Edinburgh International Festival under fire for all-white senior management

Edinburgh Festival Fringe entertainers perform on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, last month (Getty Images)

The Edinburgh International Festival is under pressure to change recruitment procedures after it emerged ethnic minorities are almost totally absent from senior roles.

A survey of senior festival staff found many of the boards and committees which organise the event are exclusively white, despite Scotland having a fast-growing black and minority ethnic (BaME) population.

“The lack of people from BaME communities... does Scotland’s creative community a disservice, and doesn’t represent the diversity of which Scots are rightly proud,” said Patricia Ferguson, Scottish Labour’s Culture spokeswoman.

Julie Weston, a director at Edinburgh International Book Festival, said: “The criteria for staff appointments remain merit and ability, not race, nationality or colour.”