Director of Edinburgh festival says cuts put its global status at risk

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.

- Severin Carrell

Nicola Benedetti, a Grammy-winning classical violinist who became the festival's director in 2022, said 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 "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."

The festival has this year cancelled 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.