Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society

For three weeks in August, Edinburgh welcomes an explosion of creative energy from around the globe. Artists and performers take to hundreds of stages all over the city, presenting shows for every taste. Find out how to make the most of the Fringe. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featured more than 51,446 scheduled performances of 3,746 different shows across 262 venues from 60 different countries. Of those shows, the largest section was comedy, representing almost 40% of shows, followed by theatre, which was 26.6% of shows. Established in 1947 as an unofficial offshoot to (and on the "fringe" of) the Edinburgh International Festival, it takes place in Edinburgh every August.[3] The combination of Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Edinburgh International Festival has become a world-leading celebration of arts and culture, surpassed only by the Olympics and the World Cup in terms of global ticketed events. It is an open-access (or "unjuried") performing arts festival, meaning that there is no selection committee, and anyone may participate, with any type of performance. The official Fringe Programme categorises shows into sections for theatre, comedy, dance, physical theatre, circus, cabaret, children's shows, musicals, opera, music, spoken word, exhibitions, and events. Comedy is the largest section, making up over one-third of the programme, and the one that in modern times has the highest public profile, due in part to the Edinburgh Comedy Awards. The Festival is supported by the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, which publishes the programme, sells tickets to all events from a central physical box office and website, and offers year-round advice and support to performers. The Society's permanent location is at the Fringe Shop on the Royal Mile, and in August they also manage Fringe Central, a separate collection of spaces dedicated to providing support for Fringe participants during their time at the festival. The Fringe board of directors is drawn from members of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, many of whom are Fringe participants themselves – performers or venue operators. Elections are held once a year, in August, and board members serve a term of four years. The Board appoints the Fringe Society's Chief Executive (formerly known as the Fringe Administrator or Director). The Chief Executive operates under the chair. Phoebe Waller-Bridge, whose show Fleabag was performed at the Fringe in 2013 before it was adapted for television, was named the first-ever President of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society in 2021. The planned 2020 Fringe Festival was suspended along with all of the city's other major summer festivals. This came as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak in the early months of the year, with concerns of spreading the virus any further. The 2021 festival took place during 6–30 August 2021, though it was much reduced in size, with 528 shows in person and 414 online. The 2022 festival took place from 5–29 August 2022 and marked a return to pre-pandemic levels, with 3,334 shows. Fifty were livestreamed, by NextUp Comedy, for the first time ever since the founding of The Fringe, in an effort to stay true to The Fringe Society's 2022 vision of equality and inclusiveness. The 2025 festival is scheduled from August 1 to 25.

First time in Scotland and bumped into the fringe festival happening. Very lively , dancing , singing , stunts , plays etc So much happening. Was an amazing experience !

Lots of great artists and art. London symphony orchestra playing Shostakovich was magical.

Love coming for the fringe every year with our kids. Amazing!

I’m really enjoying the Fringe this year. There is so much going on… music, theatre,comedy, circus and a lot of cultural shows from around the world.

It is a fine shop with tickets, posters (however, be warned that your favourite poster might be sold out), merchandise and friendly, patient staff. The staff was helpful, for instance explained to me where to find the actual ticket office (not directly in the shop) despite having the shop packed with customers. The ticket shop itself also was a pleasant experience (except whenever they had to tell me that a show was sold out). Whenever I got at the end of a long queue, I still was next in line within minutes since there were a good number of ticket ladies working. So I had made good experiences with the Fringe society while I was visiting the Fringe for the first time ever in 2017.

This was an amazing festival of art and talent throughout the entire city. Street performers were on every street, corner and in every park and even in front of buildings on busy thoroughfares. Definitely for the lover of avant- guard.

We walked into a venue and the woman at the cashier told us we'd absolutely love the show. We paid £32. The show was completely unwatchable. The Scottish accent was exaggerated to an unbelievable degree so that my wife and I couldn't understand one word in ten. We left after five minutes hoping for a refund but the cashier told us "so sorry, tough luck." Festival shows should cater to the international visitors by warning if a show is likely to not be understood by average attendees, and should have a reimbursement policy for people that realize a few minutes into a show that they've been misled.