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Linehan is under no illusions, though, that the festival can simply return to the status quo before the crisis. He’s aware of the tide of criticism and anti-festival feeling – mainly directed at the ever-growing Fringe – that has been rising in Edinburgh during the recent years of hyper-tourism; and he believes that even before the coronavirus crisis, Edinburgh and the world’s other major arts festivals were facing profound questions about their future.
“Over the last 30 years or so, it’s been easy to be drawn into a world in which the arts are framed as part of a wider economic regeneration agenda that’s all about tourism and never-ending growth. But now, I think there is a real change of political mood under way; and we’re recognising that that old approach is no longer sustainable either environmentally, or in terms of the real value of the arts, which are so much more than just a branding exercise. The Edinburgh International Festival has always had an international mission, of course. But it shouldn’t be beyond the wit of man to make it both a festival for the wider world, and a festival for Edinburgh and all its people; and I think that after a year in which, for once, we don’t have to produce a festival on a tight schedule, none of us are going to have any excuse for not coming up with some brilliant new thinking about what an international festival might look like, in those new times.
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https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/health/coronavirus/interview-edinburgh-international-festival-director-fergus-linehan-why-its-time-rethink-citys-cultural-celebration-2536910
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