{"id":530159,"date":"2025-10-27T00:46:51","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T00:46:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/530159\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T00:46:51","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T00:46:51","slug":"review-tags-fest-2025-fruitmarket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/530159\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: TAGS Fest 2025, Fruitmarket"},"content":{"rendered":"

Edinburgh\u2019s TAGS Fest \u2013 the Tabletop and Graphic Storytelling Festival \u2013 returned to the Fruitmarket this weekend. It\u2019s a must-visit for any fan of indie role-playing games (TTRPGs), graphic novels, and comics. This is a vital celebration of the small press, bringing together a vast array of talent under one roof.<\/p>\n

A Celebration of Small Press<\/p>\n

The \u201cindie\u201d label is crucial here. We aren\u2019t talking about mainstream giants like Dungeons & Dragons. TAGS Fest is all about the small press publishers, the creators who often have a day job (or two) and produce their games and comics as a true labour of love.<\/p>\n

This is the heart of the festival: people publishing their work as a passion, often after working one or two other jobs.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most prominent game on display was Carved in Stone, a TTRPG focusing on Scotland\u2019s Pictish heritage. It was launched via Kickstarter in 2021 by Dungeons on a Dime, a company now impressively rebranded as Stout Stoat Press (whose director, Brian Tyrrell, co-organises the festival).<\/p>\n

Other highlights included co-organiser Eve Greenwood\u2019s Quindrie Press, the Glasgow-based publisher Lost Pages, and talents like Amy Lockwood, Stephen Fraser, Will Tempest, and Broken Engine Comics, showcasing the sheer breadth of creativity.<\/p>\n

It was also great to see La Belle Aventure, the fantastic shop from Leith Walk that brings the best of French graphic novels and comics to Edinburgh, who were also present and hosting panels.<\/p>\n

More Than a Market<\/p>\n

The Fruitmarket is hosting TAGS Fest again, and it\u2019s a \u201cfantastic location.\u201d It\u2019s central, easy to get to, and the space itself is light and airy. The layout comfortably accommodated over 50 stalls, and the downstairs cafe is exactly what you need for a quick top-up.<\/p>\n

But TAGS Fest isn\u2019t just a market. This year featured a dedicated Board Game Zone curated by Ancient Robot Games, alongside a full weekend schedule of talks and panels. This transforms it from a simple shopping trip into a proper community event.<\/p>\n

With creators travelling from England and all over Scotland, the festival\u2019s weekend-long run felt entirely appropriate. You could get a good dose of the festival in \u201can hour and a bit\u201d just whizzing through the stalls, but with the added games and talks, it was wise to set aside a full afternoon.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Overall<\/p>\n

For fellow geeks, TAGS Fest is more than worth your time. With such a high calibre of local and independent talent on display, it\u2019s \u201calmost sinful not to go\u201d and offer your support. It\u2019s hard to visit as a comic or RPG fan without buying something. This is a festival worth supporting, and one we hope to see return for many years.<\/p>\n

Links<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Edinburgh\u2019s TAGS Fest \u2013 the Tabletop and Graphic Storytelling Festival \u2013 returned to the Fruitmarket this weekend. It\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,171767,4884,712,76851,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-530159","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edinburgh","10":"tag-fruitmarket","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-scotland","13":"tag-tags","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115443377906285996","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}