Your visit FAQ

You can find us at Edinburgh Futures Institute, 1 Lauriston Place, Edinburgh, EH3 9EF, from Sat 15 – Sun 30 August 2026. Our main entrance is just off Middle Meadow Walk at the junction with Porter’s Walk. You can find more detailed information on where we are and how to get to us here.

The 2026 Book Festival programme will be released in the spring. Look out for our first announcements in late April. Sign up to our mailing list to make sure you’re the first to hear news about our events.

This is a big question – no two events are the same. Our usual event format features an author with a chairperson sitting on comfy chairs. There’s chat, sometimes divided opinions, but there’s always appreciation of each other. The conversation flows and before you know it, it could be your turn to join in with a question or two. 

We also offer events with several writers discussing a topic together in a panel, interactive workshops, musical performances, podcast recordings, and events which involve food and drink. And lots of fun hands-on activities for our littler audiences too.

Usually, the author or authors sign their book after the event, so you could meet them, or even see them wandering around the Book Festival.

All sorts! Whatever kind of event you prefer, we’ve probably got something to fit the bill. We’ve previously offered walking tours, quizzes, ceilidhs, treasure hunts for kids, theatrical performances, live musical gigs, creative workshops, wine tastings, shared meals, and lots more. Books are always at the heart of what we do, but our events can go far beyond.

Yes, lots! Children are our favourite audience members (don’t tell the grown-ups!), and we have a jam-packed programme of events just for kids and families every year, as well as a growing Young Adults programme. The Book Festival children’s programme includes chances to meet your favourite characters, incredible authors and illustrators, storytelling sessions, and creative activities to keep children absorbed and entertained.

To help you find the right event for little readers, we flag our programme with a recommended age range from 0-18 years. These are decided in collaboration with publishers, but are intended to give you guidance only – you know your child and their appetites and interests best. If you need further information on any events to make the best decision, drop us a line at boxoffice@edbookfest.co.uk and we'll be happy to help. 

We know it’s not always possible to join us in person, so where possible, we’ll bring events to you wherever you are. We work with many local libraries to stream events in the community and offer access on our website. We also livestream many events in our largest venues, Venue T and McEwan Hall, with even more events from other venues being made available on demand following the end of the Festival. Our livestream and on demand events are available on a Donate What You Can basis.

Some authors take part remotely from wherever they are in the world. They will appear on a screen in the venue, usually joined by a chairperson or other speakers on stage in the venue. Anyone appearing remotely will be highlighted in the programme. 

No Festival would be complete without plentiful food, drink, and space to kick back, so you'll find food trucks from a range of independent suppliers in The Courtyard, and there's an indoor café, Canopy, on Lauriston Place with a host of tasty treats. And there are lots of cosy nooks inside where you can hang out and stay dry if summer turns reliably Scottish.

Drinking water taps are plentiful inside Edinburgh Futures Institute, so you can fill up as you go, and glasses of water are also available from our Bar in the Courtyard.

You’re welcome to bring your own food and soft drinks to enjoy outdoors or in our indoor seating areas – there’s plenty of space, and even kid sized tables in our Kids Zone. 

The Canopy café and restaurant are run by the University of Edinburgh. Their opening hours will be updated on this page ahead of the Festival.

Our Festival Bookshop is brought to you by our retail partners Waterstones, and we’ve filled our shelves with an array of titles from visiting authors, related literature, and local publishers. You’ll also find exclusive copies you won’t get anywhere else.

Our friendly roving photographers and video creators will be present throughout the Festival, capturing images and interviews with visitors and authors. If you’d prefer not to be in any photos, please let the photographer or a member of our team know. 

Some of our theatres will have a range of fixed and roving camera to capture and broadcast live footage of the authors on stage and may also capture shots of the audience watching or asking questions. 

You’ll find plenty of places dotted throughout the site to leave a buggy, and we have bike racks on Middle Meadow Walk and in our Courtyard. Buggies cannot be taken into our theatres, so please leave your buggy outside in one of our dedicated spaces. Please note: these are not staffed, and items are left at your own risk. 

We know how easy it can be to lose track of things in the excitement of the Festival. If think you’ve lost something whilst on our site please, fill out this form. If your item is found, our team will use the contact details provided to reach out and arrange for you to be reunited with your item. 

Most authors in our programme sign copies of their books immediately after their event. No need to book, simply turn up and join the queue. You’ll be pointed in the right direction by our Front of House team (look out for their fetching orange T-shirts).

We no longer offer a large outdoor screen due to cost and limitations on space.

Our printed brochures are available at branches of Waterstones across Scotland, as well as libraries and independent bookshops throughout the central belt. To minimise our carbon emissions, we encourage our audiences to pick one up from these locations, or use our website to browse events (you can also view the brochure as a PDF here). If you’re not near a brochure location, or would prefer a brochure to be sent to you, you can request one here. After 9 July we will no longer be posting brochures. 

From September to April: Please email boxoffice@edbookfest.co.uk with any enquiries.  

Before the Festival: 10:00–17:00 Monday to Friday 
During the Festival: 09:30–20:45 daily 

Our Box Office phone lines are currently closed. 

We have a small friendly team dealing with phone bookings and enquiries; please only use the phoneline if you cannot book on the website. It will help to reduce wait times for customers who cannot book in any other way or need assistance. We will do our best to deal with calls quickly, however you may not get through immediately. 

Calls are charged at the same rate as a local call to a landline. Please check your mobile contract as network charges may differ. 

Our Box Office counter is located just off Middle Meadow Walk just outside the Book Festival entrance at Edinburgh Futures Institute and open daily from Saturday 15 August: 09:30–20:45. Tickets cannot be bought in person before this date. 

All livestreamed events are Donate What You Can
Events for children range from £0 to £6 for children, and £0 to £8 for adults.
Events for young adults range from £0 - £15.50
Events for adults range from £0 - £21 and some are Pay What You Can (see below)
Creative workshops and special events have variable pricing.

We believe everyone should have the opportunity to enjoy the wonders of storytelling, creativity, and inspiring conversation at the Book Festival. That’s why we offer reduced ticket prices for anyone over 60, students, those under 30, recipients of Income Support, and visitors with disabilities (assistants go free – see below for details). Concession prices for each event are listed in brackets. Tickets for those over 60 are £14.50 unless otherwise stated. The £6 child ticket is for under 18s.

We offer a Pay What You Can (PWYC) pricing option for some of our in-person events and all our livestreamed events. PWYC makes the Festival more accessible to all book lovers, and you can select how much you can pay at point of booking.

By purchasing at our standard ticket price (£15.50 full price), you help us continue offering reduced ticket prices to those who need it most, as well as supporting the Book Festival. As a charity, we rely on ticket sales and donations to carry out our work throughout the year.

If you need a support person or aide to attend events at the Book Festival, they are entitled to a free assistance ticket. Contact the Box Office by email boxoffice@edbookfest.co.uk as soon as possible after booking your ticket. Please do this even if you book a disabled concession ticket - this does not automatically provide a free companion ticket or specific seating. Free assistance tickets cannot be booked online. For popular events or on the first day of bookings, we recommend purchasing an extra ticket for your assistant, then contacting the Box Office for reimbursement. However, if this creates a financial barrier to booking, we do also have a small number of tickets held back for this purpose.  

If you are bringing a baby under two years to an event for older children, please request a free baby ticket from the Box Office on the day of the event. If the event is created for children under two, you will need to buy an event ticket as usual. Please keep babies on an accompanying adult's lap throughout the event. 

We accept Visa / Maestro / Mastercard. We do not charge any booking fees. If you’ve chosen to Pay What You Can to watch an event, your payment will be treated as a donation to the Book Festival Charity, and you will be asked if you’d like to Gift Aid it (UK taxpayers only). 

Tickets can be exchanged or refunded when an event is cancelled or substantially changed. Where demand is high for sold-out events, we may accept returns at our discretion. If you’ve booked a ticket to watch an event in-person you’ll be able to watch the event online for free if you find you can’t attend (if the event is being livestreamed). Refunds are not available to latecomers. 

All venues have unreserved seating. Find out more about our venues here.

Please allow yourself plenty of time to get to the event venue. We may not be able to t admit latecomers after the start of events in some of our venues due to layout and nature of the events (some of which are filmed). If you are late, we can’t guarantee we can seat you. Latecomers are not entitled to a refund.

Our largest capacity venues, Venue T at EFI ,and McEwan Hall are set up to serve both in-person and online audiences. The theatre will have a range of fixed and roving cameras to capture and broadcast live footage of the authors on stage and may also capture shots of the audiences watching or asking questions.

Lots of our online events are available to watch on demand on the website’s video player pages immediately after the live broadcast – and more events are added to watch on demand in the months following the Festival.  Please visit the individual event page to see how long a specific event may be available on demand as this can vary. Not all livestreamed events are available on demand, depending on permissions.

We have a range of events at the Book Festival that offer British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation – these have all been selected in conversation with our friends at Deaf Action.

The BSL interpreters are present on stage with the authors and hosts. To make sure you’ve got the best sight of our interpreters, please let our Box Office team know ahead of time so we can make sure that you’re seated in the best spot. 

Email: boxoffice@edbookfest.co.uk 
Phone: 0345 373 5888 

Before the event, please make yourself known to our Front of House team, and they will lead you to your seat.

Did you know that you can request a BSL interpreter for any event in the programme?

How it works: 

• Book tickets: Buy tickets to the event you want to see in the usual way. [Link to how to book]
• Get in touch: Please get in touch with us right after booking your ticket to request an interpreter. You can email at bsl@edbookfest.co.uk or phone 0345 373 5888.
• Wait for confirmation: We process requests weekly across June and July and will make arrangements with the interpreters before confirming your request. If we are unable to fulfil a BSL request, we can exchange your ticket or refund you. Please note that we cannot accept requests after 30 July.
• Enjoy the event: Please do make yourself known to our Front of House team when you arrive the venue, and they will lead you to a seat close to the stage.

To make communications easier at the Festival for our d/Deaf visitors, we’re offering easy access to BSL interpreters through SignLive, a deaf-owned organisation based in the UK.

How it works:

• Scan the QR Code: There’s no need to download an app, just use your phone or tablet to scan the SignLive QR codes located around our site. You can find these at the Box Office.
• Connect with an interpreter: Once you scan the code, you’ll be connected with a BSL interpreter, meaning you can have a real-time chat with our team.

We use a combination of live captioners and AI captions to ensure that we can caption as many Book Festival events as possible. Events with live captioners and AI captions are marked in our brochure and on our website. We are keen to receive feedback from audience members using our AI captions, so we can seek to improve this service.

Captions will be provided on screens on the stage, either in the middle of the stage or on the sides. To make sure you’re having the best sight of the screens, please let our Access or Box Office team know ahead of time so we can make sure that you’re seated in the best spot. And before the event, please make yourself known to our Front of House team who will lead you to your seat.

We have sound enhancement systems (i.e. infrared and audio induction loops) in our theatres at Edinburgh Futures Institute.

Headsets can be collected from the Box Office or you can connect to the loops with your own hearing aid by switching to the T position.

We wish that everyone who wanted to join us in-person could, but we know it’s not that simple, which is why, where possible, we bring events to you wherever you are. Most of the events in our largest venues, T and McEwan Hall, will be livestreamed and available to watch both in-person and online.

We have a dedicated access queue for all of our events. This allows audience members with access requirements to sit down while waiting and have early access to their seats. If you have been in touch with us already about your access requirements (for instance, about a wheelchair space, or needing sightline of a BSL interpreter) please make yourself known to our friendly Front of House team who will show you to your reserved access seat. 

If you have a wheelchair or need to sit in a specific area (an aisle seat, for example) please let the Box Office know as soon as possible when you book, or at least two days before your event on 0345 373 5888 or email access@edbookfest.co.uk. 

We want to ensure that the most accessible seats are available for those who need them, so due to space and demand we cannot also reserve seats for others in your group.

We have wheelchairs and a mobility scooter available on-site at the Edinburgh Futures Institute which you can borrow for the day. These can be collected at the Box Office, or from our Access Office if you would like to use them. 

Please get in touch with our Box Office team on 0345 373 5888 or email access@edbookfest.co.uk to reserve a wheelchair ahead of your event. You're also welcome to ask our teams about wheelchairs on the day and we will do what we can to help, subject to availability of equipment. 

Assistance dogs are welcome within all Festival areas. Please let the Box Office know at least a day before your event that you will be accompanied by your assistance dog so we can make sure you are seated somewhere suitable.

Wearing the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower lanyard discreetly indicates to our trained staff that you may need additional support or help as you navigate the Book Festival site and attend events. Lanyards are available at the Box Office and from our Access team.

We know that the needs of each individual are unique, and we take a bespoke approach to supporting each audience member with access requirements. We have a dedicated Access team who will help support your visit in any way they can.  They’re happy to answer any questions or chat to you about how best we can make your Festival experience a relaxing and enjoyable one. Email access@edbookfest.co.uk, visit the Access Office on Level 1 (nearby Venue B) or ask the Front of House team to get in touch with the team while you’re on site.

We have a First Aid team in the Edinburgh Futures Institute who can help you if you need assistance, and a private First Aid treatment room.

We have toilets for everyone, including gender neutral toilets, single gender toilets,  wheelchair accessible toilets with access from both left and right, and a fully accessible Changing Places toilet (complete with a hoist and changing table, though we ask that you please provide your own sling). 

There’s a lot to see and do at the Festival, and sometimes you might want to take a moment to yourself if it all feels a bit much. For those who would like to step away from the hubbub of the main areas, we will have a dedicated Quiet Space where you can take the time and space you need. It has comfortable seating, soft lighting, weighted blankets, ear defenders, and is very peaceful.