Edinburgh Festival dates
Scottish International Storytelling Festival (17–29 October 2023)
The Scottish International Storytelling Festival is an autumnal celebration of storytelling - both traditional and contemporary - in the Edinburgh-based Scottish Storytelling Centre. Though it takes place in October, this Festival is not unlike its…
More information about the Scottish International Storytelling FestivalEdinburgh International Science Festival
Do you ever want to learn, but don't want to go through the rigmarole of reading things and writing notes and paying proper attention to very dull people in hot, busy classrooms? Don't worry, Edinburgh has the solution for you. And there's no…
More information about the Edinburgh International Science FestivalEdinburgh Tradfest
Tradfest Dùn Èideann (Edinburgh) is a celebration of traditional Scottish arts and culture. Edinburgh's Tradfest kickstarts the summer season with a feast of folk arts – music, storytelling, dance, folk film, literature, talks, crafts and visual arts…
More information about the Edinburgh TradfestEdinburgh Beltane Fire Festival
What’s that coming over Calton Hill? Yes, it’s the annual Beltane Fire Festival, complete with fire, frolics and lashings of body paint (and a lot of cold, cold bodies underneath it). Celebrating the beginning of the summer season, this unique festival…
More information about the Edinburgh Beltane Fire FestivalEdinburgh International Children's Festival
Earlier than the others which huddle under the Edinburgh Festivals umbrella in August, this Festival takes place in May and June, both in the Capital and on tour throughout Scotland (sometimes reaching as as far as Shetland). Like its more prominent…
More information about the Edinburgh International Children's FestivalEdinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival
The biggest of its kind in Britain, the Jazz & Blues Festival gets the festival season off to a swinging start in July, making sure everyone's in the mood before its larger festival cousins hit town. And expect that Glenn Miller classic along the…
More information about the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues FestivalEdinburgh Food Festival
The Edinburgh Food Festival fits neatly in the time between the end of the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival and the start of the majority of Edinburgh’s summer festival. Based in George Square Gardens it focuses on debates about food issues…
More information about the Edinburgh Food FestivalFree Festival
Inspired by PBH's Free Fringe, the Free Edinburgh Fringe Festival was founded in 2004 by Laughing Horse Comedy promoters Alex Petty and Kevin McCarron with the intention of curbing the spiralling costs of putting on Fringe shows.
More information about the Free FestivalEdinburgh Festival Fringe
Sprawling, diverse and just a little bit crazy, The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is The Edinburgh Festival for the hordes of punters and performers that descend on the city every year. From its humble beginnings in 1947, when a handful of companies that…
More information about the Edinburgh Festival FringeEdinburgh International Festival
Founded in 1947, the Festival rose out of the ashes of the Second World War to provide 'a platform for the flowering of the human spirit'. Its most visible flowering, in August at least, is now 'the Fringe', formed the same year by actors denied space…
More information about the Edinburgh International FestivalEdinburgh Military Tattoo
The Edinburgh Military Tattoo displays the musical talent of the British Armed Forces, Commonwealth and International military bands and display teams on the ramparts of Edinburgh Castle. It takes place every evening throughout August, come rain or…
More information about the Edinburgh Military Tattoo | View listingsFree Fringe
Founded in 1996 by Peter Buckley Hill (PBH) the Free Fringe has become an annual fixture of the Edinburgh festival calendar. The ethos of the Free Fringe is that performers are not charged for their performance spaces and in return will not charge…
More information about the Free FringeFringe by the Sea
Small but perfectly formed and set in beautiful North Berwick, Fringe by the Sea is a miniature of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. A plethora of comedy, cabaret, talks and children's events at various other venues ensures there is something for the whole…
More information about the Fringe by the SeaEdinburgh Art Festival
Edinburgh Art Festival (EAF) is Scotland’s largest annual celebration of visual art. Uniquely, the festival offers the chance to experience the best contemporary Scottish artists in the context of exhibitions of the most important International artists…
More information about the Edinburgh Art FestivalEdinburgh International Book Festival
Amid the frenetic activity of the other festivals, this one is an oasis of calm. Talking place beneath canvas in the genteel surrounds of Charlotte Square, the Book Festival is a celebration not only of the written word, but also of the big ideas that…
More information about the Edinburgh International Book FestivalEdinburgh International Film Festival
Film critic Mark Kermode describes it as "like Cannes - only civilised". And who are we to argue? For previous visitors lucky enough to have sampled its unique atmosphere, this is what we now expect each year from the EIFF, now firmly settled into its…
More information about the Edinburgh International Film Festival