It’s that time of year again. This year, slightly earlier than normal, the Edinburgh International Festival and Fringe have opened, promising nearly a month of culture, colour and chaos. For our members — the actors, musicians, writers, hospitality workers and technical staff — it provides opportunities but also challenges. The cultural output may be amazing, but it certainly doesn’t fill the pockets of culture workers. Suffice to say, this is the busiest time of year for the unions that represent them.

The festival rarely avoids some degree of onstage or offstage controversy. It probably never will. This year’s offstage controversy is Edinburgh’s newly implemented tourist tax — or visitor levy, for the squeamish. As readers of this column will know, I am less squeamish than many on the issue of taxation, but I’m fine with a levy too.

As we all probably know by now, Edinburgh is the first city in Scotland to implement a levy and seems unlikely to be the last. UK-wide, it follows in the footsteps of Manchester, where it was introduced by their little-known mayor in 2023, and Liverpool, which introduced the measure last year. Regions and cities in Scotland and down south are considering introducing it too. In a nutshell, visitors, with some exceptions, will be charged 5% extra on their rented accommodation costs for the first five nights of their stay.

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The charge is expected to raise up to £50 million in annual revenue and will be retained by the council for spending priorities of its choice,........

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