๐ญ Edinburgh Festival Minute: 14 - 16 August 2026
Dining and discos as Book Festival and Art Festival open, EIGHT exclusive half-price ticket deals for Gilded Balloon shows + take a friend to Summerhall's Sauna Theatre for FREE with exclusive two-for-one ticket deal
๐ Good morning festival fans. It's the biggest weekend of this year's festivals so far, with the Film Festival starting last night, the Art Festival starting today and the Book Festival starting on Saturday. Today's newsletter features discounts for Summerhall's Sauna Theatre and shows at Gilded Balloon. More deals to come next week too...
๐ Links to the programmes:
๐ญ Fringe ๐จ International Festival ๐ Book Fringe (starts Thurs 13th) ๐ฌ Film Festival ๐จ Art Festival ๐ Edinburgh International Book Festival (starts Sat 15th) ๐ Free Fringe ๐ PBS Free Fringe.
๐ The most-visited links from the last newsletter:
- ๐บ The Jazz Bar on Chambers Street offers free entry to locals and Fringe staff.
- โญ๏ธ Fest Magazine's continually updated list of its 4 and 5 star shows.
- ๐ธ Half Price Hut opens at Fringe Shop (202 discounted shows today).
- ๐ญ The Herald: From Mayflies to A Trial: our favourite five-star shows at Edinburgh.
- ๐ง๐ปโโ๏ธ Five starts for Sauna Theatre: Aufguss Masters.
๐๏ธ Talk of the town: Festival news
๐จ Edinburgh Art Festival begins today, featuring shows at venues right across the city. Among them, 30 artists stage a major group show called 'Earth Matters' at the Royal Botanic Garden. Sculptures made by leading artists such as Anne Hardy and Eva Rothschild will be on display at the Talbot Rice Gallery and Fruitmarket. The EAF also has a strand of events celebrating the life and legacy of social-documentary photographer Sandra George, including 'Level Up: Block Party' at Craigmillar Now, plus an exhibition of her works at a social gathering and shared meal at the Wester Hailes Community Wellbeing Collective. At Dovecot, 'Elizabeth Blackadder: A Life in Colour' showcases more than 30 tapestries alongside 'Costume Couture' celebrating the legendary costume house Cosprop. Next weekend there's the annual and always-epic Jupiter Rising mini festival at Jupiter Artland. It all starts with the EAF opening party tonight at the Biscuit Factory in Leith (8pm - 1am) featuring live music, art and DJs. There is so much more that I can't fit into this bulletin, so do check out the full programme here.
๐ The Edinburgh International Book Festival opens on Saturday. BAFTA award-winning author, activist, performer and number one bestselling poet Lemn Sissay has just been added to the line-up, which features Childrenโs Laureates, fantasy superstars, multi-award-winners, agony aunts and big-name broadcasters. - The full programme of more than 600 events is here.
๐ฝ๏ธ There's a real foodie theme at the Book Fest this year. At the Table Talks series you can have lunch with chefs and cookbook writers at multiple events hosted in the kitchen of Jess Elliott Dennison's Elliottโs on Sciennes Road. Guests include Meera Sodha, Julie Lin, Helen Goh, Sophie Macfie (of the brilliant Soph's Plant Kitchen), Santiago Lastra, Justin Tsang, Ella Risbridger and Tamar Adler. - The food & drink events are all listed here.
โฎ There's also a live edition of Edinburgh's very own (excellent) Eating and Waiting to Eat podcast in the Spiegeltent with Ben Lippett on Sunday, followed by Word Salad, where Peter Simpson, editor of The Skinnyโs food magazine GNAW, hosts a round table with Times restaurant critic Chitra Ramaswamy, founder of Fare magazine Ben Mervis, and Rebecca May Johnson, editor at Vittles and author of Small Fires. - Tickets here.
Speaking at this event Rebecca May Johnson Ben Mervis Chitra Ramaswamy
๐ The city's alternative book festival, the Book Fringe begins today. It's organised by Lighthouse, Argonaut and Greenhouse Books & Records and featuring film screenings by Leith Kino, writing and drawing workshops plus free midday events. - Find the full programme here.
๐ 'The Bridge' by Palestinian playwright, performer and stand-up comedian Alaa Shehada is among the first five winners of the Scotsman Fringe First awards. - Andrew Eaton-Lewis, The Scotsman. The Bridge is on at Assembly Roxy until Sunday. Tickets here.
Fergus Morgan
๐ฟ With more than half of this year's Edinburgh International Film Festival boasting world premieres, we're being encouraged to 'embrace the thrill of the brand new'. What should you see? The BFI's Josh Slater-Williams shares 10 picks from the programme here.
BFI
๐ '5 (Other) One-Woman Shows Worth Seeing at Edinburgh Fringe' - Emma Specter, Vogue. (paywall)
Emma Specter
โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ Sarah Hester Ross: Serving C*nt. Until 29 Aug. Gilded Balloon Teviot. - Tickets are close to selling out.
โฎ "Flippin heck, Sarah Hester Ross has got some set of pipes. She doesnโt so much enter the Gilded Balloonโs new Den space as explode into it, accompanied by a shower of feathers and C-bombs: subtle it ainโt, but hey, subtlety is seriously over-rated. This is an old-fashioned cabaret show in the best sense of the word." - Jo Laidlaw in The List.
Jo Laidlaw
Exeunt
๐๏ธ Minute readersโ ticket discounts
๐ฑ Here are exclusive half-price ticket deals for eight of Gilded Balloon's biggest shows. To get the deal, you must use the code GBMINUTE26 at checkout.
- SLAY (Recent 5* review in The List). Until 31 Aug (not 17), daily at 3pm.
- Mariella Frostrup: Cracking the Menopause. Until 17 Aug, daily at 2.30pm.
- Late'n'Live. - Until 31 Aug, nightly at 11.55pm.
- Jamie Kilstein: Can't Tie Knots. 5 - 31 Aug (not 18, 25), nightly at 9.50pm.
- Best of So You Think You're Funny? - Nightly until 31 Aug, 7.40pm.
- Comedy Night at the Museum - 14-15, 20-21, 28-29 Aug at 10.30pm.
- Doris, Dolly and the Dressing Room Divas - Until 31 Aug (not 11, 18, 25) at 8pm.
- So You Think You're Funny? Heats - 19 - 26 Aug at 9.45pm.
โฐ Reminder: GBMINUTE26 must be applied as the promo code at checkout.
๐๏ธ Take a friend for free to Sauna Theatre this weekend
๐ง๐ปโโ๏ธ Things are heating up at Summerhall this Fringe with the Sauna Theatre. It's been getting genuinely rave reviews. Today's deal encourages you to give it a go and take a friend for free! Once again the ticket saving is more than the cost of this newsletter for the entire month. Here are the details:
One sentence description: 'Sauna Theatre is open every day from 9am - 11pm with an eclectic programme encompassing everything from a morning sauna rave to ancient rituals, a literary salon to our evening Arts Club โ the hottest club in town. Plus, we'll be showcasing some of the world's best Aufguss artists.'
Discount details: 2 for 1 tickets from Friday 14 August to Monday 17 August. Click here to get the deal and remember to use the code: 'minute'
๐ You can cool off in Summerhall's plunge pools and showers after the show.
Cool off in Summerhall's plunge pools and showers after the show.
๐๏ธ 2 Truths, 1 Lie, by Simon Caine
"The format is simple - 3 comedians on stage. 2 are telling the truth. 1 is lying. The audience can ask anything to work out who it is. Past comedians include Goeff Norcott, Lou Wall, Laura Lexx and more. And this year we've got acts like Mark Silcox, Tom Houghton, Milo Edwards, Finlay Christie, Spring Day and more."
Venue: Hoot 2 at Hoots @ The Apex. Daily until 31 Aug. Discount details: Use code: Minute20 to get 20% off. Tickets and reviews are here.
๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ณ๓ ฃ๓ ด๓ ฟ Local interest
๐ผ๏ธ You might have read in the Minute about ongoing strikes at the National Galleries of Scotland this month. The timings of the closures are slightly tricky to follow, so here's a handy list of when they are open and closed:
Saturday 15 August: All galleries are open, including the Tea Green Summer Market at the Portrait gallery, as well as all cafes and shops.
Sunday 16 August: The Tea Green Summer Market, cafe and shop will be open at the Portrait gallery. The National and Modern galleries, the upper floors of the Portrait gallery, the Royal Scottish Academy building and shops and cafes will be closed.
Monday 17 August: All galleries are open, including cafes and shops.
Tuesday 18 August: All galleries are open, including cafes and shops.
Wednesday 19 August: All galleries are open, including cafes and shops.
Thursday 20 August: The National, Modern and Portrait galleries, shops, cafes and the Royal Scottish Academy building, will be closed.
Friday 21 August: All galleries are open, including cafes and shops.
๐ If you're not festivalled-out yet, you could check out the other book festivals happening around Scotland this year. - Naomi Head, The Good Egg Project.
The Good Egg Project
๐ Thanks for reading edition 7 of the 2026 Edinburgh Festival Minute! See all the editions here.