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 growing 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 1800 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 media-skills education programme. Each year we recruit and train over 150 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-skills 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, podcasts and constantly updating website.

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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 and simply awe-inspiring 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 event, and includes the fully programmed main festival, plus an ever expanding ever eclectic Fringe, the UK's most exciting visual arts festival, and the British music business' flagship 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.

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Where can I get ThreeWeeks?

ThreeWeeks in Edinburgh
The weekly edition of ThreeWeeks in Edinburgh is published each Tuesday in August, in what are referred to by the Fringe community as Weeks 0, 1, 2, and 3 of the Festival.

It is free and is distributed in over 75 sites across Edinburgh, amongst them all the key Festival venues like the Acoustic Music Centre, Assembly, Augustines, Bedlam, the Bongo Club, the C venues, Diverse Attractions, Fringe Central, Gilded Balloon, Just The Tonic @ The Caves, The Hub, Lyceum Theatre, New Town Theatre, Pleasance Courtyard, Pleasance Dome, Quaker Meeting House, The Space venues, The Stand, the Sweet venues, Traverse, the Underbelly venues, Venue 13 and the Zoo venues.

The daily edition of ThreeWeeks is published each evening throughout the Festival, and is available at C, C Plaza, Zoo Roxy, Underbelly, Pleasance Dome, The Pleasance, Bedlam, Spotlites, New Town Theatre, Assembly, Gilded Balloon Teviot and Fringe Central.

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 edinburghsubscribe@threeweeks.co.uk or by filling out the short form here.

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 and throughout May.

Reviews then appear in a special column inside The Argus each day.

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 brightonsubscribe@threeweeks.co.uk or by filling out the short form here.

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Who makes ThreeWeeks?

ThreeWeeks is owned, published and loved by UnLimited Media, a Shoreditch-based content, communication and consulting company. It is edited by Chris Cooke and Caro Moses, who also own and 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.

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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, so every penny sold in advertising is spent on expanding the project, the number of students we can involve, the number of shows we can review, and the speed with which we can process reviews. Therefore advertising in ThreeWeeks not only means you reach the most ticket-buyers and cultural consumers at these two large festivals, but also that you help develop the educational and cultural aims of the project. ThreeWeeks is backed year round by UnLimited Media.

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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.

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Can you explain your listings information?

We provide basic listing information for any show we review, preview or feature. For fuller listings you should check the relevant festival's programme. In fact we would always advise you double check a show's listings in an official programme if you are planning to see it. To help with this process we provide page number references for most shows (fpp = Fringe programme page, bfpp = Brighton Festival programme page, eifpp = Edinburgh International festival programme page).

Ticket price information is usually the most complicated aspect of listings. While some shows may have different priced seats, at most Fringe shows all tickets for all seats are the same price. However, especially at the Edinburgh Fringe, it is common for prices to vary depending on the day of the week. To simplify matters we only provide ball-park ticket price information.

The first price listed is the cheapest concession price on the cheapest day, the second price is the most expensive full price ticket on the most expensive day (preview performances at the start of the festival may be even cheaper). These parameters should give you an idea of approximately how much you are likely to have to pay for a ticket.

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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.

Details of how to get your Brighton Festival shows covered in ThreeWeeks are given here.

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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 5-7 days at the Edinburgh Festival. Though this is just a guide, sometimes it will be quicker, sometimes longer. If after 10 days your review hasn't been published then it is worth emailing twqueries@unlimitedmedia.co.uk and one of the editorial team will check it hasn't got lost in the system. We run regular 'review audits', so any reviews that are lost in the system will be found and published even if you do not email. Unfortunately a small number of reviews, especially of shows seen late in the Festival, will not be published until after the Festival has finished.

While our review team is made up of volunteers taking part in the ThreeWeeks media-skills programme, every single review is read and edited by a full-time professional Editor before being published. This process is important to ensure the quality and integrity of our reviews. However, especially at the Edinburgh Festival, this can take time. To speed this process up we need to sell more advertising so we can hire more Editors! Another great reason to advertise.

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, or on the website, where all reviews will be posted eventually.

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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 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 twqueries@unlimitedmedia.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 check that email account at least once a month all year round.

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How can I access reviews from past festivals?

Unfortunately only reviews from the most recent Brighton and Edinburgh festivals are available here online. We do, however, have an offline database of reviews from 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2009. If you are looking for a review from any of these festivals email the show name, company name and venue name to twqueries@unlimitedmedia.co.uk and we will dig it out for you. Please allow a month for delivery of your review.

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I subscribed to a ThreeWeeks e-bulletin, but never receive it, why?

The ThreeWeeks Edinburgh eDaily publishes seven days a week during the Edinburgh Festival in August. The ThreeWeeks Brighton eDaily publishes each weekday during the Brighton Festival in May. The ThreeWeeks Festivals Update email is published regularly throughout the year.

99 times out of 100 if you are not receiving a ThreeWeeks e-bulletin when you should be, it is because something on your company or ISP's server is blocking it. This may be because there is some kind of block on emails coming from bulk mailing servers (we use the Constant Contact server) or some kind of 'profanity' filter which is blocking our bulletins because one of our reviewers said "fuck" (which they're prone to do). You should take this up with your company's IT department or your ISP.

It could also be a junk mail filter on your local PC that is stopping our bulletins getting through. If so, you will probably find them all in your junk mail / spam folder. Either way, you should add 'ebulletins@unlimitedmedia.co.uk' to your 'safe list'. If you need help doing this, or if that doesn't work, then you should contact your company's IT department, or your internet service provider.

If you are using a webmail service it is also likely to be a junk mail filter problem, and putting ebulletins@unlimitedmedia.co.uk on your 'safe list' may also help. Some webmail services block all emails coming from bulk mailing servers before they even reach your inbox or spam folder. Constant Contact generally have a good reputation for not allowing their server to be used for spam sending, and as a result emails sent via their servers, like the ThreeWeeks bulletins, don't normally get blocked. That's why we use them. But if you never get our bulletins, it might be worth contacting your webmail service provider and asking them if there is any filter blocking emails from ThreeWeeks, unlimitedmedia.co.uk or Constant Contact.

If after all this, 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.

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How can I review for ThreeWeeks?

Details of how to join the ThreeWeeks review team are posted here online.

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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 email sent to the twqueries@unlimitedmedia.co.uk email.

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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 following 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, Wystan Shaw and Tom Bragg.

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