{"id":694339,"date":"2026-01-14T01:30:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T01:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/694339\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T01:30:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T01:30:16","slug":"edinburgh-horror-festival-to-take-hiatus-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/694339\/","title":{"rendered":"Edinburgh Horror Festival\u00a0to take hiatus in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE EDINBURGH Horror Festival<\/a>, a yearly festival\u00a0showcasing\u00a0horror acts in Edinburgh\u00a0has announced that no festival will be staged this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The horror fest usually takes place in the run up to Hallowee<\/a>n and features a\u00a0varied programme of\u00a0standup<\/a>, theatre, magic, and ghost stories, to name a few,\u00a0all\u00a0attempting\u00a0to scare patrons out of their wits \u2013 or simply entertain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The festival has\u00a0been\u00a0run\u00a0by a group of dedicated volunteers\u00a0since 2016,\u00a0but running it has becoming ever more demanding.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last\u00a0year, in\u00a0particular, has\u00a0been described as particularly taxing by festival organisers, who will now \u201ctake time to refocus and decide on our futures\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Patrons<\/a>Patrons queue outside Banshees Labyrinth for the Edinburgh Horror Festival (C) Edinburgh Horror Festival \/ Instagram<\/p>\n

It is unclear whether the festival will return at all, with organisers\u00a0stating\u00a0that their plan is to reconvene\u00a0at the end of this year\u00a0to decide if they can stage a festival in 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Events under the aegis of The Edinburgh Horror Festival will continue to take place at Banshees Labyrinth<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The gothic, horror-themed pub in Edinburgh\u2019s Old Town has served loyally as the festival\u2019s venue since its\u00a0inception.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a\u00a0statement, festival organisers\u00a0said\u00a0\u201cthis decision was not taken lightly\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They continued: \u201cWe are taking a hiatus from staging the\u00a0Festival\u00a0in 2026. Last year we celebrated our tenth fest, and this year is our tenth\u00a0birthday\u00a0so this decision was not taken lightly. But after ten years, we need a break.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe festival is run entirely by a small group of\u00a0volunteers\u00a0and we all love what we do. But after the 2025 festival we realised just how much harder things felt, how much toll the work was taking, and we know we are not the only ones making this decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLike so many people we are burnt out, or facing personal challenges, or health issues, and we need to take time to refocus and decide on our futures \u2013 both EHF and not. Put simply \u2013\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0tired.\u201d\u00a0
They continued, detailing their plan going forward: \u201cOur plan is to reconvene at the end of this year and decide if\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0able to stage a festival in 2027 once everyone has had a chance to focus on their wellbeing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRunning an event like this is hard, but we have all gotten so much from doing so. We have been able to meet so many amazing creatives, and watch so many of them grow.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will still have a presence, we are not\u00a0folding, or\u00a0closing down.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we need some time to take stock of our lives, the world, the state of the arts scene, and most of all heal from the things the universe throws at us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s event, the tenth Edinburgh Horror Festival, took place\u00a0at the end of\u00a0October.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many expressed\u00a0solidarity\u00a0with the festival\u2019s organisers via social media,\u00a0conveying their sadness at the news but\u00a0encouraging them to take a \u201cmuch deserved\u201d break.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE EDINBURGH Horror Festival, a yearly festival\u00a0showcasing\u00a0horror acts in Edinburgh\u00a0has announced that no festival will be staged this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[209529,748,1102,209530,209531,96580,209532,209533,37497,4884,10838,209534,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-694339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-banshees-labyrinth","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-edinburgh","11":"tag-edinburgh-halloween","12":"tag-edinburgh-horror-festival","13":"tag-edinburgh-festival","14":"tag-festival-cancelled","15":"tag-ghost-tours","16":"tag-gothic","17":"tag-great-britain","18":"tag-halloween","19":"tag-horror-festival","20":"tag-scotland","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115890869022271778","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694339","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=694339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}