Following the success of the 2024 talent search, BBC ALBA has teamed up with The Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival once again with a new quest to find the best up-and-coming musical talent from the Highlands and Islands.
Open to solo artists and bands (where at least 50% of its members have a Highland home address) across all genres, one newcomer will be given the opportunity to perform on the main stage at this year’s Belladrum Tartan Heart Music Festival.
Known for its unique and diverse showcase of music and the arts, the festival has grown in popularity over the past 20 years, now attracting thousands of visitors. As it prepares for its 21st year, with acts including Texas, Supergrass, Paul Heaton, Tom Walker and Natasha Bedingfield confirmed, the team is on the hunt to find the best new homegrown talent to open the main stage at the Hot House Arena on Thursday 31 July.
True to its longstanding support of Scottish artists, BBC ALBA is supporting the search, providing a platform to propel newcomers onto the celebrated Scottish music scene, as well as an additional opportunity for the winner to record an acoustic session in the BBC ALBA studio at the festival.
Calum McConnell, commissioning editor at BBC ALBA, said: “While there is nothing quite like the atmosphere of being in the field at a festival, shoulder to shoulder with fellow music and arts fans, BBC ALBA remain committed to bringing the magic of Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival to audiences who can’t be there in person, as we have done for the past 13 years.
“Our festival highlights are always a popular fixture in BBC ALBA’s summer schedule, and this year will be no exception. The addition of the talent search will shine an even brighter light on the incredible creativity emerging from the Highlands and Islands.”
Musicians can apply by submitting a bio and link to their music to tartanheart@bbc.co.uk, with entries judged by a panel of experts, including representatives from the BBC and Belladrum, alongside an independent musician appearing at the festival, before the shortlist goes to a public vote.
Applications opened yesterday (Tuesday 27 May) and will close at 11.59pm on Sunday 8 June.
It is expected that the public vote will open on Friday 13 June on the Belladrum website, closing on Friday 20 June, ahead of Belladrum Tartan Heart Music Festival 2025 from Thursday 31 July to Saturday 2 August.
Belladrum festival producer, Dougie Brown, said: “We’re so excited to be teaming up with BBC ALBA once again to uncover and celebrate the next wave of incredible Scottish talent.
“This opportunity is so much more than a performance slot — it’s a potential launchpad for an artist’s future. Over the years, we’ve seen past talent go on to build amazing careers, and that journey often starts right here, on the Belladrum stage.
“Our partnership with BBC ALBA has been instrumental in showcasing not just the festival, but the creativity and energy coming out of the Highlands and Islands. Fourteen years on, it’s still a huge moment when a fresh new voice gets the chance to share their music with thousands, both on site and at home. We can’t wait to see who takes that spotlight this year.”
Last year’s BBC ALBA x Belladrum talent search winner, Cameron Ferguson, said: “Almost a year on from winning the 2024 Belladrum talent search, I can still say that opening up that stage was the proudest moment of my musical journey to date.
“The feeling of playing on a stage I had once only dreamed of playing was surreal, especially one so close to home. Thank you Belladrum, you’ve opened a lot doors for the band and I. We will be back soon enough!”
Belladrum brings together top musical acts, comedy, cabaret, spoken word, dance, drag and even wrestling as part of the annual family-friendly festival. A wealth of new names and popular crowd-pleasers have been added to the festival line up in recent weeks, including The Pigeon Detectives, Example, The Hoosiers, Irish singer and songwriter CMAT, and Scottish folk rock and pop favourites Skipinnish and Tide Lines.
For those unable to attend, BBC ALBA will be bringing the best of the festival to viewers at home with its annual live coverage broadcast across the weekend, available on BBC ALBA and BBC iPlayer.
Edinburgh International Festival’s Art of Listening workshops celebrate 25 years of inspiring schoolchildren through live classical music, reaching a record 3,000 young people in 2025, and expanding with a new family-friendly workshop open to the public.
A summerprogramme for young people includes an interactive Family Concert, a free outdoor singalong event The Big Singalong, and the Young Musician’s Pass, a programme offering over 2,000 free concert tickets to young music fans.
From Discover Opera school tours set to introduce over 1,000 pupils to opera this year, to ongoing initiatives that bring events to community and healthcare settings, the Festival’s year-round programmes deeply engage with Edinburgh’s communities, enhancing wellbeing and expanding access to live performance.
This year the Edinburgh International Festival’s flagship workshop Art of Listening celebrates 25 years of bringing live classical music to schoolchildren across Edinburgh.
Across this quarter century, the workshop has been delivered to an approximate approximate 23,000 pupils, and so far in 2025 has reached an unprecedented 3,000 young people — its largest audience to date.
Designed for pupils aged 10-12, Art of Listening introduces children to the artforms of classical music and opera through an imaginative blend of live performance, songs and activities. Taking place at the International Festival’s home, The Hub, these two-hour workshops feature music ranging from Beethoven and Britten to the Harry Potter film scores and Taylor Swift.
Led by a facilitator, professional opera singer and pianist, the sessions encourage participants to engage their imaginations, strengthen listening skills and respond creatively to music. For many children, this is their first experience of live classical music.
The workshop has been delivered across every ward in Edinburgh, and are offered every year to every state primary school in the city, anchoring the International Festival’s strong commitment to culturally impacting the cultural and civic life of the city.
For the first time,Art of Listening for Families will also be open to the public as part of the International Festival’s 2025 programme, with an interactive workshop designed for children aged 7-11 and their accompanying adults to discover the joy of active listening together.
Back due to popular demand, the Family Concert is recommended for ages 7-11, but suitable for all ages. In a special interactive introduction to classical music, Scottish musical traditions are contrasted with the sounds of America, performed by the inspirational young musicians of the National Youth Orchestra 2 from New York’s prestigious Carnegie Hall, with presenter Lucy Drever introducing the musicians and the music.
During the International Festival’s opening weekend, singing enthusiasts of all ages are also invited to Princes Street Gardens’ Ross Bandstand for The Big Singalong, a free event led by Stephen Deazley, artistic director of Edinburgh’s Love Music Community Choir.
Every year, the International Festival’s Young Musician’s Pass opens up opportunities for young people who live in Scotland and play a musical instrument or sing to discover a world of music for free.
With over 2000 tickets available, each budding musician can claim up to three pairs of free tickets for Festival performances from the world’s finest orchestras and ensembles. A free scheme that is open to anyone aged 8-18, the full details and range of performances will be released today and can be found at www.eif.co.uk/ymp.
Secondary school pupils are invited to performances and activities during August across music, theatre, opera and dance in the Discover series, an annual commitment to creating pathways to each artform and foster a lifelong love of the arts. This year, Discover Opera tours Edinburgh schools in June to introduce 1,000 students to the story and music of Orpheus and Eurydice, as well as offering 500 tickets to students to attend the spectacular opera for free in August, enabling many to see opera on stage for the first time.
This summer will also see flagship projects that bring groups into the heart of August’s performances, developing long-term connections with Edinburgh’s communities to find ways to reflect the ideas, ambitions and creative interests of different groups within the International Festival’s year-round work.
In 2025, for the first time the International Festival has established a Youth Collective, inviting fifteen young people from across Edinburgh to co-create the youth experience of the 2025 Festival, such as a Youth Takeover Day for senior pupils from across Edinburgh.
Culture Clubs for community groups, and pop-up performances at NHS settings, with the NHS Lothian Charity, extend the joy of the International Festival beyond concert hall and theatres, into local communities.
The International Festival’s multi-year Community Connections Hub partnership with Space @ Broomhouse Hub also continues, creating work experience opportunities for young people, co-curated projects and inviting artists including Aga Khan Masters, London Symphony Orchestra and Scottish Ballet to connect with the Broomhouse community.
Nicola Benedetti, Edinburgh International Festival Director, said: “For a quarter of a century, Art of Listening has opened the doors of classical music to thousands of Edinburgh’s young people.
It’s a programme rooted in the belief that live performance should be accessible to everyone, and we’re thrilled to welcome a record number of eager schoolchildren in 2025. Expanding the workshops to families in our 2025 Festival marks a wonderful new chapter, inviting audiences across generations to connect with music in fresh and inspiring ways.”
Caroline Donald, Head of Discovery and Participation said: “Removing financial barriers and creating a welcoming space for families and schools are cornerstones of the year-round work we do.
“The International Festival provides workshops like Art of Listening free of charge to all participating schools, including transport costs, ensuring children from all backgrounds can experience the power of live classical music — often for the very first time.
“Underpinning the International Festival is an ambition to build relationships and offer meaningful, valued, world-expanding experiences through the performing arts, and we’re excited to continue our work with the young people of Edinburgh and their communities.”
Tickets to experience the Art of Listening for Families and other performances at the 2025 Edinburgh International Festival are available at www.eif.co.uk.
Pic Greg Macvean 27/04/2025
City of Edinburgh Council – reception at City Chambers for the Arts Festivals Summit
215 festival specialists gathered this week in Edinburgh for the European Arts Festivals Summit 2025.
Hosted by the Edinburgh International Festival, Festivals Edinburgh, and the City of Edinburgh Council, the Arts Festivals Summit 2025 of the European Festivals Association’s (EFA) welcomed over 200 festival professionals for a four-day conversation about festivals, arts, and the role of arts festivals today.
With 215 delegates participating from 44 countries, it has brought diverse perspectives, questions, and themes forward on how festivals can assume a responsible role towards their artists, audiences and societies in an ever-changing world.
Edinburgh International Festival Director, Nicola Benedettiopened the Summitwith a keynote talk on her experience of taking on the role and how her perspective as a performing artist has shaped her approach to curation, collaboration and connection.
Ms Benedetti shared reflections on the importance of holding in balance a deep respect for the past whilst providing a fertile ground for daring innovation, risk and unbridled creativity.
Delegates heard from a range of different voices and perspectives to gain a greater understanding of the interaction between festivals and their city, particularly in the case of Edinburgh, and explored the different aspects that contribute to Edinburgh’s success story.
They had the chance to meet the network of Festivals that exists in Edinburgh and the eleven festivals that contribute to Edinburgh’s unique reputation as The Festival City.
Fittingly Edinburgh is one of the founding members of the recently established EFFE Seal for Festival Cities and Regions, run by EFA which was developed by seven cities – Belgrade, Bergen, Edinburgh, Ghent, Krakow, Leeuwarden, and Ljubljana – to build on the achievements of the EU-funded Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe – EFFE programme and sets out to build co-operation between cities and their festivals across Europe.
During the Summit, four cities signed up to the EFFE Seal: Nis (Serbia), Budapest II District (Hungary), Coimbra (Portugal) and Tampere (Finland).
The EFFE Seal recognises cities for their commitment to their festival communities and aims to promote creativity, sustainability, internationalism, and resilience through knowledge exchange.
The future of festivals and their place in society focused delegates on how festivals contribute to societal topics such as sustainability, inclusion, well-being and freedom of speech, discussed from the point of best practices, learning from failures, perspectives and innovative proposals.
Inspiring keynotes by Roman Krznaric, author and social philosopher, and Elena Polivtseva, independent researcher and a co-founder of Culture Policy Room, challenged participants to think through the current tests the arts are facing, their vision for the future and the importance of long term thinking.
Nicola Benedetti, Festival Director, Edinburgh International Festival, said: “The Edinburgh International Festival exists to spark dialogue and cultural exchange – not only on our stages, but across communities and borders.
“It was a privilege to host the European Festivals Association’s 2025 Summit at The Hub, our home in the heart of the Festival City – where the International Festival sparked what is now the largest cultural celebration after the Olympics, every August in Edinburgh.
“Being surrounded by such a dynamic gathering of cultural leaders was a powerful reminder that the most enduring festivals and institutions are driven by a deeper desire to change society for the better.
“Coming together with our international counterparts to reflect, challenge, and collaborate on how we can deepen our impact was both energising and essential.”
Jan Briers, President of European Festivals Association affirmed: “The Summit in Edinburgh was full of new information, permanent networking, and making new collaborations and friends.
“It was a wonderful edition during which festivals coming from many different contexts discussed the future and its shape.”
Lori Anderson, Director of Festivals Edinburgh added:“Seeing our European festival colleagues inspired by cultural conversations across the city, and exhilarated by the beauty of Edinburgh, has been not only heartening but deeply moving – and reminds us that, in the current climate of global uncertainly, there is so much that unites us and so much to gain from deeper international relationships”.
EFA Members elected their President giving a continued mandate to its current chair, Jan Briers
Jan BRIERS shared: “I am pleased to continue to chair this wonderful organisation and being elected in Edinburgh is very meaningful for my new mandate.”
Michael Herrmann, Founder and Director of the Rheingau Music Festival, has been appointed as new Honorary Member of EFA.
The Summit concluded with the handing over of Edinburgh to Budva, Montenegro.
“We are excited about the opportunity to host the Arts Festivals Summit in Budva next year. The gem of the Western Balkans has many things to offer.
We are committed to make sure delegates enjoy a fruitful and unforgettable stay.“, said Milena Lubarda Marojević, Director of Theatre City Budva that will host EFA’s next Arts Festivals Summit in April 2026.
During the Summit, 22 new organisations joined EFA, reinforcing EFA’s desire to increase the more diversity of its membership and adding to the Association’s relevance at a geographical and artistic level.
New members include Africa Simply The Best (Belgium), Anibar International Animation Festival (Kosovo), DokuFest (Kosovo), Festival Fabula (Slovenia), Festival Música Viva (Portugal), Food Film Fest Bergamo (Italy), I Suoni Delle Dolomiti (Italy), KotorArt International Festival (Montenegro), Maribor Theatre Festival (Slovenia), Oeiras International Piano Festival (Portugal), ReMusica Festival (Kosovo), SPRING Utrecht Performing Arts Festival (Netherlands), Turkish State Theatres (Türkiye), and Vicenza Opera Festival (Italy). Five Ukrainian festivals have been reconducted in their membership, expressing EFA’s solidarity with the country: Construction Festival, Festival of Contemporary Art “Gogolfest”, Kharkiv Music Fest, Odessa Classics Music Festival, and Ukrainian Festival Association “Art-Ethno Fest”.
Three organisations also joined as collective and affiliate members: Creative Island (United Kingdom), the Association of Asia Pacific Performing Arts Centres (AAPPAC) and the World Federation of International Music Competitions (WFIMC).
There’s less than one week to go before the 4th Pomegranates Festival of International Traditional Dance (25-30 April) kicks off at the Scottish Storytelling Centre and various venues across Edinburgh.
The Festival celebrates Scottish traditional dance alongside traditional dance practised by cultural migrant communities across Scotland. The festival includes exhibitions, films, workshops, masterclasses, talks, shows, walking tours and ceilidh dancing.
Pomegranates is produced by the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland and this year’s themes that run through the programme are Masks – the mystery and power they present when used in different dance traditions, and Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Programme highlights include:
● A discussion about safeguarding our Intangible Cultural Heritage and the opportunities for Scottish traditional dance with Steve Byrne Director of TRACS (Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland), Rachel Hosker of the Centre for Research Collections, University of Edinburgh and Árpád Vörös, recipient of the knighthood award for lifetime contribution towards Hungarian folk dance. The discussion will be combined with demonstrations of traditional dance accompanied by live music including Scottish Country Dance, Step and Highland, with a Flowers of Edinburgh set by Scottish Step Dance artist Sophie Stephenson. There will also be a short display of two examples of traditional dances from Hungary and Poland that were recently inscribed in UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list: Csardas (performed by Hungarian folk dancer Árpád Vörös) and Polonaise (performed by Anthony Carter, Fiona Lynch, Natalia Nowak and Renata Grillanda of Parzenica, Scotland’s Polish Folk Dance Group).
● A packed programme of ten short films celebrating Scottish Step, Highland, Indian Classical, East African, Chinese, and more. Including two short films directed by award-winning Canadian filmmaker Marlene Millar: To Begin the Dance Once More and Bhairava;Home directed by Kes Tagney and featuring Scottish stepdancer Sophie Stephenson; new work Second Guessing by Bgirl Emma Ready; and The Bright Fabric of Life commissioned by the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland in 2024 and created by Estonian filmmaker Mare Tralla.
● New dance theatre piece not for glory devised and performed by award-winning dance artists Jack Anderson, Charlotte Mclean, and in collaboration with composer, and musician Malin Lewis. This contemporary and radical performance piece combines mesmerising and unique sounds from bagpipe, fiddle and loop pedal with energetic and raw dance and movement. Claiming to dissect heritage and resuscitate tradition whilst exploring kilts, queerness and ceremonial violence.
● For International Dance Day (29 April) audiences will be treated to a new dance pieceHidden Faces created by festival choreographer Jonzi D with support from B-girl Emma Ready and B-boy Sean Edwards. This new piecewill be performed by more than 15 Scotland-based dancers. Jonzi D is a MC, dancer, spoken word artist and widely recognised for his influence on the development of the UK British hip hop dance and theatre scene. Emma Ready is a breakdancer, choreographer and creative educator based in Glasgow. Sean Edwards is a multi-disciplined award-winning artist with roots in community theatre, B-boying, street jazz, clowning and mime.
Plus, there are tours of Edinburgh’s Old and New Town’s dance history, with dance historian Alena Shmakova; a special festival edition of the Traditional Dance Forum’s Ceilidh Plus which includes three hours of Scottish, Polish and Hungarian trad dances, all called on the night, with live music; and this year’s festival exhibitions by Lorraine Pritchard: Masks at the Scottish Storytelling Centre until 12 May and Venice Carnival (also inscribed in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list) at the Edinburgh City Library celebrates the popularity of mask-wearing traditions and the making processes behind this traditional craft.
Pomegranate Festival co-producers Wendy Timmons and Iliyana Nedkova said:“We are delighted that this year’s Pomegranates Festival is reaching new heights. With 15 events serving a ‘fascinating cocktail of movement’ this year’s Pomegranates highlights the intimate links of traditional dance with live music, film, fashion, poetry, art and heritage craft.
“Once again, we celebrate Scottish traditional dance alongside world-traditional dance practised by New Scots and cultural migrant communities across Scotland. However, we have two new festival themes – Masks and Intangible Cultural Heritage which we are delving into with our festival partners and over 100 artists.
“We can’t wait to share our discoveries over the long festival weekend with our new and returning audiences! Heel, toe, we are ready to go!”
The Pomegranates Festivalwill run from Friday 25 April to Tuesday 30 April 2025 and is Scotland’s annual festival of international traditional dance. Initiated and curated by Traditional DanceForum of Scotland it is presented and produced in partnership with Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland, Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh City Libraries, Dance Base and the Scottish Storytelling Centre.
To mark 65 years since the passing of NHS founder Nye Bevan, arts and activism collective Hive Mind Speaks has begun an ambitious UK-wide campaign.
In just 6 days, the group will visit 65 locations, asking the public 3 powerful questions about the future of the NHS — gathering real opinions from real people.
The aim is to provide a platform for the general public to have their say on the future of the NHS,
At the heart of the tour is a striking satirical short film, played on a large mobile screen, drawing crowds and sparking conversation.
The campaign culminates on Saturday 12 April at a Citizens’ Jury hosted at South Bank University, where key figures will respond to the public’s views.
Results will be presented to current Health Minister, Wes Streeting and submitted to the Change NHS 10 year Health Plan for England.
NHS65 is a nationwide arts activism initiative dedicated to providing a platform for the general public to have an impact on the future of the NHS. The showcase will take place across 65 locations in 6 days, via an LED van playing a powerful satirical video on the threat to the future of the NHS.
The project will culminate in a Citizens’ Jury on Saturday 12 April 2025 at London South Bank University (LSBU) in London, England, a leading university for Nursing and Midwifery in the UK. Expert speakers will include Aneira Thomas- the first ever baby born under the NHS, Professor Gwyn Bevan from the London School of Economics and Dr. Bob Gill, producer of the documentary The Great NHS Heist.
EDINBURGH LOCATIONS TODAY:
City Centre 2.30pm
Holyrood 3pm
NHS Scotland 3.30pm
Queen Margaret University 4pm
Murrayfield 5.30pm
Stockbridge 7pm
On the road, 3 key questions will be posed to the general public based on key findings from the recently commissioned Lord Darzi Report, which outlines a proposed 10-year plan for healthcare in the UK:
1) Ensuring adequate funding for the NHS
Should the NHS spending be legally protected with a minimum percentage of GDP?
2) The Long-Term Sustainability of the NHS
Should NHS funding priorities be decided by an independent health body rather than by politicians to ensure long-term stability and prevent short term political influence?
3) Privatisation vs Public ownership
Should the NHS renew or cancel all current privatisation contracts when they next come up for renewal?
From these three, the public will determine the most important issue and question for deliberation at the citizens jury.
How Does the Citizen’s Jury Work?
A diverse, representative panel of jurors will hear from expert speakers on the current state of the NHS. The expert speakers will include Aneira Thomas- the first ever baby born under the NHS, Professor Gwyn Bevan- Emeritus Professor of Policy Analysis at London School of Economics, Dr. Bob Gill- current practicing GP and producer of the documentary The Great NHS Heist. Observers and members of the public are encouraged to attend, ask questions and take part in discussions.
The results of citizens jury deliberation will be fed into the NHS’ very own Change campaign. A campaign to canvas public opinion over the next 10 years for implementing change as part of the 10 year health plan, resulting from the current government’s Lord Darzi report commission.
Hive Mind Speaks will ensure the findings are presented to current Health Minister, Wes Streeting, and the results will be made available on the Hive Mind Speaks platform, as well as being archived at the British Library. Additionally, the results will be presented on the LED van across significant locations in London on Monday 14 April.
The Red Jay NHS Story
A Lifelong Bond with the NHS: A Story of Care, Resilience and Gratitude
Joshua was born on April 12th, 1982, at the Whittington Hospital, North London, arriving into the world with an extremely rare, genetic musculoskeletal condition called Larsen’s Syndrome, a condition so uncommon that, at the time of his birth, only around 500 cases had been documented in the UK. It was a moment filled with uncertainty for his parents, who had no indication of any complications before his arrival and also for the doctors, who had rarely, if ever, encountered anything like this before.
But what could have been an overwhelming ordeal for any family was met with the steadfast hands and compassionate hearts of the NHS. In those early days, as his parents Christine and Terry navigated the fear of the unknown, the doctors, nurses and specialists of the NHS became more than just medical professionals, they became guardians, problem-solvers and beacons of hope.
Among them, a South African doctor, Dr. Patent, affectionately nicknamed “Dr. Pavement” by a young Joshua, who would become a guiding force in his early medical journey. With a calm presence and a determined strategy, Dr. Patent led the way in understanding and addressing the complex web of muscle and tendon abnormalities that accompanied Joshua’s condition.
The first two surgeries on Joshua’s thighs were purely exploratory, a leap into the unknown, guided only by expertise and an unwavering commitment to care.
From there, the next three operations on his legs and left hip took place before he was even six months old, carefully correcting what was discovered. The NHS didn’t just offer treatment, it offered trust, patience and reassurance to a family learning to navigate a condition they had never expected.
At 14 years old, Joshua’s journey with the NHS continued after a sledging accident resulted in another two surgeries, this time due to the unique structural challenges of Larsen’s Syndrome. Though these operations left him with a leg length discrepancy, they were a testament to the NHS’s ongoing commitment to ensuring he could lead as full and active a life as possible.
Throughout his childhood, Joshua was acutely aware that his nose was different, the result of missing nasal cartilage, a depressed nasal bridge and a prominent forehead. He remembers sitting with NHS doctors, flipping through a book of noses, contemplating facial reconstruction surgery. Though advised to wait until adulthood, he carried the thought with him for years.
At UCL Hospital in 2013, he finally underwent a LaFort II Osteotomy, a groundbreaking facial reconstruction procedure that realigned his upper jaw. This was combined with a rhinoplasty procedure, where they took Joshua’s lower right-hand rib to replace the missing nasal cartilage.
For the NHS, it was complex but routine surgery. For Joshua, it was transformational. It gave him ownership over his face, removing a lifetime of self-consciousness and allowing him to walk through the world without shielding himself from it.
The Future and Family Planning
Most recently, Joshua’s journey with the NHS came full circle through genome sequencing at Great Ormond Street Hospital, revealing that he had a 50% chance of passing Larsen’s Syndrome to future offspring. While this news carried its own emotional weight, the NHS was there once again, not just as a provider of answers, but as a partner in finding solutions. It opened the doors to NHS funded IVF treatment, offering the possibility of building a future family without the fear of passing on his condition.
A New Diagnosis and a Disturbing Reality
In 2024, Joshua received another life-altering piece of news, one that shifted his perspective on the NHS and deepened his urgency to take action.
Concerned about memory loss, he underwent a brain scan, which revealed atrophy of the cerebellar vermis, a degenerative condition with a life expectancy often cutting short in the 50s or 60s. The news was deeply troubling, a future he had never considered was suddenly placed in front of him.
Yet, in the midst of grappling with this deeply concerning revelation, Joshua was given a one-year wait to see an NHS neurologist. The NHS, the very institution that had always been his safety net was now buckling under strain.
Faced with this uncertainty and while abroad in Canada, where he holds dual citizenship, Joshua made the difficult decision to seek a private consultation to gain some reassurance. There, a specialist was able to put his mind at ease, stating that this was not an actively degenerative condition, but something he was born with. Had it been a new, progressive disorder, the reality would have been vastly different.
The experience shook Joshua, not just because of his personal health scare, but because it highlighted, in the most painful way possible, the crisis the NHS is facing.
For the first time in his life, he had to use a private doctor. He described it as feeling like he was cheating on the NHS. But it felt he did it not out of choice, but out of necessity.
Why This Project Matters
This moment became a key driver in Joshua realising we can no longer all just be supporters of the NHS, we had to actively fight for its future.
The NHS isn’t failing by accident, it’s being failed and Joshua, through NHS65, is putting the future of the NHS on trial.
From the very moment of his birth to the milestones of surgery, transformation and family planning, Joshua’s life has been woven into the fabric of the NHS. It is not just an institution, it is a lifeline, a source of unwavering support and a testament to the best of humanity.
His story is one of gratitude, resilience and love for a service that has given so much to so many. A service that must not be left to collapse.
Edinburgh International Festival’s 2025 programme offers opportunities to experience world-class artists in thought-provoking and unconventional ways – including an eight-hour choral extravaganza, a distinctive outdoor promedande dance piece and a circus infused opera. Audiences can also get involved in many Festival performances, from an outdoor mass-singlaong to interactive concerts where the audience chooses the repertoire.
The Truth We Seek is the timely theme underpinning the 2025 International Festival, as contemporary reflections on the world are presented alongside time-honoured tales, a place where fact meets faith and fiction.
The International Festival is the ultimate destination to experience world-class performances, with an exciting lineup of 133 performances, bringing 7 world premieres, 8 UK and Scottish premieres and 2 European premieres to Edinburgh this year. Programme highlights include the world premiere of a gripping new play by James Graham starring Brian Cox, a new narrative ballet from Scottish Ballet, and Festival debuts from rising classical stars – violinist Maria Dueñas, mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo, and 2024 BBC Young Musician of the Year Ryan Wang.
From 1-24 August 2025, Edinburgh International Festival presents a hand-picked selection of leading international and local artists in the world’s Festival City, with 24 days of world-class opera, dance, music and theatre.
The 2025 programme is defined by world-class artists bringing audiences and artists closer together in creative and unexpected ways. Audiences can experience an opera incorporating circus performers for a breathtaking fusion of music and acrobatics inOrpheus and Eurydice, a site-specific promenade dance work that transforms Edinburgh’s Old College Quad into a stage for Dance People, and enjoy Bach through a new lens in Breaking Bach, where hip-hop meets 18th-century period instruments.
Audiences can also actively participate in performances—whether by shaping the repertoire in a real-time Classical Jam or sharing their dreams to inspire Hanni Liang’s piano recital, Dreams. For those seeking deep immersion, eight-hour choral epic The Veil of the Templeinvites audiences to sit on beanbags and lose themselves in waves of harmonies, and a choral workshop welcomes amateur singers that will preview a powerful performance at the Festival’s Closing Concert, Mendelssohn’s Elijah.
Now in its third year under Festival Director and celebrated Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti, the 2025 programme welcomes over 1,700 artists from 42 nations to Edinburgh —including 600 from Scotland—across 133 performances. The Truth We Seek is the theme underpinning the 2025 Edinburgh International Festival, inviting audiences to explore their relationship with truth – within themselves, between one another and in understanding our place in the world.
Ensuring that cost is not a barrier to live performance, over 50,000 tickets (more than half of all tickets available for the 2025 International Festival) are priced at £30 or under. Thousands of free tickets are available for young musicians, NHS staff and community groups, and £10 Affordable Tickets are available for all performances for anyone who needs them.
Programme highlights include:
Two major world premiere productions in UK theatre and dance: Make It Happen, an eye-opening take on the 2008 financial crisis set in Edinburgh, starring Brian Cox (Adam Smith) and Sandy Grierson (Fred Goodwin), written by one of Britain’s most in-demand playwrights, James Graham;and Mary, Queen of Scots, an iconic story of one of Scotland’s most famous women, unconventionally told with choreography by Sophie Laplane that blends classicism with modernity, and costuming that nods to haute couture and punk.
In a landmark year for choral music, marking the 60th Anniversary of the Edinburgh Festival Chorus, this renowned chorus of singers from around Scotland performs at the monumental Opening Concert, as well as Vaughan Williams’s Sea Symphony, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, and Mendelssohn’s Elijah (this year’s grand Closing Concert). The programme also includes the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists performing works by Handel and Bach.
This year’s Opening Concert features the aforementioned Edinburgh Festival Chorus, Monteverdi Choir and the National Youth Choir of Scotland, offering a rare chance to hear John Tavener’s The Veil of the Temple in all its eight-hour glory, a colossal universal prayer performed in full for the second time ever in the UK.
The International Festival’s opening weekend welcomes all to Princes Street Gardens’ Ross Bandstand for The Big Singalong, a free event led by Stephen Deazley, artistic director of Edinburgh’s Love Music Community Choir. The following day, Norwegian folk ensemble Barokksolistene returns to lead The Ceilidh Sessions, an afternoon of music and storytelling inspired by the Gaelic ceilidh tradition.
The most substantial programme of Polish artists in the International Festival’s 78-year history is featured in celebration of the UK/Poland season 2025. Performances include two concerts from one of the Festival’s resident orchestras in 2025, NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra, and a showcase of Polish artists and repertoire from the Wrocław Baroque Ensemble, VOŁOSI, Piotr Anderszewski, Bomsori Kim to 2024’s BBC Young Musician of the Year, Ryan Wang.
Operatic works include a fully staged Australian reimagining of Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice featuring acrobatics; the UK premiere of Book of Mountains and Seas from Chinese composer Huang Ruo, puppeteer Basil Twist and Ars Nova Copenhagen, and two operas in concert: Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Chorus and Puccini’s Suor Angelica with theLondon Symphony Orchestra, with a line-up of international soloists.
Residencies bringing leading orchestras to the International Festival for an extended, more sustainable stay that features multiple performances and community engagement. This year, three outstanding orchestras provide distinctive insights into their collective sound and ambitions: Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra 2, Poland’s NFM Leopoldinum, and the London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of new Chief Conductor Sir Antonio Pappano.
Intimate morning recitals at The Queen’s Hall featureInternational Festival debuts from on-the-rise young virtuoso María Dueñas andCanadian mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo, as well as a cohort of exceptional Scottish artists including the Dunedin Consort with John Butt and Scottish percussionist Colin Currie with peerless vocal group The King’s Singers.
A wider orchestral programme that stretches the globe to welcome the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, and the NCPAOrchestra from Beijing, with conductor Myung Whun Chung and Bruce Liu as piano soloist. The London Philharmonic Orchestra returns to the International Festival for the first time in a decade under the baton of Edward Gardner with a stunning programme that features pianist Beatrice Rana performing Rachmaninoff’s inspired Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini,and Holst’s The Planets, a seven-movement orchestral suite journeying through the cosmos to explore our true place in the universe.
Aurora Orchestra makes its International Festival debut with Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, in the 50th anniversary of the composer’s death. A work that grapples with the pursuit of truth under oppression, audiences are seated on beanbags as Aurora delve into the symphony from the inside out with a conversational presentation in the round, and then in full later that evening, performed entirely from memory.
The Scottish premiere of Figures in Extinction from the internationally acclaimed Nederlands Dans Theater,visionary choreographer Crystal Pite and ground-breaking theatre-maker Simon McBurney (Complicité), whichconfronts powerful truths about humanity’s impact on the world and art’s meaning in the face of mass destruction.
A stellar dance offering continues with works that expand the experience for audiences: Maqamat and Omar Rajeh take performance outdoors to Edinburgh University’s College Quad in promenade with Dance People; the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment combine hip hop with Bach in Breaking Bach with choreographer Kim Brandstrup, and an International Festival debut from Australian disabled dancer Dan Daw about identity and kink.
Leading theatre-makers exploring truth via the climate emergency, colonialism and politics, with Cliff Cardinal’s take on Shakespeare in As You Like It A Radical Retelling, a spectacular nonverbal work from Belgian theatre collective FC Bergman in Works and Days and a remount of acclaimed play Faustus in Africa!, 30 years after its original premiere, from Handspring Puppet Company and William Kentridge.
The Hub, the International Festival’s headquarters on the Royal Mile, brings together a hand-picked variety of global musical styles and traditions, experienced up close in an intimate performance space, including Up Late gigs from artists such as Kathryn Joseph and Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith. In a truly international programme, musicians from 16 countries including Australia, China, Poland, Norway and across East to West Africa come to the home of the Festival.
Key stakeholders, local councillors, community leaders and representatives from the arts sector gathered for a roundtable discussion on the future of the Brunton Hall in Musselburgh.
Many MSPs and MPs were present including, Martin Whitfield MSP, Colin Beattie MSP, Alison Johnston MSP, Jeremy Balfour MSP, Douglas Alexander MP, and Paul McLennan MSP, showing cross-governmental support for the project.
The meeting, held in response to ongoing challenges facing the historic venue, focused on potential redevelopment, public consultation, and securing funding for a sustainable future.
The discussion, led by key figures such as Sarah Boyack MSP, Councillor Andy Forrest, and representatives from The Brunton Trust and Creative Scotland, highlighted the urgent need to address the deteriorating condition of the Brunton. Following the end of COVID-19, the top floor of the theatre was deemed unsafe, leading to staff being relocated to other areas such as Haddington. Plans are now in place to mothball the building by June.
A major point of discussion was the importance of public consultation, ensuring the local community has a say in the theatre’s future. Stakeholders agreed that any plans must be community-led, with an open call for ideas to explore creative solutions.
As one representative noted: “There will be someone in the public that will have an idea that no one has thought of yet.”
A full public consultation will launch in the next 3-4 weeks to gather community input and assess potential uses for the space.
The estimated cost of demolishing the building currently stands at £3.6 million, a figure likely to increase. Identifying funding sources is the priority, including engagement with key groups.
Discussions included the potential for the Brunton to serve as a multi-use arts centre, supporting local artists and attracting larger productions. The idea of expanding event offerings, such as weddings and touring productions, was also raised as a potential revenue stream.
Calls were made for greater collaboration with the Edinburgh International Festival and other arts organisations to ensure Musselburgh remains a cultural hub.
“There’s no point having an International Festival City if there is nothing offered in Musselburgh,” said a participant.
With strong concerns over maintaining Brunton’s identity and cultural value, stakeholders emphasised that any redevelopment must preserve the theatre’s role as a community hub. Creative Scotland representatives acknowledged the challenges but expressed optimism about potential funding opportunities if a clear and viable plan is developed.
The roundtable concluded with a commitment to keeping the community informed and involved in the next steps. Further meetings will be scheduled as feasibility studies progress, ensuring a transparent and collaborative approach to shaping the future of the Brunton Hall.
Commenting, Foysol Choudhury MSP stated:“The Brunton has always been known for being a vibrant community hub.
“Finding venues can be tough, and it is very important, as the Edinburgh International Festival attracts thousands of visitors each year, that we prioritise areas like Musselburgh.”
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy made an inaugural lecture at the Royal Shakespeare Company yesterday, marking the 60th anniversary of the first ever arts white paper:
In 2019, as Britain tore itself apart over Brexit, against a backdrop of growing nationalism, anger and despair I sat down with the film director Danny Boyle to talk about the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony.
That moment was perhaps the only time in my lifetime that most of the nation united around an honest assessment of our history in all its light and dark, a celebration of the messy, complex, diverse nation we’ve become and a hopeful vision of the future.
Where did that country go? I asked him. He replied: it’s still there, it’s just waiting for someone to give voice to it. …
13 years later and we have waited long enough. In that time our country has found multiple ways to divide ourselves from one another.
We are a fractured nation where too many people are forced to grind for a living rather than strive for a better life.
Recent governments have shown violent indifference to the social fabric – the local, regional and national institutions that connect us to one another, from the Oldham Coliseum to Northern Rock, whose foundation sustained the economic and cultural life of the people of the North East for generations.
But this is not just an economic and social crisis, it is cultural too.
We have lost the ability to understand one another.
A crisis of trust and faith in government and each other has destroyed the consensus about what is truthfully and scientifically valid.
Where is the common ground to be found on which a cohesive future can be forged? How can individuals make themselves heard and find self expression? Where is the connection to a sense of belonging to something larger than ourselves?
I thought about that conversation with Danny Boyle last summer when we glimpsed one version of our future. As violent thugs set our streets ablaze, a silent majority repelled by the racism and violence still felt a deep sense of unrest. In a country where too many people have been written off and written out of our national story. Where imagination, creation and contribution is not seen or heard and has no outlet, only anger, anxiety and disorder on our streets.
There is that future.
Or there is us.
That is why this country must always resist the temptation to see the arts as a luxury. The visual arts, music, film, theatre, opera, spoken word, poetry, literature and dance – are the building blocks of our cultural life, indispensable to the life of a nation, always, but especially now.
So much has been taken from us in this dark divisive decade but above all our sense of self-confidence as a nation.
But we are good at the arts. We export music, film and literature all over the world. We attract investment to every part of the UK from every part of the globe. We are the interpreters and the storytellers, with so many stories to tell that must be heard.
And despite everything that has been thrown at us, wherever I go in Britain I feel as much ambition for family, community and country as ever before. In the end, for all the fracture, the truth remains that our best hope… is each other.
This is the country that George Orwell said “lies beneath the surface”.
And it must be heard. It is our intention that when we turn to face the nation again in four years time it will be one that is more self-confident and hopeful, not just comfortable in our diversity but a country that knows it is enriched by it, where everybody’s contribution is seen and valued and every single person can see themselves reflected in our national story.
You might wonder, when so much is broken, when nothing is certain, so much is at stake, why I am asking more of you now.
John F Kennedy once said we choose to go to the moon in this decade not because it is easy but because it is hard.
That is I think what animated the leaders of the post war period who, in the hardest of circumstances knew they had to forge a new nation from the upheaval of war.
And they reached for the stars.
The Festival of Britain – which was literally built out of the devastation of war – on a bombed site on the South Bank, took its message to every town, city and village in the land and prioritised exhibitions that explored the possibilities of space and technology and allowed a devastated nation to gaze at the possibilities of the future.
So many of our treasured cultural institutions that still endure to this day emerged from the devastation of that war.
The first Edinburgh Festival took place just a year after the war when – deliberately – a Jewish conductor led the Vienna Philharmonic, a visible symbol of the power of arts to heal and unite.
From the BBC to the British Film Institute, the arts have always helped us to understand the present and shape the future.
People balked when John Maynard Keynes demanded that a portion of the funding for the reconstruction of blitzed towns and cities must be spent on theatres and galleries. But he persisted, arguing there could be “no better memorial of a war to save the freedom of spirit of an individual”.
Yes it took visionary political leaders.
But it also demanded artists and supporters of the arts who refused to be deterred by the economic woes of the country and funding in scarce supply, and without hesitation cast aside those many voices who believed the arts to be an indulgence.
This was an extraordinary generation of artists and visionaries who understood their role was not to preserve the arts but to help interpret, shape and light the path to the future.
Together they powered a truly national renaissance which paved the way for the woman we honour today – Jennie Lee – whose seminal arts white paper, the first Britain had ever had, was published 60 years ago this year.
It stated unequivocally the Wilson government’s belief in the power of the arts to transform society and to transform lives.
Perhaps because of her belief in the arts in and of itself, which led to her fierce insistence that arts must be for everyone, everywhere – and her willingness to both champion and challenge the arts – she was – as her biographer Patricia Hollis puts it – the first, the best known and the most loved of all Britain’s Ministers for the Arts.
When she was appointed so many people sneered at her insistence on arts for everyone everywhere..
And yet she held firm.
That is why we are not only determined – but impassioned – to celebrate her legacy and consider how her insistence that culture was at the centre of a flourishing nation can help us today.
This is the first in what will be an annual lecture that gives a much needed platform to those voices who are willing to think and do differently and rise to this moment, to forge the future, written – as Benjamin Zephaniah said – in verses of fire.
Because governments cannot do this alone. It takes a nation.
And in that spirit, her spirit. I want to talk to you about why we need you now. What you can expect from us. And what we need from you. …
George Bernard Shaw once wrote: “Imagination is the beginning of creation.
“you imagine what you desire,
“you will what you imagine –
“and at last you create what you will.”
That belief that arts matter in and of themselves, central to the chance to live richer, larger lives, has animated every Labour Government in history and animates us still.
As the Prime Minister said in September last year: “Everyone deserves the chance to be touched by art. Everyone deserves access to moments that light up their lives.
“And every child deserves the chance to study the creative subjects that widen their horizons, provide skills employers do value, and prepares them for the future, the jobs and the world that they will inherit.”
This was I think Jennie Lee’s central driving passion, that “all of our children should be given the kind of education that was the monopoly of the privileged few” – to the arts, sport, music and culture which help us grow as people and grow as a nation.
But who now in Britain can claim that this is the case? Whether it is the running down of arts subjects, the narrowing of the curriculum and the labelling of arts subjects as mickey mouse – enrichment funding in schools eroded at the stroke of the pen or the closure of much-needed community spaces as council funding has been slashed.
Culture and creativity has been erased, from our classrooms and our communities.
Is it any wonder that the number of students taking arts GSCEs has dropped by almost half since 2010?
This is madness. At a time when the creative industries offer such potential for growth, good jobs and self expression in every part of our country And a lack of skills acts as the single biggest brake on them…bar none, we have had politicians who use them as a tool in their ongoing, exhausting culture wars.
Our Cabinet, the first entirely state educated Cabinet in British history, have never accepted the chance to live richer, larger lives belongs only to some of us and I promise you that we never ever will.
That is why we wasted no time in launching a review of the curriculum, as part of our Plan for Change.
To put arts, music and creativity back at the heart of the education system. Where they belong.
And today I am delighted to announce the Arts Everywhere fund as a fitting legacy for Jennie Lee’s vision – over £270 million investment that will begin to fix the foundations of our arts venues, museums, libraries and heritage sector in communities across the country.
We believe in them. And we will back them.
Because as Abraham Lincoln once said, the dogmas of a quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present.
Jennie Lee lived by this mantra. So will we.
We are determined to escape the deadening debate about access or excellence which has haunted the arts ever since the formation of the early Arts Council.
The arts is an ecosystem, which thrives when we support the excellence that exists and use it to level up.
Like the RSC’s s “First Encounters” programme. Or the incredible Shakespeare North Playhouse in Knowsley where young people are first meeting with spoken word.
When I watched young people from Knowsley growing in confidence, and dexterity, reimagining Shakespeare for this age and so, so at home in this amazing space it reminded me of my childhood.
Because in so many ways I grew up in the theatre. My dad was on the board of the National, and as a child my sister and I would travel to London on the weekends we had with our dad to see some of the greatest actors and directors on earth – Helen Mirren, Alan Rickman, Tom Baker, Trevor Nunn and Sam Mendes. We saw Chekhov, Arthur Miller and Brecht reimagined by the National, the Donmar and the Royal Court.
It was never, in our house, a zero-sum game. The thriving London scene was what inspired my parents and others to set up what was then the Corner House in Manchester, which is now known as HOME.
It inspired my sister to go on to work at the Royal Exchange in Manchester where she and I spent some of the happiest years of our lives watching tragedy and farce, comedy and social protest.
Because of this I love all of it – the sound, smell and feel of a theatre. I love how it makes me think differently about the world. And most of all I love the gift that our parents gave us, that we always believed these are places and spaces for us.
I want every child in the country to have that feeling. Because Britain’s excellence in film, literature, theatre, TV, art, collections and exhibitions is a gift, it is part of our civic inheritance, that belongs to us all and as its custodians it is up to us to hand it down through the generations.
Not to remain static, but to create a living breathing bridge between the present, the past and the future.…
My dad, an English literature professor, once told me that the most common mistakes students make – including me – he meant me actually – was to have your eye on the question, not on the text.
So, with some considerable backchat in hand, I had a second go at an essay on Hamlet – why did Hamlet delay? – and came to the firm conclusion that he didn’t. That this is the wrong question. I say this not to start a debate on Hamlet, especially in this crowd, but to ask us to consider this:
If the question is – how do we preserve and protect our arts institutions? Then access against excellence could perhaps make sense. I understand the argument, that to disperse excellence is somehow to diffuse it.
But If the question is – how to give a fractured nation back its self confidence? Then this choice becomes a nonsense. So it is time to turn the exam question on its head and reject this false choice.
Every person in this country matters. But while talent is everywhere, opportunity is not. This cannot continue. That is why our vision is not access or excellence but access to excellence. We will accept nothing less. This country needs nothing less. And thanks to organisations like the RSC we know it can be achieved.…
I was reflecting while I wrote this speech how at every moment of great upheaval it has been the arts that have helped us to understand the world, and shape the future.
From fashion, which as Eric Hobsbawm once remarked, was so much better at anticipating the shape of things to come than historians or politicians, to the angry young men and women in the 1950s and 60s – that gave us plays like Look Back in Anger – to the quiet northern working class rebellion of films like Saturday Night Sunday Morning, This Sporting Life and Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner.
Without the idea that excellence belongs to us all – this could never have happened. What was once considered working class, ethnic minority or regional – worse, in Jennie Lee’s time, it was called “the provinces” which she banned – thank God. These have become a central part of our national story.….
I think the arts is a political space. But the idea that politicians should impose a version of culture on the nation is utterly chilling.
When we took office I said that the era of culture wars were over. It was taken to mean, in some circles, that I could order somehow magically from Whitehall that they would end.
But I meant something else. I meant an end to the “mind forged manacles” that William Blake raged against and the “mind without fear” that Rabindranath Tagore dreamt of.
Would this include the rich cultural heritage from the American South that the Beatles drew inspiration from, in a city that has been shaped by its role in welcoming visitors and immigrants from across the world? Would it accommodate Northern Soul, which my town in Wigan led the world in?
We believe the proper role of government is not to impose culture, but to enable artists to hold a mirror up to society and to us. To help us understand the world we’re in and shape and define the nation.
Who know that is the value that you alone can bring.
I recently watched an astonishing performance of The Merchant of Venice, set in the East End of London in the 1930s. In it, Shylock has been transformed from villain to victim at the hands of the Merchant, who has echoes of Oswald Mosely. I don’t want to spoil it – not least because my mum is watching it at the Lowry next week and would not forgive me- but it ends with a powerful depiction of the battle of Cable Street.
Nobody could see that production and fail to understand the parallels with the modern day. No political speech I have heard in recent times has had the power, that power to challenge, interpret and provoke that sort of response. To remind us of the obligations we owe to one another.
Other art forms can have – and have had – a similar impact. Just look at the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office. It told a story with far more emotional punch than any number of political speeches or newspaper columns.
You could say the same of the harrowing paintings by the Scottish artist Peter Howson. His depiction of rape when he was the official war artist during the Bosnian War seared itself into people’s understanding of that conflict. It reminds me of the first time I saw a Caravaggio painting. The insistence that it becomes part of your narrative is one you never ever forget.
That is why Jennie Lee believed her role was a permissive one. She repeated this mantra many times telling reporters that she wanted simply to make living room for artists to work in. The greatest art, she said, comes from the torment of the human spirit – adding – and you can’t legislate for that.
I think if she were alive today she would look at the farce that is the moral puritanism which is killing off our arts and culture – for the regions and the artistic talent all over the country where the reach of funding and donors is not long enough – the protests against any or every sponsor of the arts, I believe, would have made her both angered and ashamed.
In every social protest – and I have taken part in plenty – you have to ask, who is your target? The idea that boycotting the sponsor of the Hay Festival harms the sponsor, not the festival is for the birds.
And I have spent enough time at Hay, Glastonbury and elsewhere to know that these are the spaces – the only spaces – where precisely the moral voice and protest comes from. Boycotting sponsors, and killing these events off, is the equivalent of gagging society. This self defeating virtue signalling is a feature of our times and we will stand against it with everything that we’ve got.
Because I think we are the only [political context removed] force, right now, that believes that it is not for the government to dictate what should be heard.
But there is one area where we will never be neutral and that is on who should be heard.
Too much of our rich inheritance, heritage and culture is not seen. And when it is not, not only is the whole nation poorer but the country suffers.
It is our firm belief that at the heart of Britain’s current malaise is the fact that too many people have been written off and written out of our national story. And, to borrow a line from my favourite George Eliot novel, Middlemarch, it means we cannot hear that ‘roar that lies on the other side of silence’. What we need – to completely misquote George Elliot – is a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life.’ We’ve got to be able to hear it.
And this is personal for me.
I still remember how groundbreaking it was to watch Bend it Like Beckham – the first time I had seen a family like ours depicted on screen not for being Asian (or in my case mixed race) but because of a young girl’s love of football.
And I was reminded of this year’s later when Maxine Peake starred in Queens of the Coal Age, her play about the women of the miners’ strike, which she put on at the Royal Exchange in Manchester.
The trains were not running – as usual – but on one of my council estates the women who had lived and breathed this chapter of our history clubbed together, hired a coach and went off to see it. It was magical to see the reaction when they saw a story that had been so many times about their lives, finally with them in it.
We are determined that this entire nation must see themselves at the centre of their own and our national story. That’s a challenge for our broadcasters and our film-makers.
Show us the full panoply of the world we live in, including the many communities far distant from the commissioning room which is still far too often based in London.
But it’s also a challenge for every branch of the arts, including the theatre, dance, music, painting and sculpture. Let’s show working-class communities too in the work that we do – and not just featuring in murder and gangland series.
Part of how we discover that new national story is by breathing fresh life into local heritage and reviving culture in places where it is disappearing.
Which is why we’re freeing up almost £5 million worth of funding for community organisations – groups who know their own area and what it needs far better than Whitehall. Groups determined to bring derelict and neglected old buildings back into good use. These are buildings that stand at the centre of our communities. They are visible symbols of pride, purpose and their contribution and their neglect provokes a strong emotional response to toxicity, decline and decay. We’re determined to put those communities back in charge of their own destiny again.
And another important part of the construction is the review of the arts council, led by Baroness Margaret Hodge, who is with us today. When Jennie Lee set up regional arts associations the arts council welcomed their creation as good for the promotion of regional cultures and in the hope they would “create a rod for the arts council’s back”.
They responded to local clamour, not culture imposed from London. Working with communities so they could tell their own story. That is my vision. And it’s the vision behind the Arts Everywhere Fund that we announced this morning.
The Arts Council Review will be critical to fulfilling that vision and today we’re setting out two important parts of that work – publishing both the Terms of Reference and the members of the Advisory Group who will be working with Baroness Hodge, many of whom have made the effort to join us here today.
We have found the Jennie Lee’s of our age, who will deliver a review that is shaped around communities and local areas, and will make sure that arts are for everyone, wherever they live and whatever their background. With excellence and access.
But we need more from you. We need you to step up.
Across the sporting world from Boxing to Rugby League clubs, they’re throwing their doors open to communities, especially young people, to help grip the challenges facing a nation. Opening up opportunities. Building new audiences. Creating the champions of the future. Lots done, but much more still to do.
Every child and adult should also have the opportunity to access live theatre, dance and music – to believe that these spaces belong to them and are for them. We need you to throw open your doors. So many of you already deliver this against the odds. But the community spaces needed – whether community centres, theatres, libraries are too often closed to those who need them most.
Too often we fall short of reflecting the full and varied history of the communities which support us. That’s why we have targeted the funding today to bring hope flickering back to life in community-led culture and arts – supported by us, your government, but driven by you and your communities.
It’s one of the reasons we are tackling the secondary ticket market, which has priced too many fans out of live music gigs. It’s also why we are pushing for a voluntary levy on arena tickets to fund a sustainable grassroots music sector, including smaller music venues.
But I also want new audiences to pour in through the doors – and I want theatres across the country to flourish as much as theatres in the West End.
I also want everyone to be able to see some of our outstanding art, from Lowry and Constable to Anthony Gormley and Tracey Emin.
Too much of the nation’s art is sitting in basements not out in the country where it belongs. I want all of our national and civic galleries to find new ways of getting that art out into communities.
There are other challenges. There is too much fighting others to retain a grip on small pots of funding and too little asking “what do we owe to one another” and what can I do.
Jennie Lee encouraged writers and actors into schools and poets into pubs. She set up subsidies so people, like the women from my council estate in Wigan, could travel to see great art and theatre. She persuaded Henry Moore to go and speak to children in a school in Castleford, in Yorkshire who were astonished when he turned up not with a lecture, but with lumps of clay.
There are people who are doing this now. The brilliant fashion designer Paul Smith told me about a recent visit to his old primary school in Nottingham where he went armed with the material to design a new school tie with the kids. These are the most fashionable kids on the block.
I know it’s been a tough decade. Funding for the arts has been slashed. Buildings are crumbling. And the pandemic hit the arts and heritage world hard.
And I really believe that the Government has a role to play in helping free you up to do what you do best – enriching people’s lives and bringing communities together – so with targeted support like the new £85m Creative Foundations Fund that we’re launching today with the Arts Council we hope that we’ll be able to help you with what you do best.
SOLT’s own research showed that, without support, 4 in 10 theatres they surveyed were at risk of closing or being too unsafe to use in five years’ time. So today we are answering that call. This fund is going to help theatres, galleries, and arts centres restore buildings in dire need of repairs.
And on top of that support, we’re also getting behind our critical local, civic museums – places which are often cultural anchors in their village, town or city. They’re facing acute financial pressures and they need our backing. So our new Museum Renewal Fund will invest £20 million in these local assets – preserving them and ensuring they remain part of local identities, to keep benefitting local people of all ages.
In my town of Wigan we have the fantastic Museum of Wigan Life and it tells the story of the contribution that the ordinary, extraordinary people in Wigan made to our country, powering us through the last century through dangerous, difficult, dirty work in the coal mines.
That story, that understanding of the contribution that Wigan made, I consider to be a part of the birthright and inheritance of my little boy growing up in that town today and we want every child growing up in a community to understand the history and heritage and contribution that their parents and grandparents made to this country and a belief that that future stretches ahead of them as well. Not to reopen the coal mines, but to make a contribution to this country and to see themselves reflected in our story.
But for us to succeed we need more from you. This is not a moment for despair. This is our moment to ensure the arts remain central to the life of this nation for decades to come and in turn that this nation flourishes.
If we get this right we can unlock funding that will allow the arts to flourish in every part of Britain, especially those that have been neglected for far too long, by creating good jobs and growth, and giving children everywhere the chance to get them.
Our vision is not just to grow the economy, but to make sure it benefits people in our communities. So often where i’ve seen investments in the last decade and good jobs created, I go down the road to a local school and I see children who can see those jobs from the school playground, but could no more dream of getting to the moon than they could of getting those jobs. And we are determined that that’s going to change.
This is what we’ve been doing with our creative education programmes (like the Museums and Schools Programme, the Heritage Schools Programme, Art & Design National Saturday Clubs and the BFI Film Academy.) These are programmes we are proud to support and ones I’m personally proud that my Department will be funding these programmes next year.
Be in no doubt, we are determined to back the creative industries in a way no other government has done. I’m delighted that we have committed to the audiovisual, video games, theatre, orchestra and museums and galleries tax reliefs, as well as introducing the new independent film and VFX tax reliefs as well.
You won’t hear any speeches from us denigrating the creative industries or lectures about ballerinas being forced to retrain.
Yes, these are proper jobs. And yes, artists should be properly remunerated for their work.
We know these industries are vital to our economic growth. They employ 1 in 14 people in the UK and are worth more than £125 billion a year to our economy. We want them to grow. That is why they are a central plank of our industrial strategy.
But I want to be equally clear that these industries only thrive if they are part of a great artistic ecosystem. Matilda, War Horse and Les Miserables are commercial successes, but they sprang from the public investment in theatre.
James Graham has written outstanding screenplays for television including Sherwood, but his first major play was the outstanding This House at the National and his other National Theatre play Dear England is now set to be a TV series.
You don’t get a successful commercial film sector without a successful subsidised theatre sector. Or a successful video games sector without artists, designers, creative techies, musicians and voiceover artists.
So it’s the whole ecosystem that we have to strengthen and enhance. It’s all connected.
The woman in whose name we’ve launched this lecture series would have relished that challenge. She used to say she had the best job in government
“All the others deal with people’s sorrows… but I have been called the Minister of the Future.”
That is why I relish this challenge and why working with those of you who will rise to meet this moment will be the privilege of my life.…
I wanted to leave with you with a moment that has stayed with me.
A few weeks ago I was with Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, who has become a great friend. We were in his old constituency of Leigh, a town that borders Wigan. And we were talking about the flashes, which in our towns used to be open cast coalmines.
They were regenerated by the last Labour government and they’ve now become these incredible spaces, with wildlife and green spaces with incredible lakes that are well used by local children.
We had a lot to talk about and a lot to do. But as we looked out at the transformed landscape wondering how in one generation we had gone from scars on the landscape to this, he said, the lesson I’ve taken from this is that nature recovers more quickly than people.
While this government, through our Plan for Change, has made it our mission to support a growing economy, so we can have a safe, healthy nation where people have opportunities not currently on offer – the recovery of our nation cannot be all bread and no roses. Our shared future depends critically on every one of us in this room rising to this moment.
To give voice to the nation we are, and can be.
To let hope and history rhyme.
So let no one say it falls to anyone else. It falls to us.
We’re over the moon to announce that we have been awarded multi-year funding from @creativescots !!!
This will help us to plan for the future in ways we have never managed to before, to build on recent successes like our Adopt a Piano scheme and to help us one day find a permanent home for the Pianodrome Amphitheatre in Edinburgh.
Huge credit must go to Creative Scotland for recognising the potential of small cultural organisations to make huge positive impacts.
Creative Scotland have done great work advocating on behalf of artists and culture and we’re chuffed to bits to have this core funding secured for the next three years.
Over the last 7 years we have developed from project to project; articulating new ideas, saving over 600 pianos from landfill, working with hundreds of artists and welcoming tens of thousands of participants into to our community-focused interactive spaces.
Thank you to the local and international communities who have supported and believed in the Pianodrome thus far.
We’ll continue to strive towards our conviction that no piano is junk, and no person is unmusical!
Open Letter from SHONA McCARTHY, Chief Executive, Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society
What a fantastic week for the cultural sector of Scotland. All the lobbying, advocacy and effort from so many, for so long, has resulted in some desperately needed stability and longer-term security; and Culture Counts did a sterling job in leading the charge.
It has been uplifting and joyful to see so many brilliant theatres, companies, community art centres, creatives and festivals across Scotland, invested in, and supported to make new work and do ambitious things.
A special nod to the success of our sister festivals – the Film, Children’s, Art, Book and Jazz festivals; and with over £5million in public sector support per year, the Edinburgh International festival will be enabled to undertake some truly wonderful commissions and programming. Perhaps this will be the moment for some shared resource into a collaboration of all six summer festivals to create a spectacular, free-to-access opening and closing of the whole season for Edinburgh’s residents. Exciting times and I look forward to the imaginative programming to come.
It is also wonderful to see Hidden Door secure some core support – its devolved curatorial approach and fusions of genre and imagination have brought something new to the whole festivals landscape. Congratulations are due all-round and hats off to the Scottish Government for recognising the value of the arts to the heart and soul of the nation, to job creation, well-being and the economy. All of this in the same week that the Fringe Society has had its own news to share, with the announcement of our new Chief Executive coming in to post in April this year.
However, I hope support can also be found for those who didn’t make the list this time.
The Fringe is a different beast. It is complex, but only if you want it to be. However, its complexity should not be a reason not to support the very event that gives Edinburgh’s festivals their global brand, economic success and enormous impact for the performing arts across Scotland, the UK and the world. It truly is an access point for so many artists and audiences alike, into the arts.
Here’s where we are:
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is made up of thousands of moving parts. All of those are important and are what make it unique. The Fringe is not a funded, curated arts festival, it is a platform and a marketplace that is open to anyone. Every artist or show that comes to Edinburgh does so at their own financial risk, and with their own set of objectives for what they want from participating in the Fringe. There are many producers who will annually develop and support a selection of shows to present at the Edinburgh Fringe, who share the risk with their artists. The venues that host them are all different models, but many of them also take significant risk, or share risk with producers and artists.
Then there is the Fringe Society – the small charity that is made up of Fringe members and provides core services to the festival: artist support, box office, marketing, promotion, and audience navigational tools. Income generated from participants through registration fees and box office commission pays for these services. The Fringe Society delivers a whole programme of added value that is designed to remove barriers to participants and audiences and ensure inclusion. This work isn’t financed by income from the Fringe, but is supported by donations, fundraising and ring-fenced public funds for projects. In keeping costs to participants low or frozen for 18 years, the income generated from registration fees and tickets, has long-since come far short of covering the costs of services to the Fringe.
Once upon a time the Fringe was a self-financing ecosystem with a collective effort from all the fringe-makers on keeping it affordable for artists and audiences. However, the well-documented economic context of recent years changed that. In this moment, if Edinburgh, Scotland and the UK wants to keep the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, then the whole thing needs support, and that has to come from multiple sources and has to support both the Fringe and the Fringe Society.
The Fringe Society needs core annual public sector support if it is to continue to provide services to the Fringe at an affordable level. It also needs to be able to adjust its fees to meet some of the rising costs too. A stable Fringe Society can continue to play a positive convening role for the wider Fringe community and in recent recovery years we have been able to redistribute some £6.3million out through the Fringe ecology in funds for artists, producing venues and support for Scottish work, to help it survive and stabilise.
The Fringe Society will continue to use its convening role to raise funds to support artists through the Keep it Fringe fund and Made in Scotland. We must also ensure that the essential digital infrastructure that supports festival systems – online tools and wayfinding, are future-proofed, and will seek support and donations to retain our 32 community partnerships across the city so that they can continue to experience their Fringe their way, both during August and year-round.
What could a whole Fringe support strategy look like.
For a stable, healthy Fringe we need a joined-up investment strategy that includes the Scottish Government, the City of Edinburgh Council and the UK Government. We have continuously made the case and both UK and Scottish Governments have recognised the unique place that the Fringe occupies as a platform, a showcase, a marketplace and global expo. There is nothing else like it on these islands, and it offers something unique in the world as an annual global meeting place to celebrate the performing arts in all their glory and for the business of the performing arts to be done.
We of course need a stable Fringe community with companies, producers and theatres able to produce work, and the investment from the Scottish Government last week goes a long way towards this. We will continue to lobby until Scotland is on a par with the best of Europe.
The Fringe Society’s new year-round Fringe Central secured a capital grant that will create new affordable rehearsal spaces for artists, and also unlocked £1million in Keep it Fringe funds for direct bursaries to 360 artists over 2024 and 2025.
The Fringe Society are aiming to sustain the Keep it Fringe fund in some form, and producer James Seabright has already committed financial support.
Investment in the Fringe Society from the Scottish Government is needed to ensure the charity can continue to provide core services to this vital event.
The Scottish Government have recognised that this organisation falls between the cracks and have made the commitment to support, and this is a work in progress. Scottish artists, companies and many local producing theatres and venues are supported through the multi-year funding programme, the Open Fund, and the Made In Scotland showcase at the Fringe and this helps. Yet there is still a gap in support for the whole Fringe operation, and there is a continuing disparity between the infrastructural needs and financial support made available for major sport events as opposed to the investment in sustained, annual arts events with longitudinal impact, like the Edinburgh Fringe.
For the UK Government – the Edinburgh Fringe hosts artists from all over the UK, with over 2,000 shows coming from England alone every year; with producers and promoters bringing work to be showcased and booked for onward opportunities. The Fringe ecosystem needs support to host all of this.
The UK Government have so far provided a Capital Grant to the Fringe Society to create a year-round Fringe Central space, and we have been making the case to build on this investment for the whole ecology. This could happen in several ways:
Theatre Tax Relief could be extended to support the venue infrastructure set up at the Fringe that is undoubtedly part of the production process
The Fringe should be supported by UK Government for its role as a driver of the Creative industries – Industrial strategy, and well-positioned for support from the £65 million recently announced by Secretary of State Lisa Nandy
It should be recognised as a Major Event for the UK, and its operating structures supported as would so readily be done with a sporting event of this scale and reach, such as an Olympic or Commonwealth Games
Arts Councils across UK should be investing in their artists to support them coming to the Fringe, as international showcases already do
The City of Edinburgh Council is crucial in providing a supportive operating context:
The Fringe will generate over £1million in Visitor Levy – this money should be ring-fenced to be redistributed in supporting the event
Affordable accommodation is the single biggest barrier to making the Fringe truly inclusive for creatives, workers and audiences. There are three ways this could be alleviated
Exemptions on home-letting and home-sharing being real, effective and immediate
A mechanism for HMOs (houses of multiple occupancy) privately run student accommodation to be made available to artists during the summer months
A map of accommodation capacity within a one-hour commute of Edinburgh and the supporting transport routes to make that underused capacity viable
New structures have already been set up to create this joined up approach through a National Festivals Partnership and a Festival City Infrastructure group. Let’s hope these structures can finally bring a strategic and supportive approach, to enable the Fringe to sit comfortably within Scotland’s national cultural asset base whilst also being properly enabled to welcome the emerging performing artists and breakthrough work from across the UK and the world.
The Edinburgh Fringe is unlike any other cultural event in the world, in that it is largely self-financed by those who take the risk to make and show work. It is made up of hundreds of parts, all of which are important. It is a wonderful balance of ticketed venues, street performance, free shows and pay what you want shows; from new discoveries to world-class and established artists.
It is the sum of these parts that makes it distinctive, inclusive, extraordinary and with something to say in the world. The stability of the Fringe is dependent on a recognition by everyone involved in it; that it is not owned by anyone – no organisation, group, or collective. It has no super league or participant base that is any more important than any other. It is a platform for freedom of expression like no other – ever evolving, growing, contracting and contorting.
It is not stuck in any one period of time, and should never allow any single interest group or sense of entitlement to derail its beautiful, messy and joyful mission for inclusion and cultural democracy
Its mantra is to give anyone a stage and everyone a seat – and that’s a mantra worth protecting and championing. That’s the Fringe. What a welcome it would be for the incoming CEO of the Fringe Society, if this extraordinary event was set on a new foundation stone where both the Fringe itself and the charity that supports it are validated and supported. With that support and validation, the whole Fringe community can move forward together collaboratively to secure the future of this vital event.
The cultural sector review will perhaps take a closer look at why the Edinburgh Fringe doesn’t sit comfortably within the established mechanisms of investment in the cultural sector, and a new way may be found to give it investment and support. Edinburgh is a city that has given huge recognition to new infrastructure and investment in classical music and the classic artforms.
It would be wonderful to see some validation of the forms of creative expression, such as comedy and street performance, which allow a significant point of access into the arts, and anyone to step into the opportunity to perform.
Often all that is required is space, a microphone and a story to tell.
Shona McCarthy, Chief Executive, Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society