THE Edinburgh TV Festival will be relocated to Greater Manchester in a bid to “radically reduce the costs” and make it easier for people to attend, organisers have announced.
The decision to move the festival from the Scottish capital, which will be held in the city for the last time this August, was part of a UK-wide “strategic review” into the event’s long-term future, its board of directors said.
Organisers said Greater Manchester was chosen to host the festival, which has been based in the Scottish capital since 1976, due to its combination of “creative ambition and future-facing energy with practical accessibility and affordability for delegates”.
The Edinburgh TV Festival made the shock announcement that it was taking applications from “cities and regions” across the UK to play host to the event in November.
Around 2000 delegates normally attend the event, the biggest screen industry gathering in the UK, which is organised by The TV Foundation charity.
Campbell Glennie, CEO of the TV Festival and The TV Foundation, said moving the event to Greater Manchester would make it cheaper to run the festival and would attract more people.
He said: “Greater Manchester presented a vision for the Festival that combined genuine creative ambition and future-facing energy with practical accessibility and affordability for delegates.
“This means we can radically reduce the costs associated with attending the Festival as well as the cost of passes.
“The city reflects the expanding ambition of the UK television industry, while still offering the scale, connectivity and unique cultural identity needed for an event of this significance; it gives us the strongest platform to grow the Festival’s reach and impact in the years ahead.”
When the decision to move the festival from Edinburgh was announced last year, a number of top comedy figures criticised the decision, adding that a number of acts and shows would not have been picked up if it weren’t for the festival running alongside the Fringe.
Fleabag, Baby Reindeer, Saturday Night Live UK and Taskmaster were just a few of the shows that top comics argued would not have been picked up if it weren’t for the festival being held in Edinburgh in August.
The Edinburgh TV Festival has brought the likes of David Attenborough, Michael Sheen, Graham Norton, Jeremy Paxman, Jerry Springer, Armando Iannucci, Louis Theroux, Michaela Coel, Emily Maitlis and Charlie Brooker to the city.
Others have raised concerns about the impact the relocation will have on the local Scottish industry, with the Edinburgh International Film Festival running at the same time.
The Festival team paid tribute to Edinburgh, which has hosted the event for five decades and where it established itself as one of the most influential gatherings in television, describing the city and cultural heritage as “embedded within the TV Festival’s heart and soul.”
The Festival also stressed that its commitment to Scotland, its delegates and its production community, remains “active and important”, adding they want to maintain relationships and activity through partnerships, events and editorial collaborations.
Fatima Salaria, chair of the Festival board, said: “We launched this review because the questions facing the Festival around affordability, accessibility, sustainability and the changing shape of the industry needed careful and honest consideration.
“This was never a decision about wanting to leave Edinburgh, or about diminishing the extraordinary role Scotland has played in shaping the identity of this Festival for 50 years. Edinburgh gives the Festival a powerful origin story, and we respect that deeply.
“But this decision had to balance legacy with future opportunity. The Festival now needs the right conditions, support and momentum for its next chapter; where it could have the strongest chance to grow and serve the widest part of the industry. For the Board, that place was Greater Manchester.”
