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Dateline: 17th February, 2006
EIF £1m in the Red The Edinburgh International Festival's deficit now stands at £1m, it was announced today. The 2005 festival cost £7.9 million to mount but income, grants and sponsorship were around £850,000 short of that figure. Grants amounted to £1.5m from Edinburgh City Council and £1.1m from the Scottish Arts Council, together with a one-off emergency grant of £600,000 from the Scottish Executive. However the picture is not as black as it might seem, according to Festival organisers. In 2005 it originated six new productions, some of which have already been sold on and others will be, and the income from these will appear in future years' accounts. David Harrower's Blackbird has just opened at the West End's Albery Theatre to great critical acclaim and there are currently discussions underway about a transfer to Broadway. The production of Britten's Curlew River will have a European outing in 2007 and there is a possibilty that Shan Khan's Prayer Room may become a television drama. All of these will bring in income in the new financial year and beyond. Another EIF show, Jordi Milán's Nuts Coconuts, may also have a further production. A statement from the organisers said, "The reality is that you have to invest the money, and until the work is picked up and performed elsewhere, you show a deficit. In 2007 we will benefit again from having another 2005 production open in a major European opera house, generating money and heightening our profile." Productions in the 2006 Festival will not be purely EIF funded but will be co-productions, which means that risks and investment will be shared, as, of course, will any income. "At a time when festivals are being set up in Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham, and Aix-en-Provence is building a new opera house for its summer festival," the statement said, "there is a huge amount of competition for the cultural traveller. "Edinburgh, to maintain its pole position, needs to create products that are distinctive and unique to the Festival and a programme that is worth travelling from Los Angeles or Tokyo to see." Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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