The Fringe Society works year-round with schools across Edinburgh to ensure the city’s children and young people can experience the benefit of the festival. A former schoolhouse, the new Fringe Central at 6 Infirmary Street will play a key role in how we continue and expand that work.
We’ve focused on schools that are close to the new building, including Royal Mile Primary, Sciennes Primary and James Gillespie’s High School. Our aim is to get the students and teachers at these schools thinking about how the Fringe could benefit them, so they can make full use of the new Fringe Central once its doors open in 2026.
At Royal Mile Primary School, we’ve worked with Primary 5 pupils, introducing them to a range of different show styles and genres to better acquaint them with what the Fringe has to offer. In August we arranged a class visit to the festival, taking in shows, street performances and a spell at our Community Stage; following the Fringe, we’ve arranged a series of visits and workshops that will continue into spring 2026, exploring theatre, spoken word, puppetry and musicals, plus a look behind the scenes at the Edinburgh Playhouse.
We’ve also worked with Primary 4 students at Sciennes Primary School, one of the largest primary schools that sits within the overall footprint of the Fringe. Sciennes pupils performed on our Community Stage at Fringe 2025; since then, they’ve had a day of workshops spanning theatre, spoken word, circus and puppetry, all of which fed into performances for their classmates.
At James Gillespie’s High School, our Artist Development Manager has attended a careers evening to discuss jobs in the arts, and we’ve arranged for local spoken word group Loud Poets to deliver writing and performance workshops with the Advanced Higher English students.
We’re not doing this work alone – one of our construction partners, Linear, has also been visiting the schools, sharing insights on the processes and materials used to create the new home and offering perspectives on careers in construction. They also hosted a competition with Royal Mile Primary School and Sciennes Primary School to design an on-site health and safety poster.
You can be part of the new Fringe Central
We’re delighted to have the support of DCMS and other partners in funding this project. However, there is still a lot more we want to accomplish – find out how you can support the new Fringe Central:
