2026 Venues
This year, most of our programme will take place at one of Edinburgh’s most beloved festival venues, the Pleasance. We’re excited to be back and working in such an inspiring venue, with its rich creative atmosphere and vibrant festival vibes. Look our for special pop up events happening around this city and for full announcements coming soon!
THE PLEASANCE
Pleasance Courtyard
60 Pleasance
Edinburgh
EH8 9TJ
FINGAL HOTEL
Alexandra Dock
Leith
Edinburgh
EH6 7DX
CENTRAL
CHILDREN’S
LIBRARY
George IV Bridge
Edinburgh
EH1 1EG
PORTA LIBRI
167 – 171 Portobello
High Street
Edinburgh
EH15 1EU
teviot debating hall
13 Bristo Square
Edinburgh
EH8 9AJ
VALVONA
AND CROLLA
19 Elm Row
Edinburgh
EH7 4AA
THE
PORTOBELLO
BOOKSHOP
46 Portobello
High Street
Edinburgh
EH15 1DA
DRUMBRAE
LIBRARY HUB
81 Drum Brae Drive
Edinburgh
EH4 7FE
Accessibility Information
the pleasance
Pleasance can be entered in two ways.
1. Via Pleasance Courtyard, which involves a short road covered by cobblestones
2. Via the Sports & Exercise area, which is a longer route, but avoid cobblestones and has a ramp entry
Once inside, the Theatre, Upper Hall and Lomond Room can be accessed via stairs or lift. If the lift is required, it can be accessed via Cabaret Café. To use the lift, please go to reception (or the bar if the reception is not staffed at that moment) and a member of staff will help operate the lift as it is key operated.
An accessible toilet is available next to reception upon entry.
The theatre has permanent space for one wheelchair user and more can be provided with advance notice to remove fixed seating.
A hearing loop is available in the theatre.
A quiet room is available if you need time out. This is in the Music Room on the 1st floor of Pleasance West.
vAlvona & crolla
For wheelchair access, Valvona & Crolla has a ramp that leads into the front shop. There are a few steps up to the Caffe Bar; these have a stair lift, which requires the customer to be able to leave their wheelchair.
dumbrae library hub
Drumbrae Library Hub is fully accessible with ramps to the raised portions of the ground floor, accessible toilets and lifts to the upper floor again with accessible toilets.
Central children's library
Central Children’s Library is on the ground floor. We would advise anyone with buggies and prams to enter through the main buggy the main door to Central Library on 7 George IV Bridge, so the buggies can be left in the foyer. The library is step free, and standard-size wheelchair accessible, with disabled toilet facilities on the ground floor.
BSL Performances 2026
This year we are presenting a number of BSL interpreted events listed below:
Friday 13 November
Words and Wine
5:45 pm - 6:55 pm
Celebrate the start of the weekend by raising a glass with us! Joe Trotter from Edinburgh’s independent wine merchants Great Grog will take you through a tempting array of wines, sharing each drink’s story and history. Drinks will be poetically paired with performances by acclaimed spoken word poet Kate Ireland.
An Evening with Henry Normal
8:00 pm - 9:00 pm
To celebrate the publication of his fourth collected poems anthology, writer, poet and TV producer Henry Normal has concentrated his thousand or so poems into a one-hour show like a tin of Campbell’s soup in a black hole. Comedy, poetry, stories and songs – he’s managed to pack everything into the show and more.
Saturday 14 November
In Conversation: Karen Solie and Sarah Howe
3:00 pm - 3:55 pm
Karen Solie’s 2025 T.S. Eliot Prize winning collection, Wellwater, is described as holding “two sentiments, The world is a beautiful place / The world is a terrible place, in perfect equipoise”. Also shortlisted, Sarah Howe’s Foretokens navigates the complex inheritance of family, language and colonialism. Join them to discuss these luminous collections.
Tracing the Shoreline
4:00 pm - 4:55 pm
Within this year’s festival theme, The Space Between, we’re exploring shorelines, their significance, power and the threat posed by climate crisis to our coastlines. Garry Mackenzie will join us with Firth, a poetic portrait of the Firth of Forth. Alycia Pirmohamed will read from her upcoming collection, as well as her memoir, Shorelines.
Maryville by Joelle Taylor
7:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Join Joelle Taylor for the Scottish Premiere of the staged reading of Maryville: a searing, poetic excavation of fifty years of lesbian counterculture that charts the lives of four butch lesbians through five decades of underground queer history. Directed by Neil Bartlett, with visuals from Sweatmother, Maryville explores the scars, hopes and potentialities of dyke identity and the queer underground.
Sunday 15 November
In Conversation: Anthony Joseph
1:00 pm - 1:55 pm
Anthony Joseph has been celebrated as ‘the leader of the black avant-garde in Britain.’ His new collection, Haunting the Black Air, journeys between London, New York, Trinidad and beyond, moving from unabashed joy to crippling grief. Join the award-winning author for readings from and discussions about this formally daring and emotionally incisive collection.
In Conversation: Naomi Shihab Nye
3:00 pm - 3:55 pm
Don’t miss this rare opportunity to hear Palestinian-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye read live! Join the former Young People’s Poet Laureate for the USA, in conversation with Alycia Pirmohamed, for a mixture of readings and discussion of her work, which is by turns humorous, immediate and urgently political.