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Expo funding for Mela festival
18/06/2009
Scotland's biggest annual multicultural arts festival - the Edinburgh Mela - has been awarded £30,000 Expo funding towards their work to create a major, new outdoor theatre production.
The Expo funding will enable the Mela to work with Iron Oxide, to scope and develop a new large-scale performance that celebrates and explores Scotland as a culturally diverse nation.
Speaking during a Parliamentary debate on Scotland's Festivals Culture Minister Michael Russell said:
"Scotland's Festivals radiate creative excellence and artistic quality that attracts literally hundreds of thousands of visitors to Scotland every year and in so doing generates over £185 million to the Scottish economy.
"The Scottish Government's Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund is designed to ensure that the Edinburgh Festivals continue to flourish, develop and innovate. It is about creating new opportunities for Scottish-based artists, producers and creative talent to allow them to thrive at Edinburgh's Festivals.
"This funding will allow the Mela to do just that. Working with Iron Oxide, they will create a bold, large-scale, outdoor production - Cargo - which explores the myriad of diverse cultures that have settled in Scotland throughout our history whilst examining Scotland's own identity as an evolving nation.
"Scotland has a diverse and vibrant culture and the Mela Festival is a great example of people coming together from all backgrounds to share culture and the arts. This new and exciting project will engage with minority ethnic communities in Scotland and build international links, which is particularly significant in the Year of Homecoming, as we seek to reach out to our Diaspora across the world."
Mela Festival Director Liam Sinclair said:
"The Edinburgh Mela is grateful to the Scottish Government for the award of 30,000 pounds from the Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund, to allow us to work with Iron Oxide, to scope and develop a new large-scale performance work that celebrates and explores Scotland as culturally diverse nation. We hope that when produced, Cargo will excite, inspire and inform our audiences, showcasing the best of Scottish creativity and the diversity of our artists and heritage. We continue to welcome the Scottish Government's efforts to allow work of this nature to be developed through the Expo fund."
The Expo Fund is available to all 12 Festivals in Edinburgh to support the development of Scottish-based work. The planned expenditure for the Edinburgh Festival Expo Fund is £6 million over three years (2008-09 to 2011-12). This year we have announced just under £2 million across eight festivals with more to follow through the year.
The Minister was speaking during a Parliamentary debate on the success of the Edinburgh Festivals and Scotland's other festivals, their contribution to the Scottish economy, their role in the cultural and wider life of the nation, and the positive message they promote about Scotland's cultural confidence and ambition.