
The Edinburgh International Festival may have come first, but generally it's the Fringe that Edinburgh is best-known for. There's really nothing quite like it - "the largest show on Earth".
The Fringe 2023 programme is down on previous years numbers but still has well over 3,000 shows listed. The 2022 Fringe had 3,171 shows, in 255 venues, which is 17% fewer shows than in the pre-pandemic Fringe, in 2019, which saw 3,841 shows in 323 venues across Scotland’s capital city.
It's a sprawling, anarchic, sleepless month of live performances. There are hundreds of free shows and pay-what-you-want shows at the Fringe as well (308 free shows and 463 Pay What You Can/Want shows).
Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the Fringe in 2021 followed a slimmed-down, hybrid programme of both live performances at fewer, socially distant in-person venues and online, but returned to in-person shows in 2022 and is looking to build on that in 2023.
Tickets
Tickets for Fringe 2023 shows have been released. There were 1,000+ released on 30 March, another on 11th May, and were staggered in the run-up to the full printed programme release on Thursday 8th June.
The Fringe Society did not print a Fringe brochure in 2021. The summer Edinburgh festivals were cancelled in 2020 due to Covid-19, although online shows did take place.
Fringe 2023 Programme
- View a digital version of the 2023 print brochure or download a PDF.
- Check the Fringe tickets website for booking info - its advanced search is useful for filtering shows
- Check back here for news and reviews from the Fringe! You can find our reviews archive below.
Fringe App
Fringe 2023 sees the retun of a Fringe app (released on Tuesday 11 July) after the Fringe Society controversially dropped it for Fringe 2022. Fringe boss Shona McCarthy said this was due to lack of time, money, and general uncertainty caused by the pandemic, to develop the app.
Edinburgh Fringe Reviews Archive:
- 2023 Fringe Reviews
- 2022 Fringe Reviews
- 2021 Fringe Reviews
- 2019 Fringe Reviews
- 2018 Fringe Reviews
- 2017 Fringe Reviews
- 2016 Fringe Reviews
- 2015 Fringe Reviews
- 2014 Fringe Reviews
- 2013 Fringe Reviews
- 2012 Fringe Reviews
- 2011 Fringe Reviews
- 2010 Fringe Reviews
- 2009 Fringe Reviews
- 2008 Fringe Reviews
- 2007 Fringe Reviews
- 2000 to 2006 *
* Reviews archive back to 2000 are temporarily offline after a site upgrade