Beyond the crowds, Edinburgh’s festivals create connections that reach across the city. We explore their wider impact - and the EICC’s role in making the magic happen.
FOR A FEW WEEKS every August, Edinburgh becomes a different city. Streets are packed, pavements become performance spaces and venues appear in almost every corner. But alongside the hustle and bustle is something harder to quantify: a city animated by culture, creativity and human connection.
It started, almost 80 years ago, with an idea: to bring people together through culture. Edinburgh International Festival was born from the ruins of the Second World War, and offered what the Lord Provost called ‘a flowering of the human spirit.’
That spirit was an inclusive one. When eight acts arrived uninvited to perform they stuck around on the ‘fringe’ - a tradition that flourishes today in the Edinburgh Fringe.
Today, the festivals are woven into the fabric of the city. Reaching far beyond any tourism initiative, they touch every aspect of economic, cultural and civic life. The 2026 Edinburgh Festivals Impact Study reports that 79% of Edinburgh residents say the festival is part of what makes the city a special place to live. Indeed, locals make up one third of all festival audiences. The economic impact hit £558m in 2025, benefiting local hotels, restaurants, bars and shops. Yet the financial return is secondary to the cultural outreach: community engagement extends to 377 community groups and 694 schools.
Edinburgh’s festivals are - at their heart - about people.
Pleasance at EICC
If that is what the festivals bring to Edinburgh, what does EICC bring to the Fringe?
Each summer we stage our own transformation, from an international conference centre to one of the largest venues in the Fringe. This year, our technical team created six separate theatres across four rooms - moving conference equipment, installing drapes and rigging, reconfiguring PA systems and laying dancefloors. It’s a major logistical challenge - and a rewarding one.
“They love to know they are on a stage where Cirque Eloise mesmerised … where Sarah Millican and Jimmy Carr made thousands laugh and where charities like Amnesty International and Barnardo's raised thousands”
– Richard Lloyd, EICC
“It’s satisfying when the team comes together with the performing company and everything falls into place,” says Richard Lloyd, Head of ICT and Technical Operations (pictured above with team). “Suddenly, the audience applauds the end of the show and we strike a set, sweep the floor and rebuild for the next audience - all in as little as 40 minutes.”
The novelty of performing in a space that also hosts prestigious international conferences is not lost on the performers, either: “They love to know they are on a stage where Cirque Eloise mesmerised and Cirque Berserk astounded. Where Sarah Millican and Jimmy Carr made thousands laugh and where charities like Amnesty International and Barnardo's raised thousands to support their causes.”
A chance to connect
Edinburgh-born performer Greg Sinclair saw that first-hand when he brought his children’s show Tongue Twister to Pleasance at EICC this year.
Living at the bottom of the Royal Mile, Greg is familiar with the other side of August in Edinburgh: the crowds, upheaval and practical frustrations. But for him, those pressures coexist with what the festivals make possible.
“Those meaningful engagements with younger people and their families are the reminder that it’s been worth it.”
– Greg Sinclair, Performer
At EICC, that included an unusual luxury during the frenetic pace of the Fringe: time and space to connect with families after the curtain came down.
“It felt nice not to rush that relationship with the audience,” says Greg. Children came out eager to share tongue twisters of their own – including in Hindi and Tamil – while one ten-year-old, inspired by the show, returned having invented a Greek tongue twister. “That’s the point,” says Greg. “Those meaningful engagements with younger people and their families are the reminder that it’s been worth it.”
Greg’s experience reflects something much wider. More than 90% of festival audiences say they get the chance to see things they otherwise wouldn’t - a reminder that access to new ideas and experiences remains one of the festivals’ most powerful legacies.
Unexpected moments
At the EICC, we’re committed to extending that access even further - and one of the ways we achieve that is through our Community Ticket Programme. Sustainability Manager Rob Turnbull explains: “It started in 2022 as an initiative to reach out to the local community, and this year we gave out 150 free tickets and food and drink vouchers to charities including Children’s Hospices Across Scotland, Edinburgh Food Project, Edinburgh School Uniform Bank and Social Bite, to name just a few.”
It’s a small but tangible way of ensuring the opportunities created inside the venue extend beyond those who might ordinarily buy a ticket.
But not every connection created by the festivals can be planned or measured.
For all the complexity August brings, some of its magic lies in unexpected moments. For Greg, that might mean arriving home and hearing a choir singing somewhere nearby.
“It’s the unexpected magic of it,” he says.
Each August, we love to give some of that magic a home.