The threatened Aberdeen International Youth Festival (AIYF) received a shot in the arm last night after a major council opposition party said they would seek to continue funding the annual event.
Last week, councillors provoked a storm of protest when a closed-door meeting of the education committee voted unanimously to stop the authority’s £150,000 yearly contribution – putting the festival’s future in doubt.
Celebrity backers Julian Lloyd Webber and Dame Evelyn Glennie have also waded into the row arguing it boosts the city’s cultural draw ahead of a planned bid for the UK City of Culture in 2025.
But it has been argued that the festival, which has been running for 46 years, is poorly attended and much of its budget spent on salaries.
Last night SNP leader Stephen Flynn said his group would vote to continue the funding at Friday’s finance committee meeting.
The smaller Liberal Democrat group have already said they would “do whatever is possible” to keep the funding in place.
This move has come despite both SNP and Lib Dem councillors voting for the initial cut.
Mr Flynn said that the initial report before councillors made no recommendations about removing funding and they had backed sending it to the finance committee “reluctantly”.
He said: “The AIYF has provided this city with a beacon of culture and our young people with life changing experiences since its establishment in 1973 and, having had in-depth discussions with a number of individuals, I am now confident that we can, and must, invest to safeguard the organisation.
But an administration insider, who did not want to be named, said that the funding issue had been “resolved” following the education committee meeting and any hope of the ruling coalition changing its mind was unlikely.
The source added that they had attended one performance last year which had an audience of only eight and that the event could not continue “on sentiment alone”.
The authority will be putting forward £100,000 for events for the Year of Young People while other events for the city total £525,000.
Stewart Aitken, chief executive of the festival, welcomed the support and said he was considering speaking to members at Friday’s meeting.
