How to Book

Our Box Office is currently open 10:00–17:00, Monday to Friday.

Please email boxoffice@edbookfest.co.uk with any enquiries or phone our team on 0345 373 5888.

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. 

Box Office phoneline: 0345 373 5888

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

Looking forward to booking tickets with us? We've listed a quick step-by-step guide to help you get familiar with our new website booking process. Visit our 'How to Book' guide here.

If you're having trouble, you can call our Box Office at 0345 373 5888.

During the Festival, 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.