Plans for a new Scottish event to replace the Edinburgh TV Festival have been launched. The industry festival – which ends on Friday – will move to Manchester next year after 50 years in the capital. But Screen Scotland, the Scottish government and the other Edinburgh Festivals say it is too important to lose.
Speaking at a launch event in Edinburgh, Culture Secretary Màiri McAllan, revealed details of a new initiative which would build on the city's unique position as a global shop window for talent, content and creative ideas. "We are so proud of Scotland's screen sector," she said. "And this exciting addition to the August festivals line-up will provide a new way to embrace the creativity and cultural innovation which makes our capital unique." Initial research has already been undertaken with further consultation continuing under former TV festival creative director Rowan Woods.
It is hoped that a pilot version of the new festival will run in August 2027, and that it will be expanded to include those who consume content as well as those who make it. McAllan said when she was first appointed culture secretary after the election in May, one of the first meetings she had was about the Edinburgh TV Festival. "There was a collective disappointment about its departure but almost as soon as I was briefed on its departure, I was told 'don't worry minister, we're already on it.
We will work together and move on'." She said she was delighted to announce details of a new TV and screen festival for Edinburgh to sit alongside all the other festivals in August. Richard Gadd, whose hit Netflix show Baby Reindeer was first discovered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe told the event his first experience of the Fringe was with his school when they saw a production of Black Watch which was first staged there in 2006. Four years later, he made his own debut with his solo show 6 And Half A 7 which was staged in a bar.
Sometimes the audience was just one person, and he would just buy them a drink. Later shows were more successful, including Monkey See, Monkey Do in 2016 which won him the Edinburgh Comedy award, and Baby Reindeer in 2019 which led to interest from TV executives from Netflix, BBC, C4 and HBO. "Everything I have in my life, I owe to this festival, not just the chance to meet agents and producer writers but going full time as a writer," he said.
"A chance to experiment and take risks - to fail spectacularly and come back the next night to start again. "If the fringe becomes too expensive, too commercial, we could lose the very thing which makes it extraordinary. We could lose the place where someone can arrive with an idea and leave with a career.
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