• The Edinburgh International Festival unveils the first Community Connections Hub following an open call out earlier this year
• Space @ The Broomhouse Hub will work with the Edinburgh International Festival over a period of at least 18 months to explore opportunities for collaboration and connection
• In August, the Community Connections Hub will host a free VR Experience where visitors can use a VR headset to be fully immersed in a 360° concert by the Philharmonia Orchestra
The Edinburgh International Festival today announcesSpace @ The Broomhouse Hub as the very first Community Connections Hub.
Space @ The Broomhouse Hub was chosen following an open call out by the International Festival for an Edinburgh-based community organisation for a partnership that will last at least 18 months and will explore opportunities for collaboration with the International Festival and the local community in Broomhouse.
In August, Space @ The Broomhouse Hub will host a free VR experience from resident orchestra Philharmonia. This 360° experience of Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending makes its UK premiere and features Festival Director Nicola Benedetti as the solo violinist.
This will allow the user to sit right in the heart of the orchestra through Virtual Reality, allowing them to experience the performance in astonishing detail.
As well as hosting the Philharmonia VR Experience, this partnership will be a fully collaborative process, and will be entirely shaped by Space @ The Broomhouse Hub and the International Festival’s shared ideas and activities.
This new residency model is designed to deepen understanding between the International Festival and the local community, strengthen connections and enrich the local community and the spirit of the Festival.
The Edinburgh International Festival is committed to developing long-term connections with Edinburgh’s Communities by exploring what our core values of discovery and connection mean for Edinburgh’s citizens whilst finding ways to reflect the ideas, ambitions and creative interests of different communities within our organisational commitments.
The International Festival wants to build long-term and sustainable connections and have chosen a residency model working with one focused partner to allow for deepening two-way understanding, allowing time to mature connections and realisation of joint ambitions.
Caroline Donald, Head of Discovery & Participation, Edinburgh International Festival said: “The Edinburgh International Festival are really looking forward to working with our new community partners Space @the Broomhouse Hub and working together to make new connections, getting to know all the families and people in the community to create and share cultural experiences.”
Neil Hay, CEO, Space @ The Broomhouse Hub, said: “This is fantastic news for Broomhouse and Southwest Edinburgh. This partnership will open up the Edinburgh International Festival to new audiences, allowing local people and families to enjoy cultural experiences our communities don’t normally access.
“We look forward to seeing all the exciting things the partnership will bring this summer and the coming year.”
More information on the Edinburgh International Festival’s Discovery and Participation programme, which runs year-round, can be found here:
The Edinburgh International Book Festival has teamed up with The Brunton Theatre and North Edinburgh Arts to host a weekend of inspiring creative activities and conversations.
The second Citizen Winter Warmer presents two days of heart-warming, interactive and fun events celebrating local community voices and creating opportunities for new stories to be heard.
Featuring fun-filled afternoons of art and stories for families and an evenings of celebration featuring local residents side-by-side with professional writers, the Citizen Winter Warmer will take place on Friday 19 and Saturday 20 November 2021 and is part of Book Week Scotland.
The Edinburgh International Book Festival’s Citizen project is supported by the players of People’s Postcode Lottery and through the PLACE programme.
Noëlle Cobden, Communities Programme Director at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, said “We’re delighted to be working with our partners North Edinburgh Arts and The Brunton on our Citizen Winter Warmer.
“Through our year-round Communities Programme, the Book Festival provides a platform for local people to share their stories, helping to bring us together in challenging times.
“The Winter Warmer all is about celebrating community and connection, spreading a little bit of light in the darkest point of the year, and we hope that everyone, whether or not they’ve been to a Book Festival event before, feels welcome to join us either in Musselburgh or North Edinburgh.”
The Citizen Winter Warmer is all about sharing stories from local communities and, prior to the event itself, writer Luke Winter is joined by Citizen Writer in Residence Eleanor Thom as they park the Story Wagon outside each venue (Tuesday 16 November at The Brunton, Musselburgh and Wednesday 17 November at North Edinburgh Arts, 10.00am to 2.00pm each day).
Local residents are encouraged to drop in, have a chat and tell their stories to Luke and Eleanor.
The Winter Warmer kicks off on Friday 19 November at The Brunton in Musselburgh, moving to North Edinburgh Arts in Muirhouse on Saturday 20 November.
The Great Big Story Show presents two afternoons of family entertainment, with the fun-loving duo Macastory bringing their hilarious songs and stories to the stage.
Writer Luke Winter creates a fresh story live on stage from audience suggestions and much-loved children’s authors Maisie Chan and Elle McNicoll read from their brand-new book The Very Merry Murder Club – packed with Christmassy crimes, festive foul play and murderously magnificent mysteries – perfect for inquisitive kids!
In Musselburgh on Friday author Christopher Lloyd also joins to explain how to stand up for the environment with his beautifully illustrated nature book It’s Up to Us, while at North Edinburgh Arts on Saturday illustrator Eilidh Muldoon creates a beautifully illustrated map of North Edinburgh featuring all the audiences’ favourite places.
Audiences can tuck into two evenings of terrific tales and delicious food as the Book Festival’s Citizen participants share stories of life in Musselburgh and Muirhouse, and writers explore what community means today in the popular Stories and Scran event.
The evening offers a sumptuous three course meal provided by the Scran Academy, a social enterprise catering company supporting vulnerable young people, and brilliant new writing inspired by the surrounding areas from local people who have taken part in Citizen’s creative conversations and workshops.
In Musselburgh the writers from the community will be joined on stage by the award-winning author of Scabby Queen, Kirstin Innes, and poets JL Williams and Andrés Ordorica, who share their own powerful writing and discuss their views on community, identity and home.
At North Edinburgh Arts the evening is hosted by Scran Academy founder, social entrepreneur, youth leader and campaigner John Loughton. The local community writers are joined by the award-winning poet, playwright and author of Luckenbooth Jenni Fagan, as well as poets Courtney Stoddart and Ryan Hay, who share new work and reflect on what community, identity and home mean today.
In 2019, local photographers Karmen Bermudez and David Coxon took to the streets around North Edinburgh Arts to shoot the urban landscape, capturing incredible images which inspired short written responses from visitors to that year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival.
As part of the Citizen Winter Warmer celebration in north Edinburgh, a free exhibition titled Who Lives in a Place Like This? showcasesthese photos and the writing inspired by them, returning to the community that birthed them along with words and images created by young people from The Alternative School at Spartans Community Football Club which offer a vital snapshot of their lives and a sense of their world and their community.
Michael Stitt, Chair of Brunton Theatre Trust, said “The Brunton is dedicated to bringing the very best theatre, music, dance, comedy, children’s theatre, film and live screenings to East Lothian for the enjoyment and enrichment of as many people of all ages, as possible.
“Situated within the heart of the vibrant and creative community of Musselburgh, the breadth of our programming is ambitious and takes account of the interests of all communities we serve. We also have an exciting creative participation programme.
“We are delighted to be working in collaboration with our partners Edinburgh International Book Festival to deliver the Citizen Winter Warmer programme that supports creative activities with local communities.”
The Citizen Winter Warmer is part of Edinburgh International Book Festival’s Citizen project– an ongoing programme of events, festivals and residences taking place around Edinburgh and the Lothians throughout the year, supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery and through the PLACE programme.
Laura Chow, Head of Charities at People’s Postcode Lottery said: “I’m delighted that players are supporting the Citizen programme, helping bring communities together and hearing their stories. The Winter Warmer is an opportunity for us all to learn more about this city and its residents.”
As part of the Winter Warmer, featured children’s authors Christopher Lloyd, Maisie Chan and Elle McNicoll will be visiting local schools. Children will get to explore their fascinating stories through a mix of interactive activities, readings and Q&A sessions led by the authors themselves.
Tickets to all events at The Brunton, Musselburgh are available through http://thebrunton.co.uk or on 0131 653 5245 (Monday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm).
Tickets to all events at North Edinburgh Arts are available through http://northedinburgharts.co.uk or on 0131 315 2151 (Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm).
Some of the UK’s biggest broadband providers have been letting down their customers on connection reliability, internet speeds and value for money during the pandemic, according to Which?’s annual customer satisfaction survey.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, broadband has proved more important than ever – with millions of people relying on their internet to work from home, educate their children and keep in touch with loved ones.
In Which?’s annual survey, seven in 10 people (71%) said they had used their connection more since the outbreak of the pandemic, with nearly two thirds of those saying their use has increased substantially.
However, the volume of issues consumers have experienced with their broadband provider has also increased over the past year. Seven in 10 (69%) respondents said they had experienced an issue with their connection in the past 12 months – a substantial increase on last year’s survey.
Very low speeds (59%) and frequent dropouts (53%) were the most common problems experienced more often during the pandemic, compared to before the pandemic. Almost half of respondents (48%) reported they had been left without a connection for more than a day and around four in 10 (44%) said they had been left without internet for more than an hour.
The findings reflect the likelihood that an increased reliance on broadband over the past year means customers are more likely to notice – and be frustrated by – any connection issues.
Although the Big Four broadband providers – BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media – supply nine in ten households, our survey found they have left many customers disappointed.
Virgin Media has its own cable network in parts of the UK, which allows it to offer some of the fastest broadband speeds. Yet its customers gave it poor ratings for connection reliability – with one in three Virgin Media customers saying they had experienced a connection outage lasting at least an hour in the past year and almost a quarter saying their connection was slow to upload or download.
Virgin Media customers were also less likely to be satisfied with their customer service, ease of setup and value for money. Overall, Virgin received a low overall customer score of just 53 per cent – leaving it second from bottom in Which’s satisfaction rankings.
TalkTalk and Sky fared similarly, with customer scores of 54 per cent. While TalkTalk scored fairly well for value for money, it had the highest proportion of customers who would not recommend their provider to others.
Sky rated poorly for value for money – perhaps because a quarter of Sky customers experienced frequent dropouts despite paying more for their service than the average broadband customer.
To add insult to injury, more than a quarter of Sky customers said the price of their deal had increased in the past year.
Sky also received low scores for connection speed, connection reliability and ease of setup and dropped three places in this year’s survey. The Which survey also revealed Sky to be the joint worst provider – along with Utility Warehouse – for very slow speeds, which affected three in 10 (29%) customers.
BT earned the highest score of the Big Four providers (57%) but still only managed eighth place overall – just one place up from its ranking last year. It scored middling ratings across the board apart from value for money, which scored poorly.
One BT customer said they were satisfied with BT but believed the provider could do better – especially during the pandemic, when more people are working from home and dependent on an internet connection.
More than half of BT’s customers had never been with another provider, and the majority were not planning to switch. But our results show that out-of-contract BT customers should consider making a move as they are likely to find an alternative that is both cheaper and more reliable.
Only John Lewis scored lower than the Big Four (47%), with low ratings for connection speed, connection reliability and ease of setup.
At the other end of the scale, Zen Internet achieved the highest customer score of 70 per cent and was the highest ranked broadband provider for the second year in a row (scoring 84 per cent in 2020).
Zen achieved high scores across the board and despite not offering the cheapest tariffs, 85 per cent said they would recommend it to a friend.
Zen narrowly missed out on Which? Recommended Provider (WRP) status as it has not yet signed up to Ofcom’s codes of practice on broadband speeds. However the company is actively working towards signing up soon, at which point it will become a WRP.
The survey also found customers who upgraded to fibre broadband often felt the benefits. Of the nearly 3,000 respondents who had fibre broadband, 63 per cent noticed faster speeds after switching and 45 per cent noticed fewer connection dropouts.
However, although superfast fibre connections are available to 96 per cent of the country, many are yet to take them up. Around a quarter of the respondents told Which? they still had standard broadband.
In light of these disappointing results for many providers, the broadband industry must up its game. Consumers are relying much more heavily on their internet connection during the pandemic and broadband companies will have to work harder to meet customers’ rising expectations and provide value for money.
The government has also recognised that as part of achieving its goal for at least 85 per cent of the UK to have access to gigabit-capable broadband by 2025, low consumer demand for these services in the current market must be addressed.
In August 2020, the UK government asked Which? to convene and chair the Gigabit Take-up Advisory Group (GigaTAG) to put forward recommendations on how to encourage more consumers to switch to gigabit-capable networks.
The GigaTAG is considering these barriers and the potential solutions in more detail and will report back to the government in spring 2021.
Natalie Hitchins, Which? Head of Home Products and Services, said:“With so many people at home relying on their internet during the pandemic, a good connection has never been more important – but we found some of the UK’s biggest suppliers are not up to speed.
“Broadband providers must up their game and meet the challenge of providing fast, reliable connections and good customer service for millions of customers whose needs and expectations have risen over the last year.
“The industry and government must also work together to ensure more people have the chance to switch to faster and more reliable gigabit-capable broadband services in the years to come – or risk undermining the UK’s goal of becoming a world leader in connectivity.”
