Amy Liston<\/a>, an Edinburgh-based artist, described her frustration with the festival\u2019s use of AI:\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cI think as a local artist it was initially a shock when they started advertising with AI a few months back, but what really shocked me was despite the amount of us who called it out, they ignored everyone until the statement this week when it\u2019s much too late to rectify.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand being on a volunteer basis, but I know myself and countless others would rather volunteer our time and\u00a0expertise\u00a0to create something for them that is real,\u00a0authentic\u00a0and not morally skewed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially as it is hosted in a wonderful green space in the heart of Leith \u2013 it feels contradictory when using gallons of water on\u00a0generative\u00a0AI\u00a0marketing that\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0even look good.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI love our wee Leith community and what this festival sets out to do,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0just a shame that even in this week\u2019s statement they\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0even really acknowledge that they went about it wrong.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cJust hope they\u00a0actually take\u00a0things on board for next year.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Darren said that he would welcome volunteers to create assets for the festival next year. This year, however, he\u00a0says it\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0possible, as the marketing theme had been set at the start of the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cBefore January, we had\u00a0lots of board meetings, we sat down and we\u00a0came up with\u00a0Eat, Sleep, Leith, Repeat\u00a0\u2013\u00a0we\u2019d\u00a0already done it by the start of the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes you\u00a0have to\u00a0act fast, so I generated the first batch of images, and everybody loved it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m\u00a0in charge of the marketing every year, so if\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0got the board behind me, then\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0happy,\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0feeling confident, and I can crack on and get things done.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He added that the criticism had had a profound\u00a0impact on his mental health:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the festival has been going for 119 years this year, and as I say,\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0all volunteers, we do this for the love of\u00a0the festival.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0hard to organise and\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0getting harder every year \u2013 just like everything in life.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the backlash, he said:\u00a0\u201cI\u00a0wouldn\u2019t\u00a0say\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0been derogatory, but it\u00a0hasn\u2019t\u00a0helped things \u2013 my mental health has been affected by because I started doubting myself.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHow can these people be so horrible when they don\u2019t know the actual background of why I did it and who I am.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Leith Festival was founded in\u00a01907, and\u00a0has\u00a0maintained\u00a0the\u00a0pageant and gala day traditions for almost 120\u00a0year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Gala will take place on the Leith\u00a0Links on\u00a013 June this year and will feature a range of live\u00a0music,\u00a0entertainment, food stalls, games,\u00a0and\u00a0stalls.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Leith\u00a0Community\u00a0Pageant is one of the longest-running\u00a0community events in the\u00a0city and\u00a0invites the people of Leith to join a parade\u00a0which marches from Taylor Gardens, through the heart of Leith to the Shore.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The festival concludes with the Leith Festival Community Tattoo, which brings together pipe bands, highland dancing, and performances from a range of\u00a0different\u00a0cultures.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The festival depends largely on the support of local businesses and sponsors to keep going.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Darren Smith first came under fire this week, after it\u00a0emerged\u00a0that he had used generative AI tools to help…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":913939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8816],"tags":[323,2606,748,1102,81561,10841,126908,4884,53758,75435,712,16,15],"class_list":["post-913938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edinburgh","tag-ai","tag-art","tag-britain","tag-edinburgh","tag-edinburgh-festivals","tag-festivals","tag-graphic-design","tag-great-britain","tag-leith","tag-leith-festival","tag-scotland","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116455987438946675","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=913938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/913939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=913938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=913938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=913938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Darren](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG20230610095945.jpg\")
<\/a>Darren Smith (second from right) is an established graphic designer with his firm Sweet Creative, but has come under fire for his use of AI-generated assets (C) Leith Festival Association<\/p>\n