A view from South Bridge
I don't say that glibly, I really don't think I was surprised to read that an independent artist funded their fringe show through sex work.
"Survival sex" is a function of poverty and lack of options and on the rise as people, particularly women, have found it impossible to meet the cost of basic expenses.
Mothers turn to sex work to put shoes on their children's feet or food on their plates because not to do so is unthinkable. For an artist not to create is an unreconcilable anathema.
I am angry but I am not surprised.
And now, as flagged earlier £1,500,000 and Assembly Festival.
In August, Assembly Festival's founder and artistic director William Burdett-Coutts revealed that it was surviving on a short-term loan and looking at a very uncertain future. One of the Edinburgh Fringe's major producers, it seems to have become the victim of its own success.
Initially, it was commissioned by the Coventry City of Culture Trust to curate a space for Coventry's year as City of Culture in 2021. The Assembly Festival Garden in Coventry was hugely popular and ran across the summer of 2021, reopening for summer 2022 and entertaining half a million visitors, but now the Trust has gone into administration owing them nearly £1,500,000.
That £1.5 million owed to Assembly Festival is part of a larger £4.25 million debt owed by the Trust for which no one will accept responsibility.
Scottish Minister Christina McKelvie said, "this trust was completely funded and overseen and supported by the UK government. Therefore, the UK government are responsible for any debts that have arisen because of the collapse of this trust." That might be a little simplistic as Coventry City Council were hand in glove with the DCMS and the Trust was administered through various parties including Arts Council England, but, via a meandering route, it does seem that all roads lead to Rome.
Assembly Festival accounts for around one fifth of Edinburgh Fringe's output and its loss would be significant not just in August but all year round and not just in Edinburgh. The government's failure to step up (at least in part with its chequebook) will discourage future endeavours at home and send out a shameful message both nationally and internationally about how little the UK values culture and creativity.