The Edinburgh Fringe Started With Eight Theatre Companies Nobody Invited

The world's largest arts festival began as an act of quiet defiance — eight theatre companies showing up to Edinburgh without an invitation, and simply performing anyway.

1947: The Official Festival, and the Unofficial Response

The Edinburgh International Festival launched in 1947, conceived as a major post-war cultural event to help reunite and rebuild European artistic life. Post-war Scotland had its own thriving, if poorly funded, community and touring drama scene, and several of these theatre groups decided, without any invitation from the official Festival organizers, to perform in Edinburgh at the same time.

Eight Companies, Smaller Venues

Eight theatre companies took part in that first unofficial wave — seven performed in Edinburgh itself, using smaller, alternative venues since the official International Festival had claimed the city's major theatres, while one company staged a version of the medieval morality play Everyman roughly 20 miles north, at Dunfermline Abbey in Fife.

Where the Word 'Fringe' Actually Came From

Those first uninvited companies initially called themselves the 'Festival Adjuncts' — the far catchier name 'Fringe' wasn't coined until the following year, generally credited to Robert Kemp, a Scottish playwright and journalist, who wrote that 'round the fringe of official Festival drama, there seems to be more private enterprise than before.' The name stuck immediately and has defined the event ever since.

From Eight Uninvited Companies to the World's Largest Arts Festival

The 2027 Fringe marks its 80th edition, running August 6-30, during which Edinburgh's population roughly doubles and the programme runs to thousands of individual shows across venues ranging from purpose-built theatres to rooms above pubs seating twenty people. No formal invitation, application, or curation process governs who can perform — a direct, unbroken continuation of the original 1947 companies' decision to simply show up and start performing anyway.

Frequently Asked Questions

Did the Edinburgh Fringe start on purpose, as an organized event?

Not really — it began when eight theatre companies showed up uninvited alongside the official 1947 Edinburgh International Festival and performed anyway, without any central organization behind them.

Who coined the term 'Fringe'?

Robert Kemp, a Scottish playwright and journalist, in 1948 — the year after the first uninvited companies performed.

Does the Fringe have an application or curation process today?

No — any performer can take part by booking a venue, essentially the same open, uncurated structure that defined the original 1947 companies' approach.