Booking Information for 2009

Dates for next festival: 14 - 30 August 2010

Programme announced in June

Booking tickets online

You can have confidence that the Book Festival online ticket-buying system is fully secure. All credit card transactions processed from this site are encrypted to create a secure and convenient service. Tickets will be posted to you unless you are booking less than 7 days before the event. If this is the case you will be advised to collect your tickets from the Entrance Tent in Charlotte Square Gardens on the booking confirmation email which will be sent to you automatically once you have submitted your payment details.

Booking tickets by phone

0845 373 5888
From 8.30am - 6.30pm on Mon 22 Jun
From 10am - 5pm, Mon to Sat, from Tues 23 Jun.
Once the Book Festival has started on 15 Aug, the telephone lines are open from 9.30am - 8.30pm daily.

We expect the first day of booking to be extremely busy. We will do our best to deal with calls quickly however you may not get through immediately. Calls from BT landlines are charged at the local rate, regardless of where you are calling from. Charges will vary from other phone networks - please check with your phone provider.

Booking tickets by post

Please use the booking form at the back of the brochure and post it to: Box Office, Edinburgh International Book Festival, PO BOX 23835, Edinburgh EH2 4WS. You will also be able to download a copy of the brochure from every page of this website or pick up a copy from most bookshops and libraries in Scotland from mid-June. Alternatively email mailinglist@edbookfest.co.uk, ask to fill out a mailing list form, and we will post you a copy of the brochure.

Booking tickets in person

For the first day of booking only
Mon 22 Jun 8.30am - 6.30pm:
Edinburgh International Conference Centre, 150 Morrison Street, Edinburgh.
After the first day of booking
Tues 23 Jun - Thurs 13 Aug, 10am - 5pm, Mon to Sat:
The Hub, Castlehill, Edinburgh EH1 2NE. (Mon-Sat, 9am-7.30pm and Sun 10am-7.30pm from Fri 31 Jul to Thurs 13 Aug.)
Once the Book Festival has opened
From 15 Aug our Box Office counter is on site in Charlotte Square Gardens in the Entrance Tent. Open 9.30am - 8.30pm daily.

Please read our Terms and Conditions of Sale before purchasing tickets.

Ticket prices

Adult events range from £5.00 - £12.00
(£4.00 - £10.00 concessions)
Some adult events are free
Children's events range from £2.50 - £4.00
Some children's events are free

Concession prices are available to:

Over 60s
Students
Disabled people (carer goes free - see details below)
Young Scot cardholders
Registered unemployed
Under 16s

Proof of entitlement will be required.

Payment: we accept Visa / Delta / Maestro / Mastercard. Cheques should be made payable to Edinburgh International Book Festival. Bookings are subject to a £1 booking fee unless tickets are purchased in person (this is applied to each transaction, not each ticket booked). Tickets cannot be exchanged nor money refunded unless an event is cancelled or substantially changed. Where ticket demand is high for sold out events, we may offer a refund, subject to a £1 handling fee - tickets must be returned to the Box Office before a refund can be given and refunds will only be made to the original payment method.

Visitors with disabilities: Please ask our Box Office staff for information or advice for your particular needs when booking. If your disability requires that you need a carer in order to attend our events the carer is entitled to a free ticket, which should be booked at the same time as your own. Free tickets for carers are not available to buy online.

Events and seating: Events are 1 hour long unless otherwise specified in the event listing. All our seating is unreserved (seats don't have numbers) and therefore you can sit anywhere in the auditorium you wish.

Latecomers: Please be considerate and arrive in good time for your event. Latecomers are hugely disruptive to audience members and authors and will not be admitted after the beginning of events. Please allow enough time to pick up tickets (if applicable) and get to the relevant venue. Refunds will not be given to latecomers.

Back to back events: Please do not book events back-to-back (where one event finishes at the same time the other starts). It is extremely unlikely you will get to the second event in time for the start, and we do not admit latecomers (see above).