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Edinburgh v Manchester?Dateline: 12th November, 2006The news, confirmed this week, that Brian McMaster is to be on the board of the forthcoming Manchester International Festival, which has as its director ex-Edinburgh Festival manager Alex Poots, may raise a flutter of apprehension in the minds of the organisers and funders of the Edinburgh Festival. If it hasn't, perhaps it ought to, for, as the Thundering Hooves report suggested (see our feature of 3rd September), it would be foolhardy for Edinburgh to attempt to rest on its laurels as the world's festival city par excellence. Then there's the fact that, so far, Manchester City Council has invested £2.5m in the MIF whereas Edinburgh has declared a standstill grant for the EIF. For each of the last two years the EIF has received additional emergency funding to the tune of £300,000 from the city council, but, even with that added, Edinburgh still contributes substantially less to both the EIF and the Fringe combined than Manchester has to the MIF. Of course Manchester is a substantially larger city than Edinburgh and therefore has financial greater resources, but it has always seemed remarkable to me that Edinburgh City Council contributes so little to the EIF and (in particular) the Fringe, which bring such enormous economic benefit to the city. Richard Demarco, one of the Fringe's longest established and most respected "impressarios" expressed his concerns to The Scotsman. "There is no way that the Edinburgh festivals can avoid comparisons with Manchester now, particularly with Brian on board," he said. "The whole world will be watching both festivals next year. Edinburgh has the best festival in the world but when you're putting on a festival to challenge the rest of the world, you have to pay for it. "Manchester is now showing how it should be done by investing all this money." And another major (former) Edinburgh figure, Gordon Reid, the chief executive of the City Centre Management Company who left Edinburgh earlier this year and now works in Manchester, added, "What attracted me to Manchester was that it is a city that when it makes its mind up it just gets on and does things - and that has been my experience. "What I found so frustrating in Edinburgh that it took such a long time to get things done." The MIF is promoting itself as "the first international festival of original, new work" and its website says:
Unlike the EIF and the Fringe, the MIF will be biennial, not annual. The website explains why:
Manchester is moving into an already competitive marketplace internationally, but even within the UK competition is hotting up. Liverpool City of Culture will inevitably be attracting much attention and already NewcastleGateshead, with its Culture10 programme and the drawing power of the Baltic and the Sage, is looking very attractive to the cultural traveller.As the Thundering Hooves report pointed out, cultural tourism is becoming a major factor in the forward planning of many cities throughout Europe and beyond, and many are spending a significant part of their expenditure (around 4% in mainland Europe) in this area. Of course Edinburgh should be worried about the entry of Manchester into the festival arena, but it's also got to worry about other places in the UK and outside.
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