to new work
• Actively welcome and make it possible for all sections of the Scottish and wider public to experience and enjoy the International Festival
• Encourage everyone to participate in the arts throughout the year

We are a curated Festival, selecting world-class artists from all parts of the globe to perform across three weeks in Edinburgh each August.

Participation is a highly prized achievement and supports an artist’s career and gains the attention of international governments, agencies and businesses as well as audiences.

Bringing artists to the UK also allows for the sharing of expertise/ creative collaboration and offers shared learning opportunities for those international artists but also UK, particularly Scotland-based artists. We work to create these opportunities wherever possible to ensure the impact of the Festival contributes towards talent development and the building of international connections.

Beyond programming international artists and works, we strive to grow our audience base which at present is approximately 10% international. We are often highlighted as a gateway to the rest of Scotland and act as a key hook for international visitors to come to Edinburgh in August but go on to explore other areas of Scotland. Our ambition to expand our audience reach serves to benefit Scotland more widely.

Building our international reputation and connections are crucial for diversifying our income, particularly in the current domestic climate. Seeking those with an affinity for the Festival, Scotland and indeed arts within their own countries where we regularly showcase works from, are avenues for financial support. International governments and agencies are regular supporters of the Festival, through funding their own companies and artists’ performances. Overall international fundraising is an area we hope to strengthen.

We are also keen to support the development of Scotland’s international identity on the world stage and have engaged with DEXA and Brand Scotland on ways in which we can collaborate.

There are many challenges including the impact of leaving the EU and climate change, which are detailed later in the consultation report.

A major challenge is the cost of international engagement. At a basic level, costs relates to travel and accommodation, which have increased enormously in recent years and place huge pressure on our operational budgets both from the perspective of the Festival team travelling to identify new works, and also the costs in bringing artists and companies to Scotland (which are met by the Edinburgh International Festival as opposed to other major event models which rest on performers covering their own costs).

Overall, the landscape of public funding in Scotland is incredibly challenging. Public sector funding has been steadily reducing in real terms since 2009 and is certain to decrease in the future. Our GIA has been cut in real terms by 41%, and we have filled this gap by actively fundraising.

The ability to fundraise internationally is hindered by related costs and an interested prospect pool. International attendees to the Festival are potential prospects, so increasing Edinburgh’s profile as an attractive tourist destination to encourage international attendance will help in this regard. Further, internationally headquartered companies seeking to grow their brand and work presence in Scotland are excellent prospects for corporate partnership, as the International Festival is uniquely situated to reflect both their internationalism and Scottish business/brand interests.

As operational costs continue to rise, we face huge pressures on our budgets and as such, are less likely to be able to continue to undertake work which is not profit-making at the current scale. This directly affects Scottish artists and audiences. We are pushed towards an increasingly commercialised model, meaning those who seek to benefit most from engagement with culture through subsidised pricing lose access, and instead culture, and events become exclusively for those who can afford to pay. From an international programming perspective, we are less able to bring new and emerging talent to Scotland, and present emerging Scottish performers and works on the word stage. This presents a huge risk to the development of the sector and to Scotland’s international reputation as a culturally relevant and leading country.

Internationally, and particularly in mainland Europe, public arts funding is significantly higher than in Scotland and the UK. This places the country at a competitive disadvantage, in an increasingly competitive market. Yet, expectations on cultural organisations receiving public sector support remains high, often with requirements for ‘additionality’ placed upon organisations even in the face of real-terms cuts. This can dilute the core activity and strength of organisations, and restrict their ability to grow, particularly internationally.

In the face of these multiple pressures, we encourage funders to consider supporting organisations to fulfil their core function to their best ability and focus on their strengths, streamlining the reporting requirements and criteria across the funding landscape.

We also encourage more collaborative partnerships across the public sector in Scotland. For example, historically it has been difficult to engage with business and enterprise agencies due to their focus on and expertise in other industries – the links between culture and creative industries and the economy/ exporting are not as fully understood or prioritised as in other traditional sectors.
For example, creative industries are a core part of the Scottish Government’s National Strategy for Economic Transformation, but the public sector investment and financial confidence does not currently match the stated level of ambition or commitment. The Vision for Trade links trade and culture however, again, policy action is not evident.
Culture sits very firmly within culture and major events division in the Scottish Government, and it can be very difficult to get engagement outwith this, to support wider growth.

These are areas in which we see opportunities for development.

We welcome the creation of an International Culture Strategy. The Scottish culture sector punches above its weight in terms of its broad international contributions, despite the major challenges facing the sector. This cannot be taken for granted and we already see the loss of organisation due to funding cuts and wider pressures. Therefore, the Strategy comes at a crucial time and must have the political will and financial backing to drive the actions needed for success.

The focus of the Strategy appears to be on activity based outside of Scotland and on supporting the exporting of Scotland’s cultural offer. Whilst this is crucial and we too would like to grow in this way, we suggest it expands to consider the contribution of internationally recognised activity within Scotland, which is a major contributing factor to not only the ability of Scottish organisations to operate globally, but to the growth of Scotland’s international reputation, economy and soft power.

The Edinburgh International Festival operates across all four themes identified.

The Festival exists to create international connections and understanding of one another through the presentation of art. We bring performers, companies and works to Scotland, offering a broad array of experiences not only to audiences who visit the Festival, but to those participating artistically. We involve communities, schools, charities and Scotland-based creative industry professionals through skills development opportunities and collaborations to enhance and extend these connections beyond August.

As mentioned previously, our membership and active participation in the European Festivals Association allows us to contribute to conversation and debate on a global level and stay connected to cultural organisations across Europe and beyond.

We partner with international organisations on new commissions and bringing world premiers to Scotland. And we regularly engage with worldwide festivals to exchange knowledge and inspire new ideas and ways of working.

The economic impact of the Edinburgh International Festival is significant. Together with our fellow Edinburgh Festivals we act as a creative industries powerhouse, generating £313 million annually for the Scottish economy and our yearly audience footprint is equal to that of the World Cup.

With approx 10% of our visitors coming from outside of the UK, we are a major draw for tourism and can act as a gateway to the rest of Scotland/ the UK.

We consistently seek to diversify our income, often through partnerships with international governments and agencies, which in turn contributes greatly to diplomacy and reputation. These connections regularly result in senior diplomatic presence at the Festival, offering more opportunities for connections to be made at a government-government level.

The Edinburgh International Festival is a globally-recognised and renowned organisation, associated with presenting world-class artists and performances in a hub of cultural activity.

Participation is a highly prized achievement and supports an artist’s career and gains the attention of international governments, agencies and businesses as well as audiences.

The focus of the Strategy appears to be on activity based outside of Scotland and on supporting the exporting of Scotland’s cultural offer. Whilst this is crucial and we too would like to grow in this way, we suggest it expands to consider the contribution of internationally recognised activity within Scotland, which is a major contributing factor to not only the ability of Scottish organisations to operate globally, but to the growth of Scotland’s international reputation, economy and soft power.

As a Creative Scotland Regularly Funded Organisation (RFO) part of our core funding supports our international activity. For project funding we have been supported by: the Scottish Government’s EXPO fund since its inception; the Platforms for Creative Excellence programme; and by EventScotland for our annual Opening Event.

This funding has declined by 41% in real terms over the last 15 years.

EXPO is vital funding which allows Scotland-based performers a platform to work on an internationally recognised stage. However, the timescale for the funding applications and awards is extremely tight and does not allow for the full potential of the fund’s intention to be realised. For example, decisions for this year’s fund were only recently communicated to applicants. For August Festivals this is unfeasibly short notice, allowing for at most 4 months of preparation, which does not allow robust planning to be undertaken and value for money to be secured. This year, we received notice of funding after our brochure went to print.

For context, we spend between 1 – 4 years curating a Festival programme, developing works with Scotland-based and international companies and artists and securing touring performances. A programme will be finalised in January, with our brochure going to print in March and launching in April.

Longer lead in times for all funding and in particular international project funding is essential in order to create those connections; develop meaningful engagement/ projects; and thus, allow for the greatest possible impact. This could be considered through rolling deadlines for applications to acknowledge the differing deadlines for Festivals and events, which is already the case with many international funds we work with.

PLACE funding enabled us to extend our unique position as a global platform for the greatest artists of our time and to include artists from cultures and territories less well known to western audiences but critical to our understanding of the world today. Our PLACE funded work comprised integrated and ambitious seasons across programming, creative development and community engagement which positioned the Festival at the centre of local and international discussions about the future of our city, our country and the world.

Every element of the programme was interlinked and inspired by a truly global programme of creative work from artists who are working at the leading edge of their practice. Performing artists from around the world presented works that reflected social issues experienced in Scotland and internationally.
This type of programming is, by its nature, less commercially focussed. Therefore, having the PLACE funding allowed us to take risks without the pressure of having to meet high ticket-income targets to meet all staging costs.
Our four primary goals were:

• To ensure that Scotland is perceived as a truly forward facing and innovative creative force by guaranteeing that those artists who are leading major new movements in their field are comprehensively and consistently represented in our programme.  
• To ensure that a more diverse range of voices, geographically, generationally, culturally and socially are represented.
• To harness the increasing desire of those in culture and the creative industries to use their work to directly address questions of citizenship and public life including participation, environmental wellbeing, civic and national identity, the impact of technology and generational division.
• To broaden and deepen our engagement with the various constituencies in Edinburgh and Scotland who are at the heart of our work, offering opportunities to artists, individuals and institutions though participation and professional development.

PLACE programme funding was for a fixed period of five years and has now come to an end. With a backdrop of major real terms cut to our core funding each year, and vital income sources such as PLACE coming to an end, it will be incredibly challenging to ensure we can maintain the ambitions to be outward-looking and ambitiously international in our programming focus.

This is a potential loss to Scotland as a centre for debate on key shared global challenges, and cultural exchange.

Since 2015, the Edinburgh International Festival has worked in partnership with EventScotland to mark the start of the Festival season with large-scale, spectacular events capturing the imagination of the city and the attention of both the national and international media, often in partnership with major international companies and organisations.

The various different projects have seen some of Edinburgh’s most iconic locations and buildings transformed through the use of digital mapping technology (Usher Hall, Edinburgh Castle and St Andrew Square). In 2019 and 2022 the Opening Events were presented in sporting arenas, Tynecastle Park football stadium and BT Murrayfield Stadium respectively. In 2019, an audience of 15,000 gathered to watch a performance by the LA Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. The 2022 Opening Event was a celebration of Australian and Scottish culture. MACRO was co-produced by the Edinburgh International Festival and Adelaide Festival. The performance was part of the UK/Australia Season 2021-22, a joint initiative of the British Council and Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, supported by the Australian Government through the International Cultural Diplomacy Arts Fund, the British Council and the Government of South Australia through Arts South Australia. Funding from EventScotland was critical in allowing us to stage this work in BT Murrayfield.

Edinburgh International Festival is a curated Festival – we select the highest quality performers from across the UK and the world and bring them to Edinburgh in August for an unrivalled audience experience.

We cover all costs involved – travel, fees, staging, freight, accommodation and subsistence.

We therefore seek support to cover some of the costs for presenting these performances, including from international governments and agencies for staging artists and companies from their respective countries. In the past ten years we have received support from over 90 international governments/ agencies.

We have also been funded to take some of our learning and engagement work internationally, for example through Independent Schools Australia for our flagship Learning and Engagement Project, the Art of Listening, which we brought to schools in Melbourne in 2016.

Longer term planning is crucial for successful and sustainable international partnerships and collaborations. Without the ability to plan, the opportunities for meaningful impact are lost. The public sector funding cycles are short-term and do not allow for this. Whilst we appreciate the challenges of the Scottish Government’s budget setting, a new way forward must be identified, otherwise Scotland will continue to lose out on major international benefits. Given the very small percentage of funding this relates to, the government should have confidence in allowing for longer-term, multi-year funding offerings.

See answer to Question 4 for additional gaps in provision/ focus.

As a recipient of international government/ agency funding, we are aware of many countries which proudly and successfully support their country-based artists and companies globally. This year South Korea has a strong partnership with the Festival, we also regularly collaborate with Quebec and Canada, Germany, France, Netherlands, Norway and Ireland who all have robust mechanisms to support international cultural activity.

(Reflected throughout consultation response)

Our main barriers relate to:

• Short term visa 3-month application window
• Lack of availability of appointments in non-UK visa processing centres
• Significantly increased processing times for applications once submitted

Since a short-term visa cannot be applied for more than 3 months in advance of travel to the UK, it is very difficult to obtain a short-term UK visa. The 3-month limit is in general difficult for the Festival as we plan – and therefore require our visiting artists and companies to plan - much further ahead when programming and budgeting. It can also mean flights, accommodation and other travel associated costs are higher because of the inability to book earlier with confidence that the artist/ company can appear.
For freelance artists with other touring dates within the 3-month window, this presents significant problems. Many nationalities do not have the option to hold a second passport and need to pay extra for the “Keep my passport” added service so they can undertake other freelance work. But it is not possible to pay for any priority service as well as “Keep my passport”.

The difficulties in gaining access to appointments is also a concern. Last year this was an issue due to reduced capacity following the impact of Covid-19. However, we are aware such difficulties continue.
We have a positive relationship with the Home Office and understand pressures facing them. However, the introduction of the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) is a priority, and we encourage this to be done as soon as possible, as it has the potential to address some of the processing problems experienced.

Regarding the Tier 5 Creative visa, a change in rules to move away from wet stamps in passports would be hugely beneficial, so more creative visitors can go through e-gates. We understand this is being considered by the UK Government and would support this move, alongside any other which lift or ease the constraints currently experienced.

Strengthening relationships with the UK Government and international governments is key to alleviating many challenges faced post leaving the EU.

Funding avenues which recognise the additional costs involved would also be a welcome solution.

We are aware of the large network of Global Scots and general SDI international links. Historically these have been difficult to access. Consideration of culture and creative industries as major international assets in these areas, and increasing the support and advice available, would be of huge benefit in allowing us to expand our reach, and grow our audience, reputational and fundraising base.

See Q11 for reference to Art of Listening presented in Australia. We are considering how we can replicate this / exporting our knowledge and expertise more widely internationally, and in line with this we are in early stages of conversations with Fair Saturday Foundation with a view to delivering workshops to schools in Bilbao.

We have also explored the idea of presenting a mini-International Festival overseas but currently do not have the resources (people, time and money) to be able to realise this.

With the impact of budget cuts and an increasingly challenging domestic economic environment, such international activity is difficult to pursue seriously.

We are regularly approached to provide advice and guidance to cultural organisations overseas.

We are proud of the role we play in enabling audiences from across the world to discover thrilling art at the Edinburgh International Festival, yet we recognise that the international nature of our work has an environmental impact.

We have embedded sustainable initiatives at the heart of everything we do to help create a brighter future for Scotland and beyond.

Our ambitious targets are driven by an urgent need for global change and our desire to be recognised as an industry leader in sustainability.

Our priorities are to:
• Reach net-zero carbon emissions across our organisational operations by 2030 and across our artistic programme by 2045.
• Work with our partner venues, companies, orchestras, and individual artists to instil sustainability best practice from the inception to delivery of our festival.
• Embrace new models of working with companies and orchestras to reduce carbon impact, recognising that our artistic programme and associated travel and freight is our biggest impactor.

With regards to our artistic programme, by 2045 we will:
• Reduce artist travel emissions in 2022 by 25% against our 2019 figures and 10% each year thereafter.
• Reduce freight emissions in 2022 by 20% against our 2019 figures and 10% each year.
• Replace our fleet of hired cars with electric vehicles as soon as is feasible.
• Set annual travel carbon budgets for staff and for the Festival programme.
• Decrease carbon intensity of the programme by introducing artist residencies and other similar solutions.

The most recent progress towards our net zero ambitions has been the development of the residencies approach:
• Residencies are aiming to mitigate our carbon impact by both reducing overall travel and reducing the carbon intensity of a visit
• Orchestras will do 3-4 engagements with us rather than 1 concert per trip which had been done previously
• Theatre or dance companies will present more than 1 production, or undertake artist development or community engagement work while in Edinburgh

For an international festival, addressing impact on climate change is incredibly complex and without huge technological advancements it will prove a major challenge to achieve. However, there are wider systematic issues which could help provide more sustainable internationalism, for example joining up the Eurostar and Nation Rail systems to make train travel from Europe to outwith London more feasible. A more reliable and cost-effective public transport system is essential.