Festivals Edinburgh awarded £300,000 by Creative Scotland for digital initiative
Festivals Edinburgh, the body which promotes twelve of Edinburgh’s major annual festivals, have been handed £300,000 from Creative Scotland’s National Lottery Fund to help it set up the Edinburgh Festivals Innovation Lab.
The money will be spent to create the two year initiative which will aim to lead the digital development of the organisation’s festivals.
The Edinburgh Festivals Innovation Lab will aim to work alongside leading lights within the digital community to develop ideas to improve and inspire audience experience, while tackling themes such as helping festival attendees create the best possible experience while also creating new ways to distribute festival content and heighten the environmental credentials of the festivals.
This Lab will run alongside Amb:IT:ion Scotland, a programme from Creative Scotland which supports Scottish arts organisations to develop their digital capabilities.
In the last year, Festivals Edinburgh has launched its first iPhone application and an online TV channel, while the programme design for this year’s Edinburgh Fringe used suggestions through Twitter to create designs in real time for the cover.
Andrew Dixon, chief executive for Creative Scotland said: “The Edinburgh Festivals already reach a live and TV audience in the millions. Creative Scotland’s investment will enable the festivals to interact with a global audience and to engage with the public through online digital programming.”
Faith Liddell, director of Festivals Edinburgh, added: “Collaboration and innovation are at the heart of our plans to sustain and boost the ongoing success and development of Edinburgh’s Festivals. Over the next two years, our world-renowned Festivals will be a stage and a showcase, a playground and a platform for a number of innovative pilot projects and initiatives. And through our developer events programme, crowdsourcing initiatives and geek-in-residence programme, the way we invite, select and deliver the projects will be an innovation in itself too. We are delighted that Creative Scotland has chosen to invest in our ambition, as we focus on digital technology and innovative practice to maintain our global competitive edge.”