Edinburgh Fringe Festival

About Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Edinburgh’s streets, theatres and temporary rooms take the strain for Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2027, an arts festival in Edinburgh running 06–30 August 2027.

The Fringe dates back to 1947, when eight theatre groups turned up uninvited at the Edinburgh International Festival. The Fringe Society followed in 1958 to formalise the festival, publish the programme and run a central box office.

Scale matters here. In 2025, the festival reported 2.6 million tickets issued and about 750,000 estimated unique audience members.

Lineup and Programme

The programme runs on open-access terms: anyone with a story to tell and a venue willing to host them can take part.

Shows run from morning to late night and cover the Fringe categories: theatre; comedy; dance; physical theatre; circus; cabaret; children's shows; musicals; opera; music; spoken word; exhibitions; events.

At The Hub, named spaces include Main Hall, Sculpture Gallery, Dunard Bar and Main Hall Balcony.

Who Is It For?

The audience is broad, with a strong Edinburgh and Scotland base alongside UK and international attendance. In 2025 audience data, 27% came from Edinburgh, 32% from the rest of Scotland, 25% from the rest of the UK and 16% from outside the UK.

Family suitability depends on the show and the venue. At The Hub, children under 16 must be supervised by a responsible adult, and individual Fringe shows may apply stricter rules, including 18+ entry.

The Venue and Site

The Fringe spreads across hundreds of stages all over Edinburgh, using spaces from theatres and concert halls to bars, parks, buses and shipping containers.

Hub Tickets sits on Castlehill and carries the supplied venue detail for this guide. Facilities there include a complimentary cloakroom, accessible toilets across all levels, level-access box office with a low counter and induction loop, passenger lift and platform lift access, venue wheelchairs, mobility-support shuttle service and a relaxed approach allowing audience members to leave and re-enter during events.

The Hub address is Castlehill, Edinburgh, EH1 2NE.

Hub Tickets is on Castlehill in Edinburgh, with the nearest listed rail station at Edinburgh Waverley.

• Nearest station: Edinburgh Waverley, 0.4 miles away uphill.
• Road access: George IV Bridge and Victoria Street are listed for The Hub.
• Mobility shuttle route: Johnston Terrace, Lawnmarket and Castle Terrace / NCP Edinburgh Castle Terrace are listed in the access information.
• Parking: Nearby NCP Edinburgh Castle Terrace has five accessible bays.
• August road closures: Lawnmarket and Johnston Terrace are closed to vehicles from 5pm on most August evenings.

Edinburgh is 51 miles from Glasgow, 43 miles from Stirling and about 90 minutes by road from Dundee.