It has been announced that Scotland's 2014 Homecoming Year is to receive Scottish Government funding of up to £3 million.
You will recall that the 2009 Edinburgh Gathering went bust leaving performers and those who set up and dismantled the marquees etc. unpaid, despite the organisers receiving £670,000 of taxpayers' money.
However the benefit to the overall economy far outweighed the cost of staging the 2009 Homecoming Year and specifically the Edinburgh Gathering generated a £10 million boost.
Let us hope that with more public cash going in this time there will be sufficient money available to pay the workers and performers who make the Gathering possible for us all to enjoy.
2014 should be a great year to visit Scotland with the Commonwealth Games happening in Glasgow, also the golf Ryder Cup coming to Scotland, the 500th anniversary of the Battle of Hornshole and the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotlan...itics-17272150

A budget of £3m will be made available for Scotland's second Homecoming extravaganza in two years time.

The 2014 event will take place in the year of the Commonwealth Games, the Ryder Cup, and the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn.

The first Homecoming in 2009 was said to have generated £53.7m for the Scottish economy.

But the showpiece of that event, The Gathering 2009 Ltd, went bust after receiving £670,500 in taxpayers' cash.

The government said it was right to plough in public money because the Edinburgh clan gathering resulted in a £10m business boost.