Arts & International Affairs: Volume 2, Number 2 | Page 23

Indeed, it was out of the Festival that the artist-driven Fringe festival came
into being and gave the world the term “fringe theatre”. More recently, a
growing number of Fringe festivals around the world exist independently of
any “official” festival.
As Raymond Williams (����) argued back in ����, culture is a process and
not a conclusion. The debates over the roles, definitions, and challenges of
culture are still being played out in Edinburgh, in Scotland and, indeed,
across the world. In Edinburgh, the People’s Festival was briefly resurrected
in ���� to challenge the perceived elitism and expense of the Fringe, while
the Edinburgh International Festival makes a concerted effort to be as
accessible, affordable, and relevant to as many people as possible. It seems
that arts festivals—and there are a rapidly growing number of them around
the world—remain crucial arenas for cultural challenge, creative exchange,
and for exploring, reflecting on, and responding to wider social and political
changes in society.
References
Arnold, Matthew. (���� [����]) Culture and Anarchy, ed. J. Dover Wilson.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bartie, Angela. (����) A “Bubbling Volcano”: Edinburgh, the Festivals, and a
Cultural Explosion. In New World Coming: The Sixties and the Shaping of
Global Consciousness, ed. Karen Dubinsky et al., ���–��. Toronto: Between
the Lines.
Bartie, Angela. (����) The Edinburgh Festivals: Culture and Society in Postwar
Britain. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Bartie, Angela, and Eleanor Bell. (����) The International Writers’ Conference
Revisited: Edinburgh, ����, ed. Bartie and Bell. Glasgow: Cargo Publishing.
Calder, Angus. (����) The People’s War: Britain, ����–����. London: Pimlico.
Green, Jonathon. (����) All Dressed Up: The Sixties and the Counterculture.
London: Pimlico.
Hewison, Robert. (����) Too Much: Art and Society in the Sixties, ����–����.
London: Methuen London Ltd.
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