Closing date: 10:00 GMT on Tuesday 06 January 2026
Interview date: Friday 16 January 2026
Start date: Monday 09 February 2026
End date: Friday 15 May 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, 3,745 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.
We are seeking to appoint an experienced individual to the position of Programme and Registration Assistant, who will report to the Venues and Registration Manager. This role sits within the Box Office and Technology team and exists to assist artists in the registration of their shows with the Fringe Society, prepare and proof data (listings information, ticketing information, accessibility information and advertising) for the printed Fringe programme and edfringe.com, ensuring production deadlines are met.
Role and responsibilities
You will perform a wide range of duties, including but not limited to:
- Assisting artists and venues to register their shows using EdFringeware, the Fringe Society's show and venue registration database, and troubleshooting any issues as they occur.
- Checking, following up and editing data, venue information, images, copy, adverts and enhanced performance information electronically submitted via EdFringeware for inclusion in the official Fringe programme, edfringe.com and the Fringe spp.
- Contacting artists and venue managers regarding missing / incomplete / misleading show information and any other related queries.
- Meeting deadlines for successfully getting shows signed off and communicated to the Box Office for all on sales.
- Meeting deadlines for the successful publication of the Fringe programme.
- Updating details of shows listed on edfringe.com.
- Proofreading the Fringe programme after typesetting.
- Assisting in the administration of other artist-related projects such as artist advertising, venue registration and enhanced performance listings.
- Identifying significant and topical programme themes from registered shows for use by the wider team and stakeholders.
Person specification
Essential
- Excellent English language skills.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills and proven customer service experience, with the ability to explain processes and procedures to a wide variety of artists in a confident, clear and diplomatic manner.
- Methodical approach with attention to detail.
- Experience of proofing.
- A strong commitment to a team environment with a flexible approach to undertaking this.
- Good working knowledge of Microsoft Office and the ability to learn new software quickly, particularly Microsoft Excel.
- Ability to remain calm under pressure and respond promptly and effectively to fast-changing priorities.
Desirable
- Experience of working to tight publishing / production deadlines.
- Experience of working with data and checking high volumes of information.
- Understanding of content management systems or databases.
- Experience of working in arts festivals or performing arts venues.
- Knowledge of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe landscape.
- Experience of working with a box office ticketing system.
Rate of pay and hours of work
The rate of pay for this post is £13.45 per hour.
Normal hours of work are from 10:00 to 18:00 (including a one-hour unpaid lunch break) worked over five days between Monday and Friday.
Please also note that you may be required to work over the Easter weekend (03 April – 06 April) and will receive time off in lieu for any public holidays worked during that period.
We are a flexible working employer and therefore are happy to discuss flexible working at any stage of the application process. 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.
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 Society is an active member 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.