Edinburgh · Stage
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
The largest arts festival on earth, with no selection committee and no quality control
Eight companies turned up uninvited to the first Edinburgh International Festival in 1947 and performed anyway, which established the principle: anyone who can find a room and an audience is in. There is still no curation, which is why August offers more than three thousand shows ranging from career-making to unwatchable.
Comedy dominates by volume, theatre by reputation, and the free fringe operates on a pay-what-you-want basis that produces some of the best value in the programme.
Edinburgh
While you are in Edinburgh
MuseumFreeEdinburgh · New Town
Scottish National Gallery
A neoclassical temple on the mound between the old and new towns, free since 1859
TheatreEdinburgh · Leith Walk
Edinburgh Playhouse
The largest working theatre in Britain by seat count, and the fringe's biggest room
LandmarkFree galleriesEdinburgh · Southside
Summerhall
A former veterinary school with thirty rooms, running the sharpest end of the fringe
Stage
More stage festivals
JulAvignon · Stage
Festival d'Avignon
Theatre in a papal palace courtyard, plus a thousand fringe shows in every other room in town
Jul / AugSalzburg · Stage
Salzburger Festspiele
Six weeks of opera, concerts and drama in a small Baroque town that doubles its population
AugEdinburgh · Stage
Edinburgh International Festival
The curated half of August: orchestras, opera and theatre invited rather than self-selected