Pandemic and Recovery

The Edinburgh Festivals

Course 5 · Chapter 9 · Pandemic and Recovery

For most of their history the Edinburgh festivals seemed to be a fixture, returning each August whatever the weather or the politics. In spring 2020 that assumption ended. This chapter follows the festivals through the pandemic: the cancellations, the experiments with online events and smaller live ones, the return in 2022 and the financial strain since. It also asks what the interruption showed about how the festivals are built and who carries the risk. The events are recent, so the sources are mostly news reports, the festivals' own statements and early studies. Names, dates and figures are from general knowledge and flagged "check".

2020: The Cancellations

The decision

In the spring of 2020 the large August festivals were cancelled or moved online as the COVID-19 pandemic closed theatres and banned gatherings (check the announcement dates). Reports described the Fringe as being cancelled for the first time since it began in 1947 (check, Chapter 2).

The Tattoo

The Military Tattoo was also cancelled in 2020, again described as a first since it started in 1950 (check, Chapter 4). It, too, offered online material.

The effect

Performers lost income and bookings, venues and seasonal staff lost their busiest month, and the city lost visitor spending (Chapter 7). The scale of the loss was estimated in several studies, with different methods (check).

Online experiments. The festivals put some programmes and recordings online in 2020, and a few were widely praised, but audiences and income were far below a normal year (check).
Government support. Schemes for the arts and for furloughed staff softened the loss for some, and emergency funds were set up for cultural organisations and freelancers (check the schemes and who was eligible).
Freelancers. Many performers and technicians are self-employed, and support schemes reached some of them less easily than employees (check).

2021: A Partial Return

Item (check each)	Detail
Live shows	A smaller Fringe and a scaled-down International Festival went ahead with distancing, reduced capacity and new outdoor and temporary venues.
Rules	Public health rules changed during the summer, which made planning hard and cancellation costs high.
Tattoo	A live show did not take place in 2021 in its usual form, with a film and other content instead (check).
Audiences	Many people stayed away, and visitor numbers were far lower than normal.

2022 and After

The return. In 2022 the festivals returned in full, with crowds back on the Royal Mile and a sense of relief among organisers (check the figures).
The numbers. Ticket sales for the Fringe were reported to be below the last pre-pandemic year (2019), with reports of fewer shows and smaller audiences and then a gradual recovery (check the figures and how they were counted, Chapter 1).
Higher costs. Rising prices for accommodation, energy and travel hit performers and venues, and the cost-of-living crisis cut audiences' spending (Chapter 7; check).
Calls for reform. Performers, venues and the Fringe Society debated how to make taking part cheaper and fairer, including questions about fees, accommodation and the role of the biggest venue companies (check the proposals and the response).

What the interruption showed The pause revealed how much of the festival's activity depends on a single month, on private risk-taking by performers and on a chain of businesses that earn most of their income in August. It also showed that the festivals could survive a year off, since they returned, which is evidence about resilience. Whether the recovery is complete, or whether the festivals are permanently smaller or poorer, depends on figures that are still being gathered and argued over (check).

A British comparison Compare other festivals and live arts across Britain, where the loss of 2020 and the high costs since have closed some events and venues, among them smaller music festivals and theatres (check the examples). Edinburgh's festivals, being large and well known, recovered more visibly than many, though the underlying strains were similar.

Check the details The pandemic years are recent, and numbers vary by source and by method. Check dates, attendance and income figures against the festivals' annual reports, official statistics and independent studies, and note which figures include online audiences.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Explain who carried the main financial risk when the festivals were cancelled in 2020, comparing a large curated festival with the Fringe.

→ Solution

Exercise 2

Design a short plan for finding out whether the Fringe has fully recovered from the pandemic, naming the figures and the pitfalls.

→ Solution

Exercise 3

Choose one idea for making the Fringe fairer or cheaper for performers, and give one argument for it and one objection.

→ Solution

Quick Reference

2020: August festivals cancelled or moved online; reported firsts for the Fringe and Tattoo (check)
2021: smaller live programmes under restrictions (check)
2022 onward: full return, but sales and costs under pressure (check)
Risk: carried mostly by performers, freelancers and seasonal businesses
The caution: recovery figures depend on what is counted