Screen Scotland is backing a potential new Edinburgh-based TV event to sit alongside the city’s other summer arts programmes when the TV Festival moves to Manchester next year.
The agency will fund the event which will be delivered by The Fringe Society, a collective that supports artists at the Edinburgh Fringe, operates the box office that sells tickets to events in the city and markets the festival to the public, media and arts industry.
The new event aims to continue cross-fertilisation between the Fringe, the TV Festival and other cultural events in the city such as its film festival.
It will include a new keynote, the Lynda Myles Debate, named after the co-creator of the Edinburgh TV Festival, who has championed the city as a place for debate about the future of the screen industries.
The initiative will be led by former Edinburgh TV Festival creative director Rowan Woods, who will undertake a pan-industry consultation to decide the shape and purpose of the event, including audience, dates, venues, programme and paricipants, with a pilot planned for August 2027.
“Every August, Edinburgh becomes a remarkable meeting place for talent from around the world, alongside audiences, producers, commissioners, artists and creative thinkers,” said Screen Scotland director David Smith.
“We have an opportunity to build on that extraordinary concentration of talent and energy and create something new, ambitious and genuinely distinctive for the global industry.”
Màiri McAllan, Scotland’s cabinet secretary for education, culture and Gaelic, who unveiled the plans an event in Edinburgh, said: “As a global hotbed of emerging talent, where new voices are heard and fresh stories are told, Edinburgh will continue its world-leading offer for the television industry with the support of the Scottish Government – and will do so alongside our other Edinburgh festivals, showcasing brilliance across artforms.”
