What's Free at the 2022 August Festivals?

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe street events bring an explosion of breath-taking sights, sounds and experiences to the streets of Edinburgh. Street entertainment has been a fixture of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe since the 1960s and this year there'll be a big expansion of free street theatre and entertainment. More spaces are to be created for circus acts, buskers, “living statues” and groups appearing in Fringe shows for the festival’s 75th anniversary. An official Fringe walking route will also be created between the Royal Mile and the St James Quarter, via The Mound, Princes Street Gardens and St Andrew Square,helping you to see more of the great street artists around the city. More info at https://www.edfringe.com/experience/how-to-plan/street-events

The Edinburgh International Book Festival's home is Edinburgh College of Art, a charming, leafy courtyard with lovely old listed buildings, which house our venues, cafes, bars, bookshop and broadcast studios. This Book Festival Village is free and everyone is welcome, with a selection of Festival events livestreamed onto large outdoor screen in the courtyard every day during the Festival [13 to 29 August]. You can see a favourite author, enjoy a cuppa in the café, a beer in the bar, or simply park yourself on the grass (with or without a book) and soak up the atmosphere. See info at https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on

In a gesture of solidarity with the victims of the war in Ukraine, the Edinburgh International Festival and the Scottish Government are partnering to welcome the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra for a historic free concert at the Usher Hall on Saturday 6 August at 2pm. Assembled by New York’s Metropolitan Opera and the Polish National Opera, the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra includes recent refugees, Ukrainian members of European orchestras and leading Ukrainian musicians and performers - with this special concert seeing invitations extended to the Ukrainian community in Scotland and organisations leading efforts in the resettlement of Ukrainian refugees. 

The Free Fringe was started on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1996 as a new model for putting on shows. Instead of paying for a venue and charging for tickets, there should be no hire charge and free entrance for everyone. If the audience like the show, they put a voluntary donation in a bucket at the end - an idea that had been taken from what buskers had been doing for many years, and essentially moving the busking indoors. Shows are typically in pubs or clubs, and comedy and cabaret make up a significant portion of the free entertainment. You can find more information from either PBH's Free Fringe or Free Fringe Festival.

PoliNations is one of 10 major creative projects commissioned as part of UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK, with events taking place throughout England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, as well as online. During the Festivals, a free performance programme will take place over nine days [6-14 August] under the canopy of a 40-foot architectural trees, that will take root outside the Assembly Rooms on George Street. The tree will create a space for relaxation and creative collaboration as well as hosting a jam-packed programme of fringe artists, in collaboration with Assembly Festival at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Edinburgh Art Festival is the platform for the visual arts at the heart of Edinburgh’s August festivals, bringing together the capital’s leading galleries, museums and artist-run spaces in a city-wide celebration of the very best in visual art. Each year, the festival features leading international and UK artists alongside the best emerging talent, major survey exhibitions of historic figures, and a special programme of newly commissioned artworks that respond to public and historic sites in the city. Most of the gallery exhibitions are free and as a result, you can spend a great time in Edinburgh wandering from gallery to gallery enjoying the best of the visual arts. A list of exhibitons can be found on the Art Festival website HERE.

Part of Dandelion - a six-month creative celebration of growing, music and community, rooted in Scotland but with an international outlook, and with sustainability at its heart - the Cubes of Perpetual Light feature multiple cubes integrated with stunning speaker systems and immersive lighting designed to bring the best out of the music. A range of leading musicians from home and aboard to create 13 new music commissions for the Cubes, all inspired by themes of sustainability and growth. You can catch them in epic quadrophonic sound at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Presenting an ambitious and free programme of family favourites, timeless classics and blockbusters, the Edinburgh International Film Festival in partnership with Essential Edinburgh makes its return to one of the city’s most iconic locations, St Andrew Square, with ‘Film Fest in the City’ - an opening weekend of free outdoor screenings from Friday 12 August to Sunday 14 August. This special open-air series of screenings coincides with the main programme of full in-person cinema screenings as part of the 75th anniversary of the city’s International Film Festival, making cinema accessible to both film buffs and Edinburgh residents of all ages. Attending audiences can look out for lots of special surprises at each screening too. 

Dreamachine is an immersive experience like no other, presented by the EdinburghScinece Festival and Edinburgh International Festival, from 13th August. This powerful new kind of collective experience will come from within, conjured entirely by light and music. The colourful world of the Dreamachine will unfold behind your closed eyes – created by your own brain and completely unique to you. Dreamachine has been created by a team of leading minds in architecture, technology, music, neuroscience, and philosophy, including Turner Prize-winning collective Assemble and Grammy and Mercury nominated composer Jon Hopkins. Like a modern kind of campfire, you’ll share your Dreamachine journey with a group of up to 32 people at a time. After your experience, you’ll be invited to reflect on what you saw, what you heard and how you felt, by yourself or with others.

Throughout most of August [except on Sundays] you can enjoy the fireworks set off from Edinburgh Castle as part of the nighly performances of The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. Weather permitting, all performances will include a short fireworks display. Enhanced fireworks will take place at Friday 9.00pm performances (9.30pm on Friday 26 August) and Saturday 9.30pm performances. The actual fireworks take place approximately 90 minutes after the official show starts, marking the end of the actual performance - with crowds gathering in various vantage points around the city, especially along Pronces Street, to enjoy the free spectacle.