Visiting the Edinburgh Fringe (events information)

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"Festival time" in Edinburgh comprises most of the month of August. There are actually festivals in Edinburgh throughout the year, but in August several festivals overlap - the biggest of which is of course the Edinburgh Fringe.

You don't buy tickets for the festival itself, as it's really just a collection of events held at different fringe venues around town. You can buy tickets for the individual events at the venues or at the Fringe Box Office on the Royal Mile (or the Fringe website, and go and pick them up at the box office). You will need to book in advance for the most popular shows, but if you don't have anything specific in mind you can turn up and see what's available (see below).

The meat of the Fringe is comedy, but you can also find dance, drama, musical theatre, acrobatics, improv, children's shows and more. That's not even including the International Festival, Art Festival and International Book Festival (and probably more) that are also on in August.

Ways to find out what's on:

  • Go to one of the venues (that will tell you what's on at that particular venue - handy if you're already there seeing something else and want something nearby)
  • Pick up a Fringe guide - you can find them in a lot of Fringe venues, sometimes in restaurants and cafés on the Royal Mile or other tourist-centric places, or places like libraries (for us locals). If you want to plan your events ahead of time, I believe you can get a copy posted to you from the website, but you have to pay P&P.
  • Walk down the Royal Mile and wait to be accosted by people giving you leaflets for their shows

There are plenty of free events - both street performances on the Royal Mile (circus tricks, magic, etc.) and "free Fringe" events at selected venues. There is usually an expectation, however, that you will pay if you liked the show (a bucket goes round) in order to reward the performers. But no one forces you to - much like no one forces you to pay a service charge in a restaurant - and if you do choose to pay, you can pay what you want.

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There are more than 3000 events in a wide variety of categories happening this year. You can find details and book tickets at the official website.

Tickets are per-event, but you can expect an amount of free entertainment on the streets of Edinburgh, in particular along the Royal Mile.

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