Welcome everybody, to the largest Festival on this God-damn planet, with more shows than you could even begin to imagine, some of which you can even buy tickets for. It's gonna be a chaotic one this year, but with so many good shows filling the many various programmes clogging up every corridor in town, out of the chaos will rise something both brilliant and beautiful, of that we are sure. With the Festival now upon us once more, we thought we'd email you with an update about all things ThreeWeeks for Festival 2008. We've managed to get it down to five points, because we know everyone is far too busy to be reading long missives about ThreeWeeks. If you're not too busy, well we've included a longer missive underneath also. So, let's get going with the five important things... ONE - COME SAY HELLO, FRIDAY AT 12.30PM: ThreeWeeks' Edinburgh HQ properly opens tomorrow at the Roman Eagle Lodge, the new home of the World Festival Network. To celebrate we are having 'open house' for the first two hours we are in business (12.30pm-2.30pm) during which time you are welcome to call by, meet the Editors and Reviewers, and plug your show. Do come say hello. TWO - PREVIEW EDITION IS OUT NOW: And is looking rather fine though we say so ourselves. This is the ThreeWeeks' Editors' guide to what we think deserves your special attention at the Festival this year. You can pick up a copy from all over Edinburgh right now. Or download it as a PDF from here. Or check out articles from it on the website from tomorrow. Hurrah. THREE - WE GO DAILY FROM TOMORROW: Yes, the first eDaily will be in your in-box tomorrow, packed with our coverage of the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival. And the first edition of the ThreeWeeks printed daily edition will follow tomorrow night, with the very first Fringe reviews of the Festival. Pick it up from Pleasance Courtyard, Pleasance Dome, Underbelly, Gilded Balloon Teviot, C Venue or Sweet Teviot from midnight tomorrow. FOUR - ADVERTISE WITH US: With the first print daily editions coming out this weekend, and another fab full-colour weekly edition out next Tuesday, we have a plethora of brilliant advertising opportunities which help promote your shows to hundreds of thousands of ticket buyers just as they are deciding which shows to see. Ad packages start from just £45 - bargain. Click here for information, or email ads@unlimitedmedia.co.uk to ask questions or book an advert. FIVE - WE HAVE ALREADY REVIEWED 170 SHOWS: Hard to believe I know, but we've already seen 170 shows at this year's Festival, 150 of them in the Fringe. The first Fringe reviews will appear in tomorrow night's daily edition, and then in Saturday's edition of the eDaily. And with 60+ reviewers out there as we speak, expect hundreds more reviews in the coming days. While we are on reviews, here are the answers to three frequently asked questions. How do you pick what shows to review? As you know, we try to see as many shows as we possibly can at the Festival each year, and will, at some point, get to over 95% of shows that run for more than five days. When we see a show is totally down to logistics - when we have the right genre reviewer available in the right time slot. Rest assured, we will try our best to get to you as soon as we can. How do we know when you're coming? Your venue's press office or box office should be able to let you know (for smaller venues, the Fringe Society press office should also know). We only book tickets 48 hours in advance though, so they will only know the day before we come. And that is it for now. Have a brilliant Festival 2008, keep it ThreeWeeks for all the latest news, reviews and interviews, daily and weekly, in print and online. And if you see us randomly walking along the street, do come say hello. Until edition one of the eDaily, coming your way in less than 24 hours, have a good one... Chris+Caro |
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So what, you ask, is this ThreeWeeks thing all about?
Good question, people. Co-founder and co-editor Chris Cooke explains.
ThreeWeeks is one of the flagship media at this Edinburgh Festival, and perhaps more importantly we are the biggest reviewer here. So, the biggest reviewer at the biggest festival. Simple. We exist for three simple reasons.
1. to provide the most comprehensive coverage of the whole Edinburgh Festival.
2. To specifically feature new, grass roots and alternative shows and performers not covered by the mainstream media.
3. To provide unique training opportunities for students and aspiring journalists.
This is how it works. Sitting behind ThreeWeeks is a widely acclaimed education programme for young people. Each year we recruit and train 100 students from across the UK, who receive formal journalistic training and practical work experience while enjoying the Edinburgh Festival in a totally unique way.
These students together form the ThreeWeeks review team, the biggest review team at the Festival. We arrange for them to review and write about shows from every strand, genre and programme. Because this team is by far the biggest at the Festival, ThreeWeeks is able to offer much more comprehensive coverage than any other media; reviewing hundreds more shows than anyone else.
ThreeWeeks ensures hundreds of shows that would be otherwise uncovered are reviewed and, in doing so, provides the Festival-goer with the only complete guide to what is on offer. This is backed up by previews and commentary from the ThreeWeeks editors, some of the most experienced Edinburgh Festival journalists.
That coverage is made available to over a million people, both locally in Edinburgh and across the world, via ThreeWeeks' print, online, mobile and webcast media. ThreeWeeks' core publications are a weekly newspaper and daily reviews sheet, both distributed all over Edinburgh during August. They are supported by a daily email bulletin, podcasts and worldwide-read website.
ThreeWeeks is a not-for-profit project run by UnLimited Media; a Shoreditch based media and marketing company. Its publishers believe that for the Edinburgh Festival to truly achieve its cultural objectives it needs a prolific, comprehensive and eclectic media that can truly cover the plethora of talent being showcased, developed and premiered during those three weeks in August. The sheer size of the Festival means traditional commercial players simply cannot afford to provide that kind of media. ThreeWeeks employs a totally unique model and not-for-profit ethos in order to fill that gap.
2008 will be ThreeWeeks' 13th consecutive year at the Edinburgh Festival. And our biggest yet. So, the biggest reviewer at the biggest festival just got bigger. Which is just as well, because so did the Festival.
But how do you access it all? Well, ThreeWeeks' coverage is available through a number of routes:
THE PREVIEW EDITION
Which is this very newspaper; the ThreeWeeks Editor's guide to the Festival.
THE WEEKLY EDITION
Our free review and interview packed newspaper, available in print across Edinburgh on 5, 12 and 19 Aug.
THE DAILY EDITION
A daily helping of reviews, available in print at midnight from 1-22 Aug.
THE eDAILY
The most reviews of all, plus news and gossip, available for free by email daily from 1-25 Aug. Just send an email to edinburghsubscribe@threeweeks.co.uk to sign up.
WEBSITE & PODCASTS
Updated daily from late July at www.threeweeks.co.uk
And don't forget right at the end of the Festival we present our ThreeWeeks Editors' Awards, which take place this year on Sunday 24 Aug at The Lodge.
ThreeWeeks' claims to fame
• The biggest review team at the Edinburgh Festival.
• The longest running festival publication; covering the Festival since 1996.
• The only media to review anywhere near 1,500 shows each August.
• The only media to publish seven days a week throughout August.
• The only media that exists exclusively to discover, champion, support and enable cultural innovation at the Edinburgh Festival.
more information
For details on advertising with ThreeWeeks check www.threeweeks.co.uk/advertise or email ads@unlimitedmedia.co.uk.
To sponsor or support our media, or educational work, contact Chris Cooke at chris@unlimitedmedia.co.uk
For editorial enquiries send emails to editor@threeweeks.co.uk
Your feedback is always welcomed - email editor@threeweeks.co.uk to get in touch.
Send press and show information to editor@threeweeks.co.uk.