One year on from the Cockburn Association’s highly successful City for Sale? The Commodification of Edinburgh’s Public Spaces event, the global pandemic has rocked the City’s Festivals and the country’s tourism and hospitality sectors.

It has highlighted serious issues of economic resilience and public well-being. It has caused many to question the wisdom of growth-centric policies. It has also created a moment for the city, its businesses and its residents to pause and reflect on how Edinburgh's many Festivals should operate in a post-COVID world.

With a long history of providing a public forum for such discussions about the city, the Association has arranged this Cockburn Conference to explore these issues in greater detail.

Building on our recent "Our Unique City" manifesto, a living document that outlines our vision for life in Edinburgh in a post-COVID era, and Professor Cliff Hague’s 2020 Cockburn Annual Lecture in which he explored the roots of, and routes to, Edinburgh's current Festivals offering, Conference panelists will discuss topics including:

• Some reflections on how we arrived here.
• The impact of festivals and festivalisation on the city
• The capacity limits Edinburgh has for Festivals and tourism and the tensions that have arisen when these limits have been tested.
• The implications of the global pandemic, digital technologies and the climate challenge for future Festivals.

Tickets to the event are free to but donations are certainly welcome! Only ONE ticket per screen, per event is required to be booked, the Zoom link will be sent to you via Eventbrite closer to day.

Conference Programme Timings

Session 1: Whose Festival is it anyway? (11am-12.45pm)

11am-11.45am - The Festival City: Founding principles - future directions.

Chaired by Joyce McMillan with panellists Dr Angela Bartie, Morvern Cunningham and Helen Martin.

12pm-12.45pm - Arts in the City: Local needs and global aspirations.

Chaired by Joyce McMillan with panellists Andrew Crummy, Shauna MacDonald and Julia Amour

Lunchtime

Session 2: Sustaining festivals or sustainable festivals? (1.15pm-3pm)

1.15pm-2pm - Cultural Tourism and the Festivals: What will be the 'new normal'?

Chaired by Stephen Jardine with panellists Prof Jane Ali-Knight, Donald Emslie and Prof David McGillivray

2.15pm-3pm - Festivalisation and Climate Change: Managing impacts on the city.

Chaired by Stephen Jardine with panellists Anna Beswick, Andrew Heald and Dr Ben Twist

Plenary Session: Reflections on the day (3pm-3.30pm)

Our two session chairs, Stephen Jardine and Joyce McMillan will be joined by our chairperson Prof Cliff Hague

(Short biographies of each of our panellists and chairs can be found below)

Founded in 1875, the Cockburn Association - The Edinburgh Civic Trust is Scotland’s oldest conservation body. Our purpose is to enhance the amenity of Edinburgh and its neighbourhood and to protect its rich architectural landscape.

If you enjoy our Cockburn Conversations and other events please do consider becoming a member of the Association. We are an independent conservation charity and we need your assistance to help us continue protecting Edinburgh's wonderful civic amenity, natural environment and unique built heritage.

Catch up on some of our previous events for free on our YouTube channel and keep a look-out on Eventbrite or our social media channels for information about our future events, campaigns and other activities .

SHORT BIOGRAPHIES

Panel Chairs

Stephen Jardine is a Scottish journalist, broadcaster and presenter. He has worked for the BBC, Scottish Television, GMTV and Radio Tay and currently writes for various publications, including The Scotsman and the Daily Record while making regular appearances on BBC Radio Scotland. With decades of experience behind him, anchoring and presenting a variety of news and current affairs programmes across the airwaves, in 2019 Stephen took the helm in of the BBC’s new flagship Debate Night series on BBC Scotland where politicians and other public figures answer questions from members of the public.

Joyce McMillan is theatre critic of The Scotsman and also writes a political and social commentary column for the paper. She has been involved in many campaigns for democracy and human rights, both in Scotland and internationally, and has been a freelance journalist, based in Edinburgh, Scotland, for more than 25 years. She was a Visiting Professor in the School of Drama and Creative Industries at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh from 2006 to 2010. In 2016, Joyce published Theatre in Scotland: Field of Dreams, a panoramic account of modern Scottish theatre.

Panellists

Prof Jane Ali-Knight leads and develops the festival and event subject group at Napier University as well as lecturing at universities internationally and facilitating training and development in the field. She is Course Director of the 'Executive Certificate in Festival and Event Management' delivered in Scotland and the UAE and the highly successful ‘Destination Leaders Programme’ delivered with Scottish Enterprise. Her core activities fall into three main areas: event and festival related programmes; research and publications and conferences and professional events. She is currently a board member of BAFA (British Arts and Festivals Association); Without Walls; Women in Tourism and is a Fellow of the HEA and Royal Society of the Arts. Her recent event related experience extends to CakeFest Edinburgh 2015, a Year of Food and Drink Funded Project; Special Events Management and Publicity Co-ordination for the Abu Dhabi Film Festival (ADFF), 2007 - 2012, and extensive Professional and Academic Conference Organisation.

Julia Amour joined Festivals Edinburgh as Director in December 2015, following 20 years of experience across the Scottish and UK culture, education and international trade and investment sectors. Festivals Edinburgh leads on the joint strategic vision of Edinburgh’s 12 major festivals, seeking to sustain the city’s pre-eminence as the world’s leading festival destination. Prior to taking up this post, Julia worked for the British Council in Scotland and across the UK, becoming the British Council’s Acting Regional Director for the UK in 2014.

Dr Angela Bartie is currently a senior lecturer in Scottish History in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh having previously been a lecturer in history at the University of Strathclyde and acting Director of the Scottish Oral History Centre. She has worked on a number of other research projects exploring aspects of twentieth century Scottish history, including the history of occupational health (at University of Strathclyde), an oral history of industrial chaplains (Glasgow Caledonian University), and on the policing of youth in post-war Britain (with Louise A. Jackson, University of Edinburgh). In 2013, she published The Edinburgh Festivals: Culture and Society in Post-war Britain, the first major academic study of the origins and early years of Edinburgh’s annual, international arts and cultural Festivals.

Anna Beswick is the Adaptation Scotland Programme Manager. She provides training, advice and support to a wide range of organisations and communities, helping them adapt to climate change. Drawing upon the collective knowledge and experience of Scotland’s public sector, informed by crucial insights from local authorities, health boards, infrastructure providers, agencies and university estates, Anna developed Scotland's Climate Change Adaptation Workbook. This guide has proven invaluable in assisting public sector organisations and other bodies build resilience to the impacts of climate change.

Andrew Crummy was born in Craigmillar, Edinburgh, where his mother Helen was a community activist and founder of the Craigmillar Festival Society. Raised and nurtured in an environment rich in community arts, involving “festivals, drama, music, clowns colour and laughter”, Andrew went on to study at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and then Glasgow School of Art. He was the guiding force behind the public mural trail in Prestonpans in the early 2000s and specialises today in tapestry, murals, illustration, sculpture and painting. His magnificent tapestries commemorating the Battle of Prestonpans and the Scottish Diaspora and his Great Tapestry of Scotland have all rightly won him international acclaim. Andrew has chosen to make his home and studio on the banks of the Forth in Cockenzie, a locality rich in natural, cultural and social heritage which, like his childhood home, has further influenced his artistic output.

Morvern Cunningham is an independent creative producer with over two decades of experience of working across the arts in Edinburgh and Glasgow. She is the founder and trustee of multi-arts charity LeithLate, based in Leith and now in its tenth year. In 2020, Morvern published a ground-breaking manifesto for how the city of Edinburgh can build back better in a post-Pandemic world, entitled "You'll Have Had Your City?" via the Out of the Blueprint and online on The Skinny website. She is currently working on her next piece of written work, further developing the themes raised in the initial publication.

Donald Emslie began his working life as a teacher, but made an early career change into sales and marketing. He joined STV in the mid-1980s and held various positions before becoming chief executive of SMG Television in 1999, a role he held until 2007. Over the last twenty years Donald has held non-exec appointments on a variety of organisations, including the Royal Zoological Society of Edinburgh, the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen, and several more. He currently chairs Thorpe Hall Leisure Ltd and the Castle Hotel Management Consultants and in 2019 he became the chairperson of the Edinburgh Tourism Action Group (ETAG), an umbrella partnership of private and public-sector representatives that jointly coordinates tourism development in Edinburgh.

Andrew Heald is one of the founders of “Trees of Edinburgh”, an online campaign to increase Edinburgh’s tree cover, by growing appreciation and knowledge of trees throughout Edinburgh society. He has over 20 years’ experience in forestry and woodland management, and has worked in the UK, Finland, Uruguay and Ghana. Andrew has also worked as a Lead Auditor for environmental management systems and sustainable forestry standards. He runs his own consultancy business advising clients on sustainable land management and creating blended finance investment opportunities. Andrew is a Member of the Institute of Chartered Foresters, and spends far too much time on Twitter at @andyheald.

Shauna MacDonald is a Scottish actor. She began her career in the film The Debt Collector and has appeared in a variety of well-known films and television series ever since, including The Descent, Spooks, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, In plain Sight, The Cry and Danger Mouse. Shauna teaches the art of public speaking through her own company If in Doubt Shout and, since 2014, she has also been the co-director of The Edinburgh Youth Theatre. Based in Portobello, the EYT teaches Edinburgh’s young people about all aspects of theatre and film production, from performing to sound, lights and camera, and offers practical and confidence-building experience to thespians of all ages.

Prof David MacGillivray currently focuses on two primary areas of academic research. The first examines the contemporary significance of events and festivals (sporting and cultural) as markers of identity and mechanisms for the achievement of wider economic, social and cultural externalities. The second explores the affordances of digital and social media in enabling (and constraining) participation in civic life, including in educational settings and in democratic processes. In addition to his many other publications, in 2017, David co-authored with Daniel Turner Event Bidding: Politics, Persuasion and Resistance, a detailed study of the politics, strategies and tactics that underpin the processes used to secure major sporting and cultural events around the world.

Helen Martin has been a journalist for almost half a century with several newspaper titles from across the UK and for the last three decades at The Edinburgh Evening News. She held numerous roles during her long career, including Features Editor, Associate Editor and Communications Manager with Scotsman Publications, and now, in her retirement, she continues to write her popular local news and opinion column, a regular favourite for readers of the Evening News for thirty years.

Dr Ben Twist combines over 25 years’ experience of working in the arts as a theatre director and producer with in-depth knowledge of carbon management. He is currently the Director of Creative Carbon Scotland, a partnership of arts organisations putting culture at the heart of a low-carbon Scotland. He has wide management, strategic and capital project experience from his former roles, including Associate Director at Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre, Artistic Director of Manchester’s Contact Theatre and Chair of the Scottish Arts Council Lottery Committee and a member of the SAC Board 2003 – 2010. He was also Chair of Scotland’s leading contemporary classical music group Hebrides Ensemble and Vice Chair of the Theatres Trust and the Edinburgh Sustainable Development Partnership.

PLENARY SESSION WITH THE TWO PANEL CHAIRS JOINED BY:

Prof Cliff Hague OBE is a freelance consultant, researcher, author and trainer and chairperson of the Cockburn Association. He taught generations of Scottish and international planners and was head of the then Department of Town and Country Planning in Edinburgh College of Art / Heriot-Watt University. Today, he is Professor Emeritus of Planning and Spatial Development at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Science. He has previously been the President of the Royal Town Planning Institute, and of the Commonwealth Association of Planners and the Chair of Built Environment Forum Scotland. You can access much of his work on his website and his next article, on 'Constructing the Governance for the Festivalisation of Edinburgh', will be published in Scottish Affairs early next month.