Monday August 25th 2025
Fringe sign. Photo by David Monteith-Hodge
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
The 2025 Edinburgh Festival Fringe officially wraps up today, Monday 25 August 2025, with the Fringe Society reporting a strong year for the event. ‘With over 2.6 million tickets issued for 3,893 shows, it is clear that – despite many ongoing challenges facing the Fringe community – it remains the single best platform in the world for artists to showcase their work. It remains a critical step in their professional journey.’ Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society Chief Executive, Tony Lankester said.
As the largest marketplace and expo for performing arts professional development in the world, this year’s Fringe attracted 1,770 accredited producers, programmers, bookers, talent agencies and festivals from 68 countries, who came to Edinburgh looking for talent. These connections will provide touring and onward opportunities for artists well beyond the Festival Fringe.
301 venues hosted a diverse selection of work across 53,942 performances in August. 62 countries were represented on Fringe stages, with 17 international showcases at the forefront including Denmark, Australia, South Korea and Canada.
The themes and issues explored by artists in the programme included everything from rebellious women to the paranormal; the apocalypse to nostalgia; queer joy to life with illness; rave and club culture to science and technology. Alongside big names, there was strong representation across emerging talent, those from a working-class background, LGBTQ+, and neurodiverse-led work.
The highest number of accredited journalists in the festival’s history attended, with nearly 1,090 media professionals from 36 countries accredited for this year’s festival. Over 600 artists also attended the annual Meet the Media event, designed to support performers without professional PR support at the festival.
Often recognised as a key entry point for audiences to experience the arts, Edinburgh played host to 320 of the world’s finest street performers, buskers and street artists, who brought excitement to the Mound and Royal Mile as part of Fringe Street Events. In addition, over 37 local schools, charities and community groups took part in the Fringe Days Out scheme, ensuring participation in the festival is open to all, whether here for professional reasons or simply for fun and experience.
Tony Lankester, Chief Executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, said: “What is clear is that the Fringe remains the most important cultural event in the world. Artists remain at the heart of this joyous festival, and we’re consistently in awe of their creative work which often tackles topical issues and examines them through a creative lens.”
“We recognise the many challenges artists, producers and venues face in staging the event, and call on the City of Edinburgh Council, the Scottish Government and the UK Government to continue working with the Fringe community to explore ways to alleviate these challenges.”
“There are no easy answers to the challenging cost of participating in the Fringe, but we know that the will is there to explore some innovative, high impact solutions, and we look forward to advancing the many conversations we’ve begun with stakeholders and partners. This year’s Festival Fringe has felt joyful and exciting, and we thank the artists, the hundreds of venues, promoters, producers, workers and teams that make this fantastic event happen every year.”
“With over 2.6 million tickets issued for 3,893 shows, it is clear that – despite many ongoing challenges facing the Fringe community – it remains the single best platform in the world for artists to showcase their work. It remains a critical step in their professional journey.”
Next year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe will run from 07 – 31 August 2026.
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