ThreeWeeks is the flagship media at the Edinburgh Festival, the world’s biggest cultural festival. Every year ThreeWeeks aims to provide as comprehensive coverage as is humanly possible of all of Edinburgh’s summer 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 – including nearly all of the full-run Fringe shows – and hundreds more than our closest competitors.

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 up to 100 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 the Edinburgh Festival, which enables us to provide such expansive coverage.

You can read more about the media-skills programme here, and find out how to join our reviews team here.

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 August 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. We are the only festival media to publish seven days a week in print.

As well as our reviews, we publish interviews with and columns written by Fringe performers galore, plus on the iDaily podcast we feature performances by festival acts, and in our eDaily and website provide a unique Edinburgh Festival news service.

Between 2006 and 2010 ThreeWeeks also ran a similar programme and provided similar coverage at the Brighton Festival and Fringe in May.

ThreeWeeks exists to provide as comprehensive coverage of the Edinburgh Festival as possible. It is our belief that a key reason performers come to the Edinburgh Fringe is to gain media exposure and critical feedback, and in such a competitive marketplace we endeavour to ensure as many shows as possible get the coverage and critique they seek.

UnLimited Media does not make a profit from the ThreeWeeks project, and the UnLimited directors do not take a fee for their time. All the costs are covered by advertising sales, and any surplus ad revenues are used to expand coverage and distribution.

Our reviewers are recruited for their knowledge of and passion for the genres they review, and are only sent to shows from the genres they are qualified to cover. All reviewers attend a compulsory full-day training course which includes an introduction to the Edinburgh Festival, a guide to how reviewing at the Festival works, a briefing on the ethics of reviewing, a guide to the sub-editing process, and practical exercises on writing a review. All reviewers also get a detailed pack which includes advice on review writing, background information, a style sheet and reviewer rules.

These rules include the following:

1. Reviewers must only see shows in genres they have an existing passion for.

2. Reviewers must approach every show with an open mind and no preconceptions based on blurb, publicity or previous experience of a company or performer.

3. Reviewers must not allow the venue experience to affect their critique of a show – uncomfortable or chaotic venues are to be expected at the Fringe.

4. Reviewers are discouraged from dwelling on small technical errors, especially at early performances, as these will likely be ironed out once a show is properly up and running.

5. Reviewers must watch shows in their entirety, from beginning to end.

6. Reviewers are encouraged to read a show’s blurb before they see it, but only consult press releases etc for background information after the performance, so they see the show with only the information available to the public.

7. Reviewers are encouraged to take only minimal notes during the performance, so that they do not disturb performers or other audience members, and they fully experience the show as a member of the public would do.

8. Reviewers are encouraged to write up their reviews as soon as they have seen a show, while the performance is fresh in their minds. All reviews are submitted to the editorial team the morning after a show is seen.

9. Reviewers are not allowed to review shows they are involved in themselves, or where a genuine conflict of interest exists (eg a best friend is involved). All reviewers declare any conflicts of interest at the start of the festival.

10. Reviewers are told to write their own personal opinions about the shows they see, and to not be influenced in any way by other media coverage of the same show.

11. When giving a negative review, reviewers are encouraged to clearly state what they felt had made the show weak.

12. Reviewers are told to ensure their write up matches the tw rating they award the show.

Each reviewer is scheduled shows to see by the central ThreeWeeks admin team according to the reviewer’s genre specialisms and availability. The central team book all review tickets via a show’s venue press office. For a handful of shows tickets may be booked directly with a performer or their publicist. We do not book tickets through the Fringe Society press office.

We do everything we can to ensure our reviewers attend any show we have reserved a press ticket for, and to alert a venue if for any reason a reviewer cannot attend, though errors do occur, especially at the start of the Festival.

It can take between two and ten days for reviews to be processed and published. Every single review is checked by three people before publication, including a volunteer admin manager, a professional sub-editor and Co-Editor Caro Moses. Our sub-editors will give feedback to reviewers, and may request rewrites. This is a key part of our education programme, and ensures the quality level of our output, but can result in some delays in publication of a review. However we do endeavour to ensure reviews are published as fast as possible.

If you have a complaint about ThreeWeeks email complaints@unlimitedmedia.co.uk and it will be dealt with by an editor.