One of Scotland’s most successful arts festivals has warned that trying to secure government funding has been turned into a “lottery” which has left events battling for survival. Fringe By The Sea, which is said to be worth more than £7.3 million to the East Lothian economy, has hit out at the “dire” levels of red tape faced by event organisers trying to secure vital backing.
Advertisement Advertisement Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. The team behind the North Berwick-based event has attacked the Scottish Government’s arts funding body Creative Scotland after being snubbed months after being named Scotland’s “outstanding cultural event” at the national tourism awards. Fringe By The Sea director Rory Steel suggested this year’s festival was also expected to be the last to be funded by the government agency EventScotland, which supports both sporting and cultural events.
He highlighted how more than 50 events had vanished from the UK’s festival landscape in recent years due to a perfect storm of factors, including “skyrocketing” costs, Covid and Brexit. Writing in The Scotsman today, Mr Steel said Fringe By The Sea prided itself on keeping its events as affordable as possible, but needed investment from both the publ.