Edinburgh Festival

About the Edinburgh Festivals

Edinburgh Science Festival (3–17 April 2010)

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…

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Edinburgh Beltane Fire Festival (30 April 2010)

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…

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Imaginate Children's Festival (10–16 May 2010)

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…

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Edinburgh International Film Festival (16–27 June 2010)

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…

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Edinburgh Art Festival (29 July–5 September 2010)

Although galleries across the Capital have long been saving their crowd-pulling shows for August, The Edinburgh Art Festival was established in 2004 with the aim of uniting their independent efforts. With the most visual arts galleries of any…

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Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival (30 July–8 August 2010)

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 come in. And expect that Glenn Miller classic along…

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Edinburgh Comedy Festival

The 2008 birth of The Edinburgh Comedy Festival was a controversial one. The semi-'breakaway' by four of the biggest Fringe venues (Assembly, Gilded Balloon, Pleasance and Underbelly) was criticised by some as an excersize in re-branding and a…

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Edge Festival

Formerly known as T on the Fringe , August’s largest pop music festival, The Edge, has already managed to impress festival-goers and critics alike with that same enthusiasm and love for a tune that consistently sees Scotland touted as one of the…

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Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Sprawling, diverse and just a little bit crazy, The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is The Edinburgh Festival for the hoardes of punters and performers the descend on the city every year. From its humble beginnings in 1947 when a handful of companies…

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Edinburgh Mela

Founded in 1995 to showcase the talents of Edinburgh’s ethnic minorities, Edinburgh Mela has now grown to regularly attract more than 20,000 people to its extraordinary range of theatre, dance, music and art each August, and it doesn’t take much to…

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Edinburgh 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…

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Festival of Spirituality and Peace

True to the spirit of the Edinburgh Festivals as a whole, The Festival of Spirituality and Peace is international, multi-cultural and multi-faith. It promotes open dialogue across the divisions of race and religion, focussed around a core programme…

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Edinburgh Interactive

The Edinburgh Interactive Festival is a two (sometimes three) day extravaganza of video-gaming, recruitment opportunities, screenings and talks - all of which are free and open to the public. It takes place alongside the city's other Festivals in…

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Edinburgh 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…

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Edinburgh 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…

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Festival of Politics

Away from all the chaos, the comedy and the craziness of the Fringe comes the chaos, the comedy and the craziness of politics. Getting its own platform in 2005, The Festival of Politics is now a main part of the latter stages of the summer…

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Scottish International Storytelling Festival

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…

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