The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the largest arts festival in the world. With nearly 4000 shows a day and countless activities, events, and pop-ups, it can feel like an insurmountable beast. Luckily for you, I’ve survived (and often thrived in) 4 separate Ed Fests. And I’m here to help you, whether you’re a theatre-goer, a performer, or a visitor who planned a trip to Edinburgh during late summer and is wondering why August prices were so damn high.

What is the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

The Fringe is nearly impossible to describe. Because different performers bring different acts every year, each festival has its own flare, but at its core, it’s a celebration of creativity, boundary-pushing, and artistic expression. There’s truly nothing like it.

If you’re drawn to the EdFest and considering attending, it’s worth it. One of the best parts about a festival of this size and duration is its customizability. You can make your time whatever you’d like.

The festival itself takes place in every nook and cranny of the city of Edinburgh, essentially doubling its population for the entire month of August. Every pub, street corner, lecture hall, and, of course, theatre venue hosts multiple shows throughout the day. As a performer of a guest, it can feel overwhelming to navigate the different venues and options. So let’s get into it…

Free Fringe

Free Fringe is the most universally accessible entry point to The Fringe. Free Fringe encompasses every free show available to the public. Most free shows take place in small venues – bars, pubs, or tiny black box theaters that are definitely not up to code.

If you’re looking to attend Free Fringe shows and are unsure where to begin, the Free Festival site has tons of information. I also highly recommend the traditional route – walk along the Royal Mile and talk to anyone who seems interesting. Many of the people you’ll see flyering up there are the performers, promoting their own shows. Strike up a conversation with a few, and see who’s offering something intriguing. As a once-upon-a-time flyerer myself, I can promise, it’s thrilling when someone is actually interested in your show, and we welcome any chance to discuss it.

The Big 4

In the realm of paid shows, there are 4 major venues. They each have, more or less, a brand identity and try to find shows that are consistent with their programming. Frequent Fringe goers will rely on name recognition to pre-vet shows. They’ll often be loyal to one or a few of the Big 4.

Assembly

Assembly, at the time of this posting, has the most locations throughout the city. They are known for their high-quality dramatic pieces, as well as their late night comedy specials. Their golden ticket shows tend to be found at Assembly Hall, the 900+ seat venue. The affectionately called “Ass Hall” is home to the Fringe’s biggest names and will often host one-off performances from big-name comics throughout the festival.

Generally, you can expect shows with start times from 10am to roughly 4pm to be some variety of drama, while shows post-5pm tend to be comedy, music, burlesque, or some combination of the three.

Assembly also has a public beer garden, a spiegeltent and a private club for those affiliated with Assembly shows. Assembly also boasts one of the Fringe’s must-attend tickets: The Best of the Fest, a curated show, featuring a roundup of the best acts from across The Fringe. They offer a mid-day varied option and a late-night comedy lineup.

Pleasance

Pleasance and Assembly have similar brand identities, though Pleasance tends to skew slightly younger, in terms of audience appeal and slightly more comedy-centric.

One of Pleasance’s tentpole productions is Showstopper! The Improvised Musical. It’s Olivier Award-winning and truly fantastic. The Pleasance Courtyard has a similar setup to Assembly, with a mingling area in the center and a private club for Pleasance-affiliated artists and workers.

Pleasance boasts plenty of small venues and generally fills them to the brim for humor-skewed or comedy shows throughout the day. Don’s miss the nighttime comedy, where you’ll get a chance to see some of the biggest up and coming names in comedy. Seriously: Pleasance has been the Edinburgh Festival home base for the likes of James Acaster, Richard Ayoade, Bo Burnham, The Mighty Boosh, the list goes on…

Underbelly

Underbelly is truly unmissable. Literally. The center stage is located inside a giant upside down purple cow. It’s massive and odd and a perfect encapsulation of all things Fringe.

This venue holds the corner of the market on Edinburgh’s high-quality avant-garde acts. When I think Underbelly, I think music, burlesque, improvisation, outlandish premises, and a giant purple cow. They have several other venues throughout the city, but a trip to the Fringe would be incomplete without a trip to the cow.

Underbelly hosts some of my favorite Fringe events ever. Sh!t-faced Shakespeare is an unmissable staple of their catalogue. One member of the cast of exceptional, classically-trained actors gets positively wasted and attempts to bumble though a Shakespearean production. You’ll also tend to find the festival’s can’t-miss musical event at Underbelly.

Gilded Balloon

Gilded Balloon has carved out the corner of the market on comedy in Scotland. They host comedy events and showcases throughout the year, drawing some of the biggest names during the non-festival season.

But they have more than just comedy! They tend to have fantastic children’s shows, dance and physical theatre, and an assortment of new writing.

It’s fitting, then, that their Edinburgh Fringe presence is heavily comedy-based. They tend to host a variety of up-and-comers through their small to mid-sized venues. You’ll spot their locations if you look out for a bright pink projection on the walls.

Attending the Edinburgh Fringe as Audience

If you’re planning a trip to the Edinburgh Fringe, I recommend a bit of planning and a bit of flexibility. The programme tends to become available in early summer. Grab a copy and identify the shows you can’t miss. Get those tickets first and plan your day around them. You may find that a free show nearby gets out about 20 minutes before your big show begins. You may see that shows at a certain venue are half off or on a buy one get one deal. The Fringe is chaotic enough to demand flexibility, so I highly recommend leaving some space to go with the flow. Plus, you never know who will charm you into a ticket purchase as you walk through the busy streets.

Pro Tip 1: Visit the Half Price Hut at the box office to see what shows are offering daily deals.

Pro Tip 2: Early in the festival, tickets are cheaper (and often free), as the shows try to pad audiences in order to inspire favorable reviews. You can see a show in previews for cheap (a bit of a risk, as things may be going wrong), or grab tickets in the first week and hope for a discount.

Pro Tip 3: Walk around each of the venues in the morning – around 10 or 11am. Street teams will head out with free or cheap tickets. Listen for people shouting out “Free Tickets” and roll the dice!

Performing at the Edinburgh Fringe

Wow this could – and probably will – be its own section. But for now, here are my must-dos to survive the Fringe as a performer.

1. Bring friends – If you have anyone in your life who’s able to take a few weeks out of their August to help you, get them up there. Rent a space that has enough room to pack in your guests, and get them out on the streets flyering for your show. The more crowds hear about your show, the more likely they are to check it out.
2. Get Scottish comfort food at Mum’s – Look, this isn’t festival-specific, but you need a cozy, hearty meal when you’re running around nonstop. Mum’s is the place.
3. Remember to go see shows! – You may be so focused on your own show that you lose track of where you are. The Fringe is one of the coolest places to be a creative. Get out of bed, throw on something other than sweats, and go see the brilliance around you. Sleep is for September.
4. Eat at home – You can save BIG if you become accustomed to eating dinners at home before heading back to the festival venues for evening shows. But if you’re in a pinch, there are plenty of street food options littered throughout the streets. Late night crepes, anyone?
5. Make friends with other performers – This is just a wholesome suggestion, but the people at The Fringe are all brought together by a mutual love of the arts. You’ll encounter some of the coolest, most interesting, fun people you’ve ever met. And you’re all living in the same spot. How cool is that?
6. Bring whatever cold-fighting medicine/vitamins you prefer – Everyone gets sick in Edinburgh. It’s called the Fringe Flu. And it’s nasty. Remember to take care of yourself. It’s a marathon!

Final Takeaways

I’ll die on this hill: everyone who loves the arts should experience at least one Edinburgh Fringe. You’ll find a little bit of everything. In some corners, you’ll see the best of the best. In others, you’ll see the most truly deranged student art piece. But everyone who’s there is swinging the bat.

Ultimately, that’s what’s so exciting and downright charming about the EdFest: people are out there for the love of creating. You don’t get rich at Edinburgh. Plenty of people do the opposite. But anyone who’s braved the month-long chaos of a Fringe walks away with enduring stories. I’ve found that comics all talk about The Fringe in the same way: like it’s a rite of passage. They carry their first one-person audience story like a badge of honor. They compare terrible, drunk heckler stories. And many count the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as the place where it all started.