Edinburgh Fringe 2026: A Local's Guide for First-Timers

We lived in Edinburgh for a number of years, and kept going back to the Fringe long after we moved away. Over those years we’ve seen everything from sword-swallowers to a woman rolling around on a floor of eggs, and the shows we still talk about today are almost always the ones we’d never heard of before we walked in.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world’s largest arts festival, and in 2026 it runs from the 7th to the 31st of August. It’s a wonderful, overwhelming, slightly chaotic three weeks, and the aim of this guide is to turn that chaos into a plan you feel confident about.

Quick take for first-timers: three things are worth knowing before you go. First, tickets are digital now. You book online, an e-ticket with a QR code lands in your inbox, and you show it on your phone or print it at home, with no collecting tickets in person any more. Second, the quality runs the whole gamut, so mix free shows with paid ones rather than pouring your whole budget into big names. Some of the best things we’ve seen at the Fringe were free shows in a pub basement. Third, book your bed early, because Edinburgh fills to near capacity in August and prices climb fast, so your Edinburgh accommodation is the one thing you really want to sort well ahead.

The Fringe is also referred to as the Fringe Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe, or just The Fringe. You’ll sometimes hear it called simply “the Edinburgh Festival” too, but given that Edinburgh has 11 official festivals each year, that title isn’t really accurate. Its official name is the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Anyway, title aside, the Fringe is a major festival which takes place every August in Edinburgh. It’s by far the biggest event the city sees each year, with millions of people flocking in to either watch the shows or take part and host their own performances.

We’ve also attended all the other festivals that take place in the city throughout the year, including Edinburgh’s Hogmanay and the Science festival. So with all that experience in mind, we wanted to share a guide to help you plan your own visit to see the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, covering everything from finding out what’s on to booking your accommodation.

As always, we’re also open to your suggestions, questions and feedback, and you can use the comments section at the end of the post for those. Let’s get started.

Table of Contents:

What is the Edinburgh Festival Fringe?

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world’s largest arts festival. During the festival, which usually runs for just over three weeks, there are thousands of shows held across hundreds of venues in Edinburgh.

The Fringe started in 1947 as an alternative to the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF). The EIF is also a performing arts festival, however it has a more formal curation process. To appear at the EIF, acts have to be invited to perform.

In 1947, in a sort of protest about this invitation-only process, a number of performance groups turned up in Edinburgh and hosted their own shows on the “fringe” of the EIF. By 1958 the Fringe had grown a great deal, and the Festival Fringe Society was born.

Today the Edinburgh Fringe is significantly larger in terms of performances than the Edinburgh International Festival, and in fact than any other festival in Edinburgh.

This is down in large part to the fact that the Fringe is an open access festival. This means anyone can perform any kind of show. There is no curation or selection process.

As you might imagine, this means the quality can be highly variable, and that’s part of the fun.

Historically there was a bit of rivalry between the two festivals, however this is less the case these days. Both take place at the same time, and we’d suggest it’s well worth attending performances at both during your time in Edinburgh.

When is the Edinburgh Fringe?

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2026 runs from Friday the 7th of August to Monday the 31st of August 2026.

The dates shift slightly each year, but the festival is always held for just over three weeks in August. It usually takes in four weekends, starting on a Friday and ending on the Monday after the fourth weekend.

So if you’re planning ahead for future years, you can reasonably expect the Fringe to start on the first Friday of August and run for a little over three weeks.

What Happens at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe?

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe has a lot going on. To give you a sense of the scale, in 2025 the festival hosted 3,893 shows, which put on 53,942 performances across 301 venues, with more than 2.6 million tickets issued and acts coming from 62 countries.

Performers range from well-known names to completely unknown acts.

What sets the Fringe apart, and is essentially its guiding principle, is that it’s an open access festival. This means there’s no vetting process or oversight by the Fringe organisers as to who performs.

The role of the Festival Fringe Society is primarily logistical. They help ensure there are event spaces, programmes, ticketing services and information available to both performers and attendees. They also market the festival and run the official channels.

In terms of what to expect, the Fringe is best known for comedy. This is the largest single type of show on offer, with around a third of Fringe performances categorised as comedy.

However, as a performing arts festival with an open access policy, there’s no restriction on the type of act allowed. So you can expect everything from theatre to classical music to circus to cabaret to opera, and the list goes on.

When we’ve visited, we’ve seen everything from stand-up comedy through to theatre, and street performers through to cabaret. We’ve watched a lady roll around on eggs and people swallowing swords.

There really is something for everyone at the Fringe.

Can I Take Part in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe?

Yes, you can take part as a performer in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It’s open access, so it’s open to anyone.

If you want to host your own show, you just have to go through the registration process. This includes steps like finding a venue and making some key decisions, such as whether it will be a free show or a paid one.

This process is outlined in detail with a series of excellent resources on the official site here.

If that sounds like too much work, many shows involve audience participation, which is an easier way to get involved in a Fringe show without actually doing any of the work yourself.

Where Does the Edinburgh Fringe Actually Take Place?

There are over 300 venues registered as official Fringe venues. These cover a huge range of locations, from street corners through to pubs and cafes, and on to the larger capacity locations which have more traditional theatre-style layouts.

Each venue can contain multiple performance spaces, so in total there are well over a thousand performance locations where you can watch Fringe shows.

In the history of the Fringe there have been some seriously unusual venues, including the back of a motorbike, portable toilets, and a taxi. The list goes on.

For the most part though, venues are individual locations. The way it works is that performers apply to each venue they want to perform at. Some venues specialise in particular types of show or genre, and those closer to the city centre are often more appealing to acts.

If you are thinking of hosting your own venue, you can read how to do that on the official website here.

The Fringe can feel like an undifferentiated mass of venues when you first arrive, so here’s how the main ones break down. We’ve grouped them by the kind of experience you can expect, which should help you decide where to point yourself.

Venue / operator	Where it is	What you’ll find	Tickets
Assembly, Gilded Balloon, The Pleasance, Underbelly (the “Big Four”)	Clustered around George Square, Bristo Square and the Pleasance courtyards, in the Southside just south of the Royal Mile	The biggest names and most polished productions, plus busy pop-up bars and food. This is where you’ll find the comedy you’ve heard of	Paid, and the popular slots sell out
Summerhall, theSpaceUK, C venues	Summerhall in Newington; theSpaceUK and C venues across central sites	More experimental and theatre-leaning work, plus a lot of new and emerging acts. Summerhall in particular is the place for the arty, leftfield end of the festival	Mostly paid, generally cheaper than the Big Four
Free-show bodies: The Free Festival and PBH’s Free Fringe	Pubs, bars and back rooms, concentrated around the Cowgate and Grassmarket	Free entry with a bucket collection at the end. More of a gamble, but often where the surprises and future stars are	Free, pay what you think it was worth on the way out
Street performers	The Royal Mile and the Mound, much of which goes pedestrian-only for the festival	Circus, magic, music and physical comedy, out in the open. Great for a free taster between ticketed shows	Free, tip the hat if you enjoyed it

Basically, in August it’s hard to go more than a few metres in central Edinburgh without finding a Fringe venue with a performance happening. This is both exciting and kind of overwhelming, which brings us neatly to the next question.

How Do I Find the Best Shows at the Fringe?

This is the big question for everyone coming to Edinburgh. Which Fringe show is actually worth going to?

To be honest, there’s no easy answer. Everyone wants to see the next big thing, or the best show of the festival, and with over 3,000 shows to consider, finding “the best” one is a fairly monumental task.

Here are some options to help you find shows, which should get you started.

Tip 1 – Use the official Fringe resources

The first place to look is the official Edinburgh Fringe website, which is usually where shows are first announced.

They have a tool on the site where you can see all the shows that have been announced, filter by type, save shows to your favourites, and build your own Fringe calendar to keep on top of everything. You can also book tickets here, which we’ll come to shortly.

For exclusive news and offers, you might also want to become a Friend of the Fringe. Membership starts at £52 a year (or £42 if you pay by Direct Debit, with £5 off if you live in an EH postcode), and you get a range of benefits including a dedicated box office, exclusive offers, and access to special Friends-only tickets.

Tip 2 – Read the local news sites

The majority of Edinburgh’s local newspapers and arts websites have extensive coverage of the Fringe, both during the festival and in the run-up to it. Popular shows are often flagged on these in the months beforehand, including predictions for the ones not to miss.

Some sites we’d recommend checking out include Edinburgh Live, The Scotsman, the Edinburgh Festival section of The List, the Edinburgh Reporter, the theatre news section of WhatsOnStage and the EdinburghGuide.

National newspapers and listings sites also cover the bigger shows, both before and during the festival. Some to check out include the Times, the Guardian and Beyond the Joke.

Of course, once a show hits the national press the tickets tend to go quickly, so if you see something you like the look of and tickets are available, grab them as soon as you can.

Tip 3 – Look out for the previews

Many of the larger venues, and especially the Big Four (Assembly, Gilded Balloon, The Pleasance and Underbelly), host preview shows of their Fringe line-ups.

These are a good way to get a taster of some of the shows on offer, and they tend to put on some of their best acts. It’s also an efficient way to see several shows at once and get a feel for what’s out there, and tickets are usually available for purchase after the preview from the on-site box offices.

Tip 4 – Look for the returning shows

While many acts at the Fringe are one-off performances, there are also plenty of performers who come back for a second year, or for many more.

These acts are tried and tested, and you’re pretty much assured the quality will be good. If an act is returning for a second year, it’s normally a sign it did well the first time around, and you can usually read reviews from the previous year to see if it’s for you.

The acts that come back year after year are often well known and popular, so these are often a safe bet.

Tip 5 – Get on social media

During the festival, one of the best ways to stay on top of what’s hot is to keep an eye on social media. If people see a great show (or, just as usefully, a terrible one), they tend to be vocal about it online.

X, formerly Twitter, is probably the best place to start. Keep an eye on posts using the hashtag #edfringe, as well as #Edinburgh in general. We’d also suggest following the official Edinburgh Festival Fringe account and the This is Edinburgh account.

Other platforms like Instagram and Facebook can be useful too, but as posts aren’t always public or searchable, we still think X is the best option for catching the chatter as it happens.

Tip 6 – Check out the Big Four

The four major venue operators tend to be popular with performers, which means their selection process can be a little more involved, and there’s a good chance you’ll be watching quality acts.

A fair amount of money is also spent advertising these larger venues, so from a business perspective they want to recoup that with shows audiences will actually want to see.

This isn’t a guarantee, of course. Free shows can be more of a gamble than a paid one at a big venue, but it’s arguably more satisfying to stumble across something brilliant in a pub basement or on a street corner.

Tip 7 – Wander the Royal Mile

During the Fringe, the streets fill with performers touting the virtues of their upcoming shows.

This is largely concentrated around the Royal Mile, Cowgate and Bristo Square areas, but you won’t get far through the main streets of Edinburgh in August before someone earnestly tries to press a flyer into your hand.

When you first arrive in the city you’ll undoubtedly accept these with nary a care in the world. However, the moment you’re holding a flyer, you become a magnet for every other performer, and soon you’ll be weighed down by a mass of flyers for shows you couldn’t possibly attend.

To protect your sanity, and the environment, we’d suggest being a bit judicious with your flyer selection. Instead of just accepting one and walking on, if it’s a show you think you’ll like, chat to the people handing them out and find out a bit about it. Consider taking a photo of the flyer rather than adding to your swelling pockets.

We’ve seen some of our favourite shows of the Fringe from random encounters on the Royal Mile, and we’ve also seen some of the worst via this somewhat haphazard approach.

You’re also going to see posters everywhere, and hey, if you can judge the quality of a wine by its label, surely you can have a go at judging an act by its poster? And if not, at least it’ll give you some clues about the performance and a general idea of what’s on.

Tip 8 – Don’t worry about it

Fear of missing out is a real problem in Edinburgh in August. Our suggestion, if you can manage it, is to try not to succumb to it. Go to a wide variety of shows, including free and paid, ones you’ve heard about and ones you haven’t, across a range of performance types.

Some of our most memorable Fringe experiences were at shows we’d never heard of, and the ones we seem to talk about most were actually the worst. People love to recount the terrible shows they’ve seen, just listen to strangers chatting on the Royal Mile for a few minutes and it’s bound to come up.

So just embrace the festival, have a good time, see as much as you want to, and enjoy the experience. That’s what it’s all about.

Do I Need Tickets for Shows at the Fringe Festival?

The answer is that it very much depends on the show and the venue, although in general the answer is yes.

There are three main models for show tickets at the Fringe.

First, the traditional model you’re likely familiar with, where shows are ticketed with pre-paid tickets at a fixed price.

Second, free shows. These are either ticketed or unticketed, and usually give the audience the option to pay a donation at the end, often via a bucket or hat passed around after the show. Two organisations run most of the free programme: The Free Festival and PBH’s Free Fringe, and both websites are good places to find free shows.

Finally, some shows run a hybrid model, where you can buy a ticket in advance to guarantee entry (and maybe a seat), alongside a pay-what-you-want component.

Note that street performances generally don’t require a ticket. They normally operate a pay-what-you-want system, usually a hat passed around after the performance for donations.

It’s polite, and expected, to give a donation if you’re attending a free performance of some sort. There’s no minimum, and everything is appreciated.

Where Do I Buy Tickets for the Edinburgh Fringe?

There are a number of options for buying tickets for shows at the Fringe, which will depend on the show you want to see and the venue hosting it.

For advance tickets, the first place to look is the official Edinburgh Fringe box office.

Shows start to become available to book from January onwards for that year’s festival, and as the dates get closer, more and more shows open up. Not every show has early ticketing, though.

If you’ve become a Friend of the Fringe, you’ll also have access to a dedicated Friends box office, along with discounted and early-access tickets.

The full Fringe programme usually launches in early June. This is when all the ticketable shows become available, and from that point you can book:

on the Edinburgh Fringe box office website
by phone (+44 (0)131 226 0000)
in person at the Fringe Box Office, which is at 180 High Street, Edinburgh

It’s a requirement that any performer makes at least 25% of their tickets per performance available through the Fringe Box Office. This is usually the best way to get early tickets for shows you really want to see, although not every performer opts in to early release.

During the festival you can also use the Edinburgh Fringe app (available for both Apple and Android devices) to find and book tickets on the go. Just be aware that Edinburgh is heaving in August and mobile data speeds can suffer as a result.

For cheaper tickets, another option during the festival is the Half Price Hut, which sells discounted same-day tickets throughout the Fringe. In recent years it’s been based near the Fringe Shop on the Royal Mile rather than its old spot down on the Mound, so it’s worth checking the Fringe website for the current location. Keep an eye on the official website and social feeds too, as discounted offers and two-for-one deals pop up from time to time.

As well as the official Fringe website, many venues run their own ticketing systems, with online sales, an in-person box office, or on-the-door sales. If you know a particular performer is going to be at a specific venue, it’s always worth checking the venue’s website for ticketing.

Because tickets often come out of different pools of availability, if a show is showing as sold out on the Fringe Box Office, tickets might still be available through the venue, or vice versa. Some tickets may also be held back for people who turn up at the door, so it’s always worth contacting the venue before giving up hope.

How Do You Collect Your Fringe Tickets?

Good news here, because the whole system is now digital, and collecting tickets in person is a thing of the past.

When you book through the official Fringe Box Office, you get an e-ticket with a QR code sent straight to your email. You can add it to your Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, pull it up in the official Fringe app under “My Tickets”, or simply print it at home if you prefer a paper copy. At the venue, staff scan the QR code from your phone or printout and you’re in. There’s no need to queue at a collection point or wait for anything to arrive in the post.

If you book directly with a venue rather than through the Fringe Box Office, you’ll usually get a similar e-ticket, though the exact system varies, so keep your confirmation email handy.

The one practical thing worth knowing is that mobile signal and data can struggle in central Edinburgh in August, when the streets are packed. So it’s worth downloading or screenshotting your tickets before you head out, rather than relying on loading them up live at the door.

Is The Fringe Accessible?

Great efforts have been made over the years to make the Fringe more accessible, including improving wheelchair access, adding closed captioning, and providing sign language interpreters.

As you might imagine though, given the sheer range of venues and number of shows, accessibility is not universal, and really comes down to each venue to implement.

The best resource if you’re looking for accessible shows is the Fringe box office website, which lets you filter shows by accessibility (for example wheelchair-accessible venues, captioned performances, and signed performances) so you can see what’s available.

The Edinburgh Fringe has a whole section of its website dedicated to accessibility, as well as staff on hand to help with specific requirements, from arranging extra assistance to providing personal assistance tickets. This would be our recommended first port of call for accessibility information.

What Other Festivals Take Place in Edinburgh in August?

Many folks who come to Edinburgh for the Fringe in August aren’t aware that the city is actually home to five festivals during the month.

As well as the Fringe, the other four festivals in 2026 are:

Edinburgh International Festival (7 to 30 August). The original performing arts festival, with shows at six major venues and a range of smaller ones across the city. Expect everything from opera to dance to classical theatre and music.
Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo (7 to 29 August). The most watched of the Edinburgh festivals, with an estimated global TV audience of around 100 million. Military marching bands and performances against the floodlit backdrop of Edinburgh Castle. Unmissable.
Edinburgh Art Festival (14 to 30 August). A festival spread across museums, galleries and pop-up spaces, with a wide variety of exhibitions, performances and installations, the majority free to enter.
Edinburgh International Book Festival (15 to 30 August). If you want to escape the madness of the Fringe for a bit, we’d highly recommend the Book Festival. Since 2024 it has been based at the Edinburgh Futures Institute on Lauriston Place, and it’s the place to come to grab a book, hear an author talk, and slow the pace right down.

We have a complete guide to all the August Edinburgh Festivals to help you plan your wider Edinburgh festival experience.

Where to Stay for the Edinburgh Fringe?

The good news is that Edinburgh has a wide range of accommodation, from hostels through to luxury hotels and everything in between, plus plenty of apartments available for short-term rental.

The bad news is that even with all these options, Edinburgh fills up during the August festivals, with the city running close to full capacity for much of the month.

For this reason, if you’re planning to visit during the Fringe, we highly recommend booking as far in advance as possible to secure your preferred accommodation. Prices are also usually higher in August due to the increased demand.

Here are some options to consider for your stay, ordered roughly by budget from least to most expensive. These include some of our favourite places to stay in the city.

Castle Rock Hostel – A large, well-rated hostel with a castle theme, offering both dormitory and private rooms. It’s adults only, has one of the best castle views of any place to stay in the city, and is a five-minute walk from all the Fringe action.
Royal Mile Backpackers – A centrally located hostel offering dormitory-style accommodation right on the Royal Mile, just moments from the action.
Stay Central Hotel – A well-rated budget hotel with rooms that sleep between 2 and 9 people, making it ideal for a group on a budget.
Elder York Guest House – If you’re after a budget to mid-range B&B option, this is one of our favourites. Rooms are small but comfortable and the breakfast is good. Note there are quite a lot of stairs and no lift.
Travelodge Edinburgh Central – Travelodge offer reliable, good-value accommodation across the UK, and this is a central Edinburgh option at a good price.
Holiday Inn Express – A 3-star hotel offering well-priced rooms in the Old Town, near the Royal Mile.
The Grassmarket Hotel – A 3-star hotel in the Grassmarket area, close to multiple Fringe venues.
Leonardo Royal Hotel – A business-focused 4-star hotel in the Haymarket, about a 20-minute walk from the Royal Mile. We’ve stayed here and found the rooms comfortable and the food good.
The Balmoral – One of the most recognisable landmarks in the city, right next to Edinburgh Waverley train station. This 5-star hotel has a range of beautiful suites, including the one where JK Rowling famously finished the Harry Potter series.
The Witchery – This boutique luxury hotel and restaurant is one of our favourite places to stay in Edinburgh. It has only a limited number of suites, all themed and decorated differently, and the restaurant is one of the best in the city. It’s also right next to Edinburgh Castle.

So that’s a small selection of what’s available. We’d recommend browsing the listings on booking.com for Edinburgh, which includes apartments, as well as the hostels on Hostelworld for Edinburgh.

We can also recommend apartment rentals as an option. You can see the Edinburgh listings on Plum Guide here, and do also see our list of rental websites in the UK for more options.

If you can’t find anywhere in the city centre, do consider looking a little further afield. There are a number of towns within a 30 to 45 minute bus ride of the city which also have accommodation. Another option is to look in Glasgow, which is less than an hour away by train.

What We’ve Learned From Years at the Fringe

Having attended a great many Fringe events during our time living in Edinburgh and on our trips back since, here’s the hard-won advice we’d pass on to make the most of your visit, however long you’re coming for.

What to Wear to the Fringe

Edinburgh does not have what you’d call a reliable weather pattern. Well, it’s reliable in that it’s reliably unpredictable.

In August we’ve experienced everything from sticky 30C/86F days to far cooler ones where the temperature barely crawls into the low teens (low fifties Fahrenheit). Rain is a possibility at any time of year, and August is no exception. The good news is that the weather rarely lasts long, and if it rains in the morning it can be sunny by the afternoon.

All of which makes packing a little tricky. The key is lightweight layers you can peel off and carry easily, plus something warm for when the temperature drops, and either a light raincoat or a travel umbrella.

You’ll also be on your feet a lot, as Edinburgh is a wonderfully walkable city and you’ll spend much of the Fringe getting between venues. So comfortable shoes are essential. Our guide to the best travel shoes for men is a good starting point (a women’s version is coming soon).

Don’t Try to See Everything

Edinburgh gets mind-bogglingly busy in August. The streets are crowded, the pavements are slow, and it takes longer to get anywhere than you’d think. Our advice is to accept this, relax, and build extra time into your day for getting between venues.

The other half of this tip is to let go of the idea of seeing everything, or catching every hot act that social media is going nuts for. It’s a simple fact of the festival that you can’t see it all, and you’ll inevitably miss some great stuff. But you’ll also have an experience that’s unique to you.

We’d suggest booking one or two shows in advance so you’ve got something locked in, but leaving plenty of space to fill with discoveries as you go. The unheard-of shows you stumble across are often the best Fringe experiences of all, and you don’t want to overfill your calendar to the point where you can’t say yes to them.

Photography and Video

For the vast majority of shows, photography and video aren’t permitted. In our experience, only the street performances really allow for it. Most of the indoor shots in this post are from press events we attended where we had specific permission to photograph the performers.

So unless it’s explicitly allowed, we’d suggest not taking photos or video at the venues, as you may well be asked to leave.

Leave Time to See Edinburgh and Scotland

With all the excitement of the Fringe, don’t forget to spend a bit of time actually sightseeing in Edinburgh. There’s a huge amount to see in this UNESCO World Heritage city. Our cross-site guide to things to do in Edinburgh is a good place to start, along with the resources at the end of this post.

If you want to escape the crowds entirely, consider building a quiet day into your trip. Between the intensity of the Fringe and the crowds at the attractions, a day out into the rest of Scotland can be just the ticket.

We’ve taken multiple day trips from Edinburgh, including trips to the Scottish Borders and a tour of a number of whisky distilleries. We also explored Outlander filming locations and many more sights.

We nearly always use, and can highly recommend, Rabbie’s Tours for day trips from Edinburgh. They offer small group tours to all the major sights in Scotland, with knowledgeable drivers and comfortable vehicles.

Edinburgh Fringe: Frequently Asked Questions

When is the Edinburgh Fringe 2026?

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2026 runs from the 7th to the 31st of August 2026. The dates shift slightly each year but always fall in August, running for just over three weeks from the first Friday to the final Monday.

How much does it cost to go to the Edinburgh Fringe?

Wandering the city and watching street performers is completely free. For ticketed shows, prices range from free or pay-what-you-want at the smaller end up to around £10 to £20 or more for big-name acts at the major venues.

A good approach is to set yourself a daily budget, mix some paid shows with free ones, and leave room for a few spontaneous tickets.

Do you need to book Fringe tickets in advance?

For popular and big-name shows, booking ahead is wise, as the best slots do sell out. For everything else, plenty of tickets are available during the festival, and free shows simply involve turning up.

We’d suggest pre-booking one or two shows you really want to see, then keeping the rest of your schedule flexible.

Can you buy Fringe tickets on the day?

Yes. Lots of tickets are available on the day, through the Fringe box office, the app, individual venues, or on the door. The Half Price Hut also sells discounted same-day tickets throughout the festival, which is a great way to fill a gap in your schedule cheaply.

What should you wear to the Edinburgh Fringe?

Pack lightweight layers, a light raincoat or travel umbrella, and comfortable walking shoes. Edinburgh weather is unpredictable even in August, and you’ll be on your feet moving between venues for much of the day.

How do you find the best shows at the Fringe?

Start with the official Fringe website and programme, then add reviews from local and national press, word of mouth on social media, and a wander down the Royal Mile. Returning acts are a reliably safe bet, but some of the best shows are ones you’ve never heard of, so leave room to take a chance.

How far in advance should you book accommodation for the Fringe?

As early as you possibly can. Edinburgh runs close to full capacity in August and prices climb well above the rest of the year, so accommodation is the single thing most worth sorting early. If the city centre is full, look at satellite towns a short bus ride away, or even Glasgow, which is under an hour by train.