Closing date: 10:00 on Wednesday 29 April 2026
Interview date: Tuesday 12 and Thursday 14 May 2026
Start date: Tuesday 14 July 2026
End date: Monday 31 August 2026
Location: Office based, central Edinburgh
The idea at the heart of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is simple: anyone with a desire to perform and a venue willing to host them is welcome. No individual or committee determines who can or cannot perform at the Fringe.
It all began in 1947 with eight companies – six of them from Scotland – taking a risk, turning up uninvited and performing on the ‘fringe’ of the inaugural Edinburgh International Festival. Over 75 years later, the Fringe has grown to become one of the greatest platforms for creative freedom in the world, second only to the Olympics in terms of global ticketed events. In 2024, 3,744 shows took place in 296 venues across Edinburgh.
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society was founded by artists to nurture and uphold the Fringe's values of inclusivity, experimentation and imagination. We exist to support, advise and encourage everyone who wants to participate in the Fringe, provide information and assistance to audiences, and celebrate the Fringe and what it stands for all over the world.
The primary responsibility of the Box Office Customer Service Assistants is to provide an exceptionally high standard of service to the customers of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society. Under the guidance of the Customer Service Coordinator and Supervisors, a successful applicant will be responsible for dealing with customer queries, issues, and occasionally complaints.
The role will also support the Access Booking Coordinator by processing bookings for customers with additional access requirements. You will work closely with the Box Office management team and wider Society to ensure that the Fringe ethos of excellent customer service is adhered to.
The ideal candidate will have previous customer services experience and the confidence and patience to deal with hundreds of customers on a daily basis in a fast-paced environment. This position reports to the Box Office Operations Manager.
Role and responsibilities
The successful candidate will perform a wide range of duties, including but not limited to:
- dealing with customer issues, queries, and complaints in person, over the phone and email
- following Fringe Box Office policies and procedures to ensure the professional, efficient and effective operation of the Customer Services team
- assisting the Access Bookings Coordinator in processing bookings for customers with specific access requirements
- offering advice to the Box Office Assistants on how best to deal with customer queries
- assisting customers to collect physical tickets if not able to utilise e-ticketing
- assisting with other festivals or events that are ticketed through the 180 Box Office if the Fringe workload allows
- dealing with general enquiries for the Fringe Society via phone and email.
Person specification
Essential
- Experience in a demanding customer facing role.
- Polite, professional and confident communication skills, both oral and written, when dealing with the public.
- Ability to work calmly and efficiently in a high-pressure environment and be flexible and responsive to changing demands on time.
- Experience of offering support and advice to colleagues.
- Proficient computer skills including a good working knowledge of Office 365 packages.
Desirable
- Experience of working in a festival environment.
- Knowledge of general box office procedures and practices.
- Experience of working with a computerised ticketing system.
- Experience of interacting with people with additional access requirements.
Rate of pay and working hours
The rate of pay for this post is £13.45 per hour.
Normal working hours are 37.5 hours per week, worked over 5 days, with a one-hour unpaid lunch break. In the run up to and during the festival your hours will be set by a rota which will be issued in advance to cover the opening hours of 9.00 – 21:00. Any additional work beyond the hours detailed below will be mutually agreed in advance and will be paid at the standard hourly rate.
We are a flexible working employer and therefore are happy to discuss flexible working at any stage of the application process. Due to the nature of this role and the festival, we are unable to offer remote working for this position. We can offer varied start and finish times and core hours with flexibility around them, alongside the option of ad hoc remote working when suitable within the needs of the organisation.
We use positive action under section 159 of the Equality Act in relation to disability or race. This means that if we have two candidates of equal merit in our process, we will seek to take forward the D/deaf, disabled, Black, Asian or ethnically diverse candidate in order to diversify our staff team.
The Fringe are active members of the Festivals Edinburgh Sustainability Working group and include climate action as one of the headline targets in the Fringe development goals. As part of the commitments of this work, all Fringe staff members are expected to assist with the Fringe Society’s environmental goals and consider these in all elements of your work.
We are also committed to maintaining the open-access policy of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome applications from all sectors of the community. We are also proud to be a Disability Confident Employer and aim to successfully employ and retain disabled people and those with health conditions. We expect employees to support these commitments and to assist in their realisation.