DIY Culture vs Corporate Culture

As one of the writers who signed a petition against Baillie Gifford I’m noting that Edinburgh Book Festival did the right thing and wont be taking money from them anymore. I’m very happy too that I can now buy tickets and participate in a special festival untainted by BG and their toxic investments.

There is a glaring error in the BG statement though. There was no coercion involved in signing the statement. I signed it for personal reasons as a conscientious objector and just left it at that. It was up to others if they wanted to join. Of course there would have been protests at the Edinburgh Book Festival especially since BG also invests in what is now Israeli apartheid /genocide. That’s just normal.

There are defeatists who will ask how can the arts survive without the likes of BG. If Scottish culture is dependent on crumbs from the table of a toxic investment company then the defeatists are asking the wrong question. The question should be How the hell did the arts end up as a global investment corporation’s plaything? [Ironically cos of punk – Ed]

I grew up during the 70s punk era when our modus operandi was DO IT YOURSELF. It has been my guiding ethos all my life in the arts. When I felt that Scottish literature needed a kick up the arse and more working class voices I just did it and started Rebel Inc. When Michael Pedersen and myself felt that we could create leftfield magic around poetry and music and visual arts then we just did it with Neu! Reekie! When I felt that Edinburgh needed an international poetry festival of its own that also featured hip-hop and film and music I provisionally booked the whole of Summerhall in the summer of 2019 for £10k without a bolt to my name. It only happened because I connected with Jenny Niven and between us we created an initial vision for Push The Boat Out that came from the grassroots upwards. The funding came later from Creative Scotland and other sponsors. Bigger festivals do need funded, they do need run as a tight business – which is how Neu! Reekie! was run or it would have gone bust near the start – but organisers need to be creative without compromising their own integrity.

Toxic investment corporations are not required for most arts projects. I think the arts need this timely kick up the arse. These are new and challenging times. The fossil fuel industry is a dinosaur industry. They’re choking the planet. Not taking action is not an option for many younger folk. And a few oldies like me. The more idealists like Greta Thunberg the better as far as I’m concerned.

The corporate-reliant defeatists can wring their hands all they want but there are younger more dynamic artists and writers and thinkers out there with the ideas, imagination and moral compass to create new Rebel Incs, Neu! Reekies or PTBO festivals. Edinburgh’s festivals began small and grew organically. It’ll happen because it always does. DIY was punk. And DIY is the future.

Edinburgh Book Festival will have to adapt to survive now. It’ll be tough and that’s why many of us aren’t inclined to do handstands over this announcement. Those of us who wanted to see BG out of the arts have a moral duty to get right behind Edinburgh Book Festival now. Buy tickets and help promote it. But more than that the Scottish Government and the arts loving public need to ask themselves deeper questions about the funding and value of large scale art and culture festivals and whether they should be dependent on the likes of BG