What is ThreeWeeks?

ThreeWeeks is the flagship media at the Edinburgh and Brighton Festivals. Its mission is to provide as comprehensive coverage as is humanly possible of both these festivals, in particular reviewing those shows not getting media coverage elsewhere.

We launched ThreeWeeks in Edinburgh in 1996 because at that time the Edinburgh Festival was growingly hugely each year, but at the same time media coverage was, if anything, decreasing. That meant that many strands at the Festival - and especially the new, alternative and grassroots performers and companies which, as far as we could see, were what made the Edinburgh Festival so exciting in the first place - were not getting the coverage they deserved. From year one ThreeWeeks aimed to cover as many aspects of the Festival as possible, from the big names at the big venues through to the real grass roots shows not covered elsewhere. Over a decade later we continue to operate to that ethos, getting even closer to achieving it by reviewing over 1500 shows each Edinburgh Festival - nearly all of them - and hundreds more than our closest competitors. Since 2006 we have applied the same ethos in our coverage of the Brighton Festival.

We are able to achieve this ambitious editorial aim by adopting a unique not-for-profit business model, and by building the whole thing on the back of a brilliant education programme. Each year we recruit and train over 120 students, who get to attend free training workshops, and then gain unrivalled work experience by becoming actual reviewers on an established, credible festival publication. Not only is this one of the UK’s best media training opportunities, it also enables ThreeWeeks to have by far the biggest review team at both the Brighton and Edinburgh Festivals, which enables us to provide such expansive coverage.

Not only does ThreeWeeks provide the widest coverage in terms of number of shows covered, we also get that coverage out in as many places as possible. In Edinburgh we become a truly 24/7 multimedia operation, with our weekly newspaper, seven-days-a-week review sheet, daily e-bulletin, radio show, podcasts and constantly updating website.

--------------------------------------------------

What are the Edinburgh and Brighton Festivals?

The Edinburgh Festival is simply the biggest cultural festival on Planet Earth. Actually encompassing several different festivals that all take place in the Scottish capital during August - including the completely unprogrammed Fringe - the Edinburgh Festival boasts the most impressive programme of theatre, comedy, dance, opera, music, musicals, visual art, cabaret, and literary and political talks and debates that you will ever find in any one place at any one time. The Edinburgh Festival takes place in August, and more information on it is given here.

The Brighton Festival is England’s biggest cultural festival, and includes the fully programmed main festival, plus an ever expanding, ever eclectic fringe, and the UK music business’ three day new music convention The Great Escape. Less than an hour from London, the Brighton Festival is one of the most exciting cultural events to take place in the UK. The Brighton Festival takes place in May, and more information on it is given here.

--------------------------------------------------

Where can I get ThreeWeeks?

ThreeWeeks in Edinburgh
The weekly edition of ThreeWeeks in Edinburgh is published on the Tuesday evening of what are referred to by the festival community as Weeks 0, 1, 2, and 3. It is free and is distributed in over 75 sites across Edinburgh, amongst them all the key Festival venues like Assembly Rooms, Augustines, Aurora Nova, Bedlam, C venue, C Too, C3, C Central, Diverse Attractions, Gilded Balloon Teviot, Hill Street Theatre, The Hub, The Lodge, Pleasance Courtyard, Pleasance Dome, Rocket, The Stand, Sweet, Traverse, Underbelly and Zoo.

The daily edition of ThreeWeeks is published each night at midnight throughout the Festival, and is available at Gilded Balloon Teviot, Pleasance Dome, Pleasance Courtyard, C Venue and Underbelly.

Online coverage is available throughout August at www.threeweeks.co.uk.

An eDaily is published each day of the festival, and includes every single review we publish. You can subscribe to this for free by emailing your name to edinburgh.subscribe@threeweeks.co.uk

ThreeWeeks in Brighton
The preview edition of ThreeWeeks in Brighton is distributed in venues, cafes and bars all across Brighton from the start of the festival.

The daily edition of ThreeWeeks appears as a column in The Argus, Brighton’s daily newspaper, from Monday to Saturday throughout the festival.

Online coverage is available throughout May at www.threeweeks.co.uk.

An eDaily is published each day of the Festival, and includes every single review we publish. You can subscribe to this for free by emailing your name to brighton.subscribe@threeweeks.co.uk

--------------------------------------------------

Who makes ThreeWeeks?

ThreeWeeks is owned, published and loved by UnLimited Media, a Shoreditch based media and marketing company. It is edited by Chris Cooke and Caro Moses, who also run UnLimited Media.

ThreeWeeks is supported year round by a number of Associates, while during May and August we take on several extra staff members to help run the project, not to mention the student review team, which numbers nearly 100 in Edinburgh.

--------------------------------------------------

How do you make money?

Good question. We sell advertising on all the media that we generate to cover the costs of the whole venture. Details of how to advertise are given here. ThreeWeeks is a not-for-profit project, and is backed year round by UnLimited Media.

--------------------------------------------------

Can we use your content?

ThreeWeeks makes its news and review content available to numerous media partners. If you want to carry our content, email chris@unlimitedmedia.co.uk for more information.

--------------------------------------------------

How do I get you to review or preview my show?

Details of how to get your Edinburgh Festival shows covered in ThreeWeeks are given here. The same system applies to ThreeWeeks in Brighton, though with different timescales, obviously – we start planning editorial in early April and scheduling reviews in late April.

--------------------------------------------------

How long after seeing a show do you publish a review?

We do try to get reviews published as soon as we can after our reviewer has seen a show, though the scale of the ThreeWeeks operation, especially in Edinburgh, means it can take longer than we would like.

Generally you should allow for 3-4 days between us seeing a show and publishing a review at the Brighton Festival, and 4-5 days at the Edinburgh Festival. Though this is just a guide, sometimes it will be quicker, and it can take up to 7 days. If after 7 days your review hasn’t been published then it is worth emailing editor@threeweeks.co.uk and one of the editorial team will check it hasn’t got lost in the system.

Not all reviews appear in our print editions. The best place to check for your review is in our eDaily, where every single review is published.

--------------------------------------------------

You reviewed my show but never published my review, how come?

A small number of reviews will not be published until after the Festival is over, and a handful may never get published. We do endeavour to publish reviews for as many shows as we possibly can during the Festival itself, and certainly to get nearly all reviews online at some point.

If a review is not published it may be because our reviewer never actually managed to see the show even though a review ticket was booked (possibly because of a problem with the ticket order at the venue, or for another logistical reason); or a review was lost (this happens very rarely, but because ThreeWeeks is a huge project run on tight resources it can happen); or because the Editors decided it wasn’t appropriate to publish it (normally because the review was negative, but circumstances beyond the performers’ control mean the Editors believe it would be unfair to publish).

If you believe we saw your show at a past Festival but you have never seen a review of it, do feel free to email editor@threeweeks.co.uk including the name of the show, company, venue and festival name and year. ThreeWeeks has no full time staff between September and April, but we do try to check that email regularly and will try our best to respond.

--------------------------------------------------

How can I access reviews from past festivals?

Unfortunately past ThreeWeeks reviews are not currently accessible online because our server was hacked and wiped over Christmas 2007, the only time of year daily check ups of the site are not undertaken. We do, however, have all the reviews backed up on our production server which we are working to get back online on the main website as soon as possible.

--------------------------------------------------

I subscribed to the ThreeWeeks eDaily, but never receive it, why?

The ThreeWeeks eDaily is published each week day during the Brighton Festival in May, and seven days a week during the Edinburgh Festival in August.

If you have subscribed but, during these times, are not receiving the eDaily, 99 times out of 100 it is because something on your company or internet service provider’s server is blocking it, either some kind of block on bulk emails (ie emails going to more than one person) or some kind of ‘profanity’ filter which is blocking the eDaily if a reviewer happens to swear (which they have been known to do). You should take this up with your ISP or company’s IT department.

If you are using a home email account, it could be a junk mail filter that is stopping the eDaily getting through. If so, you will probably find the eDaily in your junk mail / spam folder. Either way, you should add edaily@threeweeks.co.uk to your ‘safe list’. If you need help doing this, or if that doesn’t work, then you should contact your ISP.

If you are using a webmail service it is also likely to be a junk mail filter problem, and putting edaily@threeweeks.co.uk on your ‘safe list’ may also help. However, if you are using Hotmail or Windows Live even this may not work. Unfortunately this is because Hotmail is shit and there is nothing we can do about it. All we can recommend is that you move to a better webmail provider – we’d recommend Google Mail.

If you are still having problems, by all means email support@unlimitedmedia.co.uk and we will double check you are on our mailing list, and look if there are any problems we can see at our end.

--------------------------------------------------

How can I review for ThreeWeeks?

For details on how to apply to join the ThreeWeeks review team at the Edinburgh Festival click here. For details of how to apply to join the ThreeWeeks review team at the Brighton Festival click here.

--------------------------------------------------

Why do you never answer my emails or return my calls?

It’s normally performers and PR people who ask this question. ThreeWeeks is a small but very very busy operation – during August we’re a bigger operation, but 100 times busier! Unfortunately we simply don’t have the time to respond to every email or phone call that is chasing a review or following up a press release – if we did respond to every email and every phone call we’d not have the time to review as many shows. So – we’re sorry. But we do check every press release sent to the editor@threeweeks.co.uk email.

--------------------------------------------------

Who created ThreeWeeks?

ThreeWeeks was set up in 1996 by three then Edinburgh University students – Chris Cooke, Geraint Preston and Alex Thomson. Since 2001 it has been led by Chris Cooke and Caro Moses (who had reviewed and edited for the paper since 1996), and formally became part of Chris and Caro’s company, UnLimited Media, the same year. Over the years various Editorial Associates have donated their time for free to help the paper develop and operate, including Christabel Anderson, Alan Ogilvie, Sam Taylor, Chris Mounsey and Wystan Shaw.