Edinburgh Art Festival – making accessibility a priority with their own bus

Edinburgh Art Festival which began on Friday takes place in several city venues, and organisers have announced that there is a tram replacement bus service during the festival to help patrons reach them.

There is no need to book a space on the bus. Simply jump on outside Dishoom on St Andrew Square.

The bus service leaves from St Andrew Square hourly from 10.30am until the last service at 4.30pm. Going the other direction the bus leaves the Shore stop outside 47 Queen Charlotte Street hourly from 10.30am until the last service at 4.30pm.

The bus is free and will take passengers to The Shore and back. Full details are here.

The festival organisers hope that anyone who uses the service will go to their Festival venues at Leith Theatre, Custom Lane, Browns of Leith, The Shore, the new EAF permanent home at 92 Constitution Street and Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop (ESW). The festival begins and ends at the Biscuit Factory and there are sculptural installations on Calton Hill.

Full details of the EAF26 programme here.

There are venues spread across all four corners of Edinburgh and here are some of the highlights:

• WEST
• To the West of the City there is a Festival within a Festival during EAF – Jupiter Rising on 22 August.
• A separate exhibition at Jupiter Artland, In Pride, In Piety, In Vigilance, is a solo exhibition of new work by Glasgow-based Irish artist and performer Sgàire Wood.
• There is a sound performance Zifzafa, named after an Arabic word describing a wind that shakes everything in its path. This centres on the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights, where 30 planned wind turbines will flood the region with a relentless mechanical roar.

• AT THE BOTANICS
• Davi Pontes + Sebastião Abreu’s Serial Component on Sunday 23 August is a choreographic research project and performance developed by Brazilian artist Davi Pontes, unfolding between the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s Around a Tree installation and Pinacoteca de São Paulo.

• CRAIGMILLAR NOW
• Level Up: Block Party is one of a series of events hosted by EAF celebrating the life and legacy of Sandra George. Hosted at Craigmillar Now, where her vast archive is held, the social gathering co-curated by Christian Noelle Charles and Ria Andrews celebrates George’s ethos of “starting from the level” with music, movement, food, and collective joy. This will include a panel discussion with the National Union of Journalists Representing Communities takes inspiration from Sandra George in her role as a journalist.

• COMMUNITY WELLBEING COLLECTIVE
• Common Thread: Sandra George, Wester Hailes + Community Action brings Sandra George’s works to the Community Wellbeing Collective in Wester Hailes with a social gathering and shared meal. 

• AT THE PALESTINE MUSEUM
• EAF partners with the Palestine Museum on Dundas Street for a new exhibition presented by Mo’min Swaitat of Majazz Project and Palestinian Sound Archive, featuring the installation of a mobile loudspeaker system often used at Bedouin weddings, looping a sonic mix of rare recordings.

• AT 92 CONSTITUTION STREET
• At EAF’s new permanent space at 92 Constitution Street (EAF @ 92), Love Bites Back is an exhibition of work by Del LaGrace Volcano drawn from the Queer Archive of Resistance, focusing on photographs made in the UK, including Edinburgh, between 1982 and 1995.

• AT CUSTOM LANE
• At Custom Lane, Carnal Desires is a rare exhibition of work by Sadao Hasegawa, revealing the under-recognised and largely unseen work of one of post-war Japan’s most influential gay fetish artists.

• AT BROWN”S OF LEITH
• The EAF Welcome Space at Brown’s of Leith will also offer a place to arrive, pause, and begin exploring the 2026 programme. In town, on Calton Hill, EAF presents a newly installed commission by sculptor Emii Alrai, whose colossal, fragmented relics explore the cultural power and contested political histories of archeological ruins.

PHOTOGRAPHY

A focus on archives and photography runs through this year’s festival with the
largest ever presentation of photography by Sandra George at City Art Centre. Start from the Level includes over 200 photographs, showcasing George’s powerful and empowering archive and the largest presentation of work by Sandra George to date. She devoted her life to working with communities, documenting and developing vital social-action projects in Edinburgh for over thirty years, from the 1980s onwards. An extensive programme of events at the City Art Centre celebrating her photography including sharing events with family, friends and colleagues, and new responses to her archive of work will also take place, including a panel discussion with the National Union of Journalists, of which she was a member.

In partnership with Craigmillar Now, there will also be archive deep dive events in Wester Hailes with the Community Wellbeing Collective, where she lived and worked, as well as a block party celebrating her legacy and community at Craigmillar Now. Craigmillar Now also presents A Magic Lantern, a powerful and sensitive photography exhibition from Niddrie photographer and former community worker Lee McCormack. Lee’s personal, joyful images capture pioneering art and community projects across Scotland between the late 1970s to the early 2000s. Among People at Stills is a major survey of internationally renowned documentary and portrait photographer Jillian Edelstein. Born in South Africa and now based in London, Edelstein has spent more than forty years documenting people, communities across the world, and defining moments of contemporary history. Wendy McMurdo: The Digital Mirror at National Galleries Scotland:Portrait charts 20 years of McMurdo’s photographic reflections on childhood, the digital world, learning and make-believe. The National Galleries of Scotland is also hosting the first major museum exhibition of Catherine Opie’s work to be shown in Scotland.

Taking place at the Royal Scottish Academy, Catherine Opie: To Be Seen showcases nearly 80 photographic portraits by Opie alongside a selection of portraits from Scotland’s national art collection, prompting questions around the who, why and how of portraits. Come face to face with Opie’s mentors and collaborators, queer communities, children, surfers, high school footballers and political crowds that she makes visible through her work, as well as self-portraits of Opie herself.

Culture Secretary Màiri McAllan said: “The Edinburgh Art Festival’s diverse city-wide programme underlines its outstanding international reputation for presenting ambitious, artist-led work, which brings together Scottish talent with some of the most significant contemporary artists from around the world.

“The Scottish Government is proud to support the festival, with an increase in multi-year funding from Creative Scotland as well as through the Expanded Festivals Fund.”

The EAF 2026 programme is at this link.