We are pleased to quietly introduce Future 13, a new Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation established to support artists working within the unique intensity and possibility of the Edinburgh Festivals. This soft launch marks the beginning of a longer conversation, one that will unfold gradually through listening, collaboration, and practice.
Future 13 has been formed around a simple but urgent question. How might the systems that support artists keep pace with the realities of contemporary performance making? Across the Festivals, artists are already working in hybrid ways that combine live and networked performance, navigating environmental responsibility while touring internationally, and responding to growing expectations around accessibility, care, and inclusion. Future 13 exists to meet these conditions directly, not as abstract principles, but as practical, artist centred support.
Our charitable purpose focuses on advancing three interconnected areas of practice. The first is hybridity, understood as work that brings together in person and digitally networked performance so that artists and audiences can share experiences across physical and virtual space. The second is sustainability, including sustainable touring, ecological design, artist wellbeing, and climate responsible production models. The third is accessibility, ensuring that artists and audiences of different abilities, identities, and circumstances can participate fully in cultural life. These are not treated as separate agendas, but as overlapping responsibilities that shape how work is made, shared, and sustained.
Future 13 will operate primarily in Scotland, with a strong commitment to international exchange where it meaningfully benefits the Scottish cultural ecology. Our initial activities will be modest and responsive, focusing on knowledge sharing, pilot programmes, and partnerships that can grow over time. This soft launch reflects our intention to build carefully, guided by artists’ needs and by the realities of the Festival context rather than by fixed assumptions.
Over the coming months, we will share more about our programmes, partnerships, and opportunities to engage. For now, we offer this introduction as an invitation. If you are an artist, producer, collaborator, or supporter interested in the future of hybrid, sustainable, and accessible practice at the Edinburgh Festivals, we look forward to continuing the conversation with you as Future 13 takes shape.