Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic The Edinburgh International Festival’s cultural programme is at risk of being downsized in scale and scope unless its “broken” model of arts funding is fixed, its chief executive has warned. Francesca Hegyi said that state funding, which has been at a standstill for the past 17 years, delivering a real-terms cut, has combined with a turbulent environment for corporate sponsorship to create “the most difficult financial environment I can remember”.The International Festival ran a pre-tax deficit of £1.75mn in the financial year ending October 2022, which last year widened to £2.26mn, the largest deficits in its history. The festival debuted in 1947 and showcases higher-brow elements, such as opera and dance, and is part of the city’s wider programme in August, including the sprawling Festival Fringe, alongside art, books and film.“The system [of funding] is broken, it’s utterly broken,” said Hegyi, in an interview with the Financial Times ahead of festival season, which begins on August 2. “Unless that model changes, we’re going to have to programme very differently,” she added.The comments come as Scottish government budgets for the arts are under pressure, with rising operating costs and the cost of living crisis hitting ticket sales and donations.Iain Munro, chief executive of Creative Scotland, a public body that distributes Scottish government and National Lottery funding to the arts, has described the environment for the sector as a “perfect storm”.Edinburgh’s festivals, among hundreds of other cultural bodies, are on “tenterhooks” until October, Hegyi said, when Creative Scotland will finalise a multiyear funding settlement.The Scottish government has committed to an additional £100mn a year for culture over five years, with a £25mn boost next year, but arts organisations are still awaiting details.Without confidence over public funding, the higher costs involved with the international programme, as well as subsidised tickets, will weigh on its ability to compete for world-class acts, said its organiser.“We won’t have those significant international artists,” said Roy Luxford, the International Festival’s creative director. “We won’t be able to explore territories that perhaps haven’t had representation in the past.”This year’s highlights include a reinterpretation of Hamlet by Peruvian theatre company Teatro La Plaza and Scottish actor Jack Lowden starring in the world premiere of David Ireland’s latest play, The Fifth Step. Given the squeeze, the festivals have relied on philanthropy and corporate sponsorship. But deeper ethical scrutiny of sponsors’ investment record has made it a “testing time”.Edinburgh International Book Festival earlier this year parted ways with investment manager Baillie Gifford after authors withdrew and activists threatened disruption over its portfolio, claiming that holdings in Amazon, Alphabet and Nvidia were complicit in the Israeli offensive on Gaza. Baillie Gifford remains a partner of the International Festival, whose principal partner is Scotch whisky brand The Macallan.Other sponsors, including individual philanthropists, are more fearful of the glare of international scrutiny, she said. Domestic partners, in an economy dominated by financial services, the oil and gas sector and whisky production, find themselves buffeted by questions over links to carbon-emitting industries and the Israeli occupation. Whisky sponsors are contending with the looming threat of an alcohol-advertising ban, currently under consideration by the Scottish government.“There is an ever-tightening squeeze on what is deemed by protest voices to be appropriate financial backing for the arts,” said Shona McCarthy, chief executive of the Fringe, which relies on commercial partnerships with firms such as the Johnnie Walker whisky experience on Edinburgh’s Princes Street, TikTok and Baillie Gifford. “There is no such thing as clean money,” she said. “We need a proper, grown-up conversation — otherwise the only route is to hike prices and make arts a luxury item for the wealthy.”The Fringe, which acts as a global showcase for thousands of UK artists, is among those in need of direct public support. The world’s largest arts festival slipped towards a deficit before the pandemic and is now in talks with both the Scottish and UK governments for money as it contends with repayments from 2026 on a £1mn Covid loan to prevent its collapse.McCarthy said the Fringe had frozen artist registration fees and box office commission for years to keep costs down for both artists and audiences. “We can’t sustain our self-financing model if we are to keep it affordable,” she said. “We have fallen between the cracks of the existing mechanisms for public funds,” she said.Edinburgh Council, which grants the Fringe £75,000 for street events, is exploring the option of giving the festival more flexibility over the use of this funding, said Councillor Val Walker, convener of the council’s culture committee.The council is also preparing a visitor levy from 2026, some of which could be passed on to festivals — though there would be many other demands on revenues raised from tourism, she added. The recent series of Taylor Swift concerts in Edinburgh, for example, would have generated £600,000 if a 5 per cent levy had been charged on accommodation.Edinburgh’s festivals not only return hundreds of millions of pounds into the Scottish economy, they also act as a global platform for the UK’s creative industries, which are outpacing other sectors as the new Labour government strives for growth. Scotland’s spending on culture, meanwhile, has languished at 0.5 per cent of state spending, compared with a European average of 1.5 per cent. “We’ve been trading on our reputation for a long time,” said Hegyi. “But, like any asset, you have to maintain it and the festivals need their roof fixing pretty urgently.”
