A ROW has erupted between council chiefs and organisers of The Edinburgh International Science Festival over funding arrangements for next year's event.
An emergency meeting for members of the festival board has been called to discuss the financial crisis that threatens plans to expand the annual festival, and produce a "quality" experience.
The festival attracted more than 50,000 people this year
, enjoying one of its most successful seasons, but organisers said they were hoping to arrange "something quite special" for next year's 21st anniversary celebrations.
Festival chiefs said the council has backtracked on an offer to provide an undisclosed sum to achieve this.
But deputy council leader Steve Cardownie today questioned how the festival found itself suffering from what insiders described as a "cash flow problem", although he said discussions could continue.
The emergency board meeting, set for Friday, August 15, was revealed in an e-mail sent to members, and leaked to the Evening News.
Festival director, Dr Simon Gage, said today: "The Science Festival has been seeking investment from the city council to support its continued growth, based on what we took to be an undertaking from senior members of the council earlier this year to provide at least a large part of this investment. We have been planning our 21st festival as something quite special.
"We have recently heard that the city council has decided not to provide this funding and so we now need to review our plans quickly. This is why we're calling an exceptional board meeting.
"We raise £1 million per year which is enough to run a festival, but whether it is the festival of a city with such a prominent profile in both science and festivals, is the crucial question."
Chairman David Milne added: "We are concerned that the development funding agreed with senior council members following recommendations from the officers is now in jeopardy.
"If this is the case, it will have a significant impact on our ability to produce the quality and importance Edinburgh expects."
The festival, held every April, features hundreds of talks, tours and exhibitions for children, families and adults. It also features the popular Wonderama event – an interactive science experience aimed at youngsters.
The city council is one of four principal funding partners, along with the Scottish Government, and provides an annual grant of around £180,000. That money is not under threat for next year.
But Cllr Cardownie said today: "The festival is extremely important to the city and we continue to be very supportive of it, having put in around a million pounds in recent years.
"However, questions have to be asked about how the festival has found itself in its current situation. There's no doubt that we will work closely with them to see what can be done, and discussions are continuing, but we need to be satisfied that their business plan is robust and that every effort has been made to secure funding from a variety of sources."
The collapse of long-standing plans for a multi-million-pound science centre on Market Street are understood to be partly behind the financial difficulties facing the Science Festival.
The council is expected to sell the site, after the project's backers failed to secure enough funding.
The full article contains 552 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
