Festival box office opens at noon

The Edinburgh Fringe box office opens today, with its first batch of shows.

Although some venues put some tickets on sale earlier this week, this is the first day that the edfringe website will accept sales.

A total of 351 shows will go on sale from midday, includng these comedy hihglights:

Pleasance 

Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee Joseph Morpurgo returns with Highlander 70, described as a showcase of multilayered comedy. Sophie Duker, pictured, is back with Hot Beef Injection, an hour tackling sex and privilege. While Taskmaster star Rosie Jones brings I Can't Tell What She's Saying, covering topics from singledom to gravy and boobs.

Sky Arts Award-winning comedian Elf Lyons presents The Woman on the Edge, an autobiographical observational show about love. Edinburgh Comedy Award-nominated Olga Koch performs Fat Tom Cruise, described as an immersive, genre-defying show exploring recent history. Award-winning comedian Jordan Brookes is back with The Part of You That's Always Screaming, inspired by an incident on a train, which will then tour this autumn.

Returning for another year, Guinness World Record-holder NewsRevue delivers entirely new musical sketches and satirical content examining current affairs, from political upheaval to the rise of artificial intelligence.

Among the newcomers, BBC New Comedy Award finalist Maia Tassalini presents I Was 22 And Stunning, channelling Monica Lewinsky to explore the curse of youth and beauty. Dane Buckley makes his debut hour with material about Irish mammies, Indian grannies and parish priests. Chicken Shop Date co-writer Dom McGovern performs Prize Hog, exploring bodies, blokes and related matters.

The cult hit Garry Starr: Classic Penguins returns, performing ‘every Penguin Classic ever written’. The show, mostly naked but with flippers, promises what reviewers have called 'euphoric chaos'.

The improv programme features Kiell Smith-Bynoe's Kool Story Bro, with celebrity guests and audience participation each night. David Elms Describes a Room sees the veteran improviser return to construct comedy mind palaces with audience input. Olivier Award-winning Showstopper! The Improvised Musical improvises a new musical each performance, while Paul Merton and Suki Webster's Improv Show returns for another year of improvised comedy.

Gilded Balloon 

The first 17 Gilded Balloon shows have been announced as it returns to its Teviot home base after two years away. 

The comedy programme includes Christopher Hall, who has attracted 1.2million social media followers with his Background Singer videos.

Sketch lovers can catch Biscuit Barrel: The 69-Sketch Show returns, as does John Robertson’s The Dark Room, The Improvised Shakespeare Show, Tartan Tabletop: A Dungeons & Dragons Comedy and  Locomotive for Murder: The Improvised Whodunnit.

Underbelly

Bafta winner Jack Rooke - creator of Channel 4’s Big Boys –  revives his debut comedy-theatre hour Good Grief, a decade on from its first Fringe run.

Comic and freestyle rapper Chris Turner returns for a full run, while Geoff Norcott brings his tour show Basic Bloke 2 – There's No Bloke Without Fire to town for a week.

Elsewhere 

Familiar Fringe faces returning to Monkey Barrel Comedy include  Ania Magliano: Peach Fuzz, Sofie Hagen: I Think Some Of This Is My Fault and Lara Ricote: Inkling. 

Sounds Queer to Me at Greenside is ‘a hybrid between stand-up comedy and musical theatre [that’s] filled with dramatic irony, humorous coincidence and poignant introspection’. 

Alastair Clark: On The Record is at PBH's Free Fringe, sharing stories from a near decade working behind the counter of an independent record shop – and performed in an actual independent record shop. 

In Golden Child at Just the Tonic, Irene Woo ‘explores the golden handcuffs of the tech world, the cultural whiplash of being a French-Chinese woman in America and the baffling logic of modern relationships’.

Cabaret character Frank Sanazi brings two shows to Le Monde this year: his solo show A Little Bit of History Re-Putin, plus Unleashed which promises ‘outrageous dark cabaret guest acts’.

Richard Pulsford brings two shows to this year’s Fringe:  the one-liner show Gold Fashioned Jokes at Scottish Comedy Festival  and Yorkshire Dad, Immigrant Mum at Hoots is ‘a nostalgic dive into his parents’ past.

We previously reported on Assembly’s first batch of shows here.

The Fringe runs from August 7 to 31, with most previews from the 5th.

Published: 11 Feb 2026