Explore Edinburgh with the 2024 Art Festival

In 2024, EAF (Edinburgh Art Festival) marks its 20th Birthday as the UK’s largest annual visual arts festival. EAF24 invites you to join us to pause and reflect on the conditions under which we live, work, gather and resist. Bringing together museums and galleries from across Edinburgh - Old Town & Southside; New Town & North; East to Leith; To The West - with a programme of specially commissioned work, the EAF24 programme traces lines through personal histories, the natural world, post-colonial landscapes, and the global political stage. 

Art - SouthsideEdinburgh’s historic Old Town provides a backdrop to contemporary and historic artwork alike. Exit Waverley Station to find a host of galleries on one another’s doorsteps — including the City Art Centre, housing EAF24’s Festival led programme, ranging from unearthed archives, fragmented portraits of culture, and immersive works from our PLATFORM24 artists. Large-scale installations transform unexpected spaces with sound and colour. Further towards Southside, renowned cultural institutions open lines of conversation across the world, in discussions exploring how we live, work, gather, and resist.  Explore featured events in the Old Town and Southside.

Art - NorthsideBeyond Princes Street, find Edinburgh’s picturesque New Town. With space to explore the rich cultural offering of landmark institutions, New Town is close to Waverley Station and accessible with tram and bus links. Broughton and Dundas Street’s string of galleries provide intimate showcases of artists’ personal craft amidst Georgian architecture and independent cafes alike. Further north, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh re-centres the natural world beyond the city centre, providing both a quiet place to reflect and an urgent reminder of the climate’s need for protection. Explore featured events in the New Town and North.

Art - EastsideExplore Edinburgh’s fastest-growing cultural area in our East to Leith programme. Spend a day exploring experimental, ground-breaking work from galleries trailing from Calton Hill to Leith Walk, along Ferry Road and towards The Shore. To see it all, join our Leith Launches gallery crawl, and pack an afternoon with the best Leith has to offer. Alongside its diverse artistic offering, Leith is known for its independent businesses, community-led spaces, and party spots — including our iconic EAF24 Birthday Launch Party taking over Custom Lane and The Shore.  Explore featured events in East to Leith.

Art - WestsideTo the West, make your way to our partner galleries and step away from Edinburgh’s Festival-season crowds. Follow the scenic Water of Leith to National Galleries Scotland: Modern One and Two, or make the most of Edinburgh’s excellent transport links to Edinburgh Printmakers or the Community Wellbeing Space in Wester Hailes. Further afield, Jupiter Artland offers an immersive artistic landscape to escape the city for a day — as well as a unique backdrop for JUPITER RISING x EAF, the infamous one-day party showcasing back-to-back radical queer performance and music late into the night. Explore featured events in To The West.

The Edinburgh Art Festival runs from 9 to 25 August – and you can browse the programme online HERE or download a PDF of the festival brochure HERE.

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