Edinburgh’s Culture Plan and Events Strategy are delivered by a complementary group of services and people who will help support you with every aspect of your event.
The City of Edinburgh Council’s Culture Service comprises of the following teams. The Service works with a variety of external agencies, including Scottish Enterprise, ETAG, Event Scotland and Creative Scotland, Scottish Government, and Essential Edinburgh.
The Team takes the lead in delivering the Culture Plan by providing information and advice to anyone involved in cultural initiatives, and by helping with funding or access to funding. It also connects representatives from the arts and culture community, fostering relationships that deliver cultural excellence and contribute to the city’s local, national and global reputation.
By identifying opportunities for strategic partnership working, and for networking and support, the Team creates opportunities for practitioners - and audiences - to develop and access excellent cultural opportunities. That also helps design and deliver the projects that will achieve the objectives stated in the Culture Plan.
The team delivers the Events Strategy through a year-round calendar that includes local, national and international events. They also provide information and advice on the management and delivery of outdoor events.
Achieving these objectives results in a positive environment and infrastructure that both attracts events to Edinburgh and builds on the city’s worldwide reputation as a premier events destination.
The Public Safety Team act as an advisory service to those wishing to organise an event within Edinburgh, as well as ensuring compliance with current legislation, and provide expert guidance on issues relating to safety at the event. The team chairs Event Planning and Operations Group (EPOG) meetings to ensure the smooth running and safety of events held within Edinburgh.
Public Safety also issue and administer Safety Certificates for Sports Grounds, permits for raised structures (Section 89, Civic Government (Scotland) Act), permits for drone use and ensure licensing standards and conditions are met at licensed premises.
Other duties include the delivery of festive lights and other City dressing as required throughout the year, floodlighting of buildings/monuments, running and maintenance of public clocks.
In addition, Public Safety design, manage and plan the deployment of Counter Terrorist measures for events in Edinburgh, in conjunction with external agencies like Police Scotland.
Film Edinburgh is the City of Edinburgh Council's film office, providing film office services for Edinburgh, East Lothian and the Scottish Borders. We offer free advice to productions on the locations, crew and facilities that are available in this area. Our local knowledge will save you time in setting up your shoot. We know the locations that are interested in allowing filming and their location library together with the Edinburgh production guide of local crew and facilities will help you find what you're looking for.
Film Edinburgh acts as the first point of liaison for productions with the City of Edinburgh Council, East Lothian Council, Scottish Borders Council and Police Scotland (Edinburgh and Lothian & Borders divisions). We have the contacts you will need if your shoot requires parking, road closures, police personnel, street furniture removal etc.
Contact Film Edinburgh to discuss your project requirements.
More information about arranging permission and access for filming and photography in areas of Council responsibility in Edinburgh, including parking dispensations, is available on the Council website.
Museums & Galleries Edinburgh has responsibility for 13 venues and more than 200 monuments across the city.
Edinburgh Cultural Venues is a consortium of four council-owned venues — the Assembly Rooms, Usher Hall, Church Hill Theatre and Ross Bandstand.
Our Parks and Greenspace Service manages our outdoor green spaces.
The Estates Service leases a wide range of properties, including the Collective Gallery, Edinburgh World Heritage Trust and the Festival, King’s and Royal Lyceum Theatres.
Contact information for the Culture Service can be found via our Contact Us page.
We also work with a wide range of other Council services, including neighbourhood partnerships, local communities and city stakeholders to promote cultural and creative activity and decision-making. The main services include:
The Council’s in-house Communications Service:
Email: communications@edinburgh.gov.uk Tel No: 0131 529 4040.
The Council's Inclusion Growth Service:
Elin Williamson, Business Growth & Inclusion Senior Manager, Tel No: 0131 529 3211
David Cooper, Commercial Development & Investment Senior Manager, Tel No: 0131 529 3211
Arts and Creative Learning, within Communities and Families, provides services which complement the work of the Culture Team and:
Contact details:
Linda Lees, Lifelong Learning Strategic Manager (Creativity, Health and Wellbeing) – Tel No: 0131 469 3956
Martin Hutchison, Lifelong Learning Strategic Development Officer, Creative Learning (Performing Arts) - Tel No: 0131 469 3446
Lorna Macdonald, Lifelong Learning Strategic Development Officer, Creative Learning (Visual Art, Film & Literature) – Tel No: 0131 469 3381
Alix Knox, Instrumental Music Service Co-ordinator – Tel No: 0131 469 3169
Frances Rive, Youth Music Initiative Co-ordinator – Tel No: 0131 469 3155
Emma Barclay, Youth Music Initiative Projects Assistant – Tel No: 0131 469 3951
Pamela Day & Laura McAdam, Dance Development Officers – Tel No: 0131 332 7805/Tel No: 0131 332 7805
Graham Fitzpatrick & Dina Subasciaki, Lifelong Learning Development Officers (Screen Education Edinburgh) – Tel No: 0131 343 1151
Sean Young, Skills & Qualifications Officer (Screen Education Edinburgh) – Tel No: 0131 343 1151
Investments Team
Email enquiries to: commercial.property@edinburgh.gov.uk Tel: 0131 529 5828
Operational Estates:
More details on the work of the Planning Service, including contact information, is available at www.edinburgh.gov.uk/planning and Building Standards at www.edinburgh.gov.uk/buildingwarrants.
There are 13 Neighbourhood Networks in Edinburgh. Each is made up of a variety of people - representatives from community groups, voluntary organisations working in the local area, and the City of Edinburgh Council (local Councillors).
Neighbourhood Networks talk about issues in their local communities. They influence decisions so that services work together to improve the quality of life and reduce inequalities in their local area. Much of the work is set out in citywide and more local community plans. More information can be found on the Edinburgh Partnership website.