The Edinburgh International Festival and Fringe has become one of the biggest arts events in the world. Tourists and artists alike flood into the city to take part. This liveliness and international flavour is very welcome but many artists, activists and local people have begun raising questions about the festival.
Yes, lots of big names have come to the city. But they include Nokia, Orange, Perrier...corporate sponsors who back the safest and most profitable shows.
The stand-up comedy scene has been reduced to a marketplace for the small number of big promoters who dominate the scene in the UK.
Ticket prices have steadily risen - it is not unusual to pay £15 to see many acts. This is partly because venues, hotels, bars and restaurants hike up their prices during the festival. At the same time, despite record ticket sales, the average attendance at a festival show is just four people.
But ticket prices are just part of the problem. Contrary to the impression often given, Edinburgh is a working class city. It's peripheral housing schemes like Craigmillar and Wester Hailes are among the most impoverished in Scodland.
So it's not surprising that many local folk feel alienated by the Festival. For many it represents 'culture' that is happening to them, but does not include them and is not by them.
The Edinburgh People's Festival, now in it's second year was set up to try to counter this. The initiative came from Colin Fox, one of the new Scottish Socialist Party MSP's.
We sought to work with local artists and activists to bring the festival to the schemes. " From August 10th-16th we put on a week of shows, keeping ticket prices to f2, in some of the forgotten parts of Edinburgh where the unicyclists never venture. We got backing from the likes of Paul Laverty, Irvine Welsh and Tony Benn.
The People's Festival was originally set up in the 1950's by a group including Hamish Henderson, Ewan McColl and Hugh MacDiarmid. The International Festival was set up in the austere days post1945, but Hamish Henderson was critical of its elitist nature. He talked of the "Edinbourgeoisie" who dominated the official Festival. The original EPF fell victim to the McCarthyite atmosphere of the 1950's. Now it's back!
Among the highlights were a packed cabaret night in Craigmillar, which included Craigmilar Youth Theatre's "Grease Ya who dominated the official Festival. .... Radge", yes it was Grease -Niddrie style. We put on a free play and tea dance attend ed by over 60 local pensioners. We had a Women's Night and a brilliant lecture on the history of Scotland's immigrant communities in a Leith Indian restaurant.
The EPF had the world premiere of "Broon Sauce" a play about the experience of ex-Miners, in Woodburn Miners Welfare, Dalkeith. Inch Park with local bands, attended by hundreds.
For many the highlight of the EPF was our debate, held in Wester Hailes, "Whose Culture is it Anyway". Cultural heavyweights, artists and media reps discussed how to open up the festival.
Next year we hope to put the EPF on a more professional, but staunchly independ ent, basis.
For more coverage of the EPF see our website: http://www.edinburghpeoplesfestival.org.uk/
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participatory democracy.