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Accessibility, diversity and inclusivity awards

Find out about the awards recognising accessibility, diversity and inclusion at the Edinburgh Fringe.

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Please note: the following awards are run independently of the Fringe Society, with all information supplied by the awards themselves. If you have any queries about the information on this page or how to enter, please contact the relevant awards directly.

The Asian Arts Award (presented by Asian Art Fund Scotland)

The Asian Arts Award was founded in 2014 to promote Asian art forms at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. All artists with an Asian connection are eligible to apply. When you apply you'll be invited to our free launch party / press night as well as the final award ceremony. It's also a great way to make new friends and connections at the Fringe. Check out asianartfundscotland.org for more information and the gallery of past events.

Awards will be made in the following categories:

  • Outstanding Show
  • Outstanding Production
  • Outstanding Male Performer
  • Outstanding Female Performer
  • Outstanding Young Performer
  • Asian Arts Special Award

2025 award winners

  • Outstanding Show
    • Winner: Hahaha-Hamlet – Chai Wan Rabble (Hong Kong)
    • Highly Commended: 1Shoulder Pad: Galaxy Train, Japanese Musical Theatre (Japan)
    • Highly Commended: Practice of Zen – Theatre Ronin (Hong Kong)
  • Outstanding Production
    • Winner: Kanpur: 1857 – Niall Moorjani Storyteller and Pleasance (Scotland / India)
    • Highly Commended: 1457, The Boy at Rest – Poem and Star / Korean Season by GCC & AtoBiz (Korea)
    • Highly Commended: Relaxing and Balancing – Yin Yang – On/Off Theatre (Hong Kong)
    • Highly Commended: The Time Painter – ACC, ACCF, Haddangse / Korean Season by GCC and AtoBiz (Korea)
  • Outstanding Male Performer 
    • Winner: Jeremy Rafal, The Boy from Bantay (Philippines / USA)
    • Highly Commended: Zheng Xiaofan Dance Theatre, PERSONALLERY 4.0 (China)
    • Highly Commended: Sanjay Lago – Love Me Like a Chai Tea Latte (Scotland)
    • Highly Commended: Kumar Muniandy – Second Class Queer (Malaysia / UK / Germany)
    • Highly Commended: Eden Choi – Proust Effect (Korea)
  • Outstanding Female Performer
    • Winner: Mayuri Bhandari – The Anti "Yogi" (USA / India)
    • Highly Commended: Dansa Rickshaw – Dance Ihayami (Scotland / India)
    • Highly Commended: Elisabeth Gunawan and KISS WITNESS – Stampin’ in the Graveyard (UK / Indonesia)
    • Highly Commended: Afreena Islam-Wright – Lucky Tonight! (UK / Bangladesh)
    • Highly Commended: Chi-An Chen – Sole to Soul (Taiwan, China)
  • Outstanding Young Performer
    • Winner: Shenzhen University School of Arts 201 Theatre Company – The Landscape of the Other Shore (China)
    • Highly Commended: Creative Group SSAK / Korean Season by GCC & AtoBiz – Dream Space (Korea)
    • Highly Commended: Jasmine Thien – I Dream in Colour (UK / China)
  • Asian Arts Special Award – Joint Award (two winners) 
    • GENDAI TOKYO (Japan)
    • Up-cycle Music, Creative Art (Korea)
asianartfundscotland.org

The producer of the show should nominate their show by email to [email protected] as soon as possible, to enable the judges to arrange their schedules. Please attach a press release and include the email address of the show contact that can organise tickets.

Inclusion on the shortlist for the awards is at the discretion of the judges and their decisions will be final.

Fringe participants, both online or live, can nominate themselves for entry into the awards if they fulfil one of the following criteria:

  1. The applicant is of Asian origin.
  2. The applicant is working in the field of Asian arts.
  3. The performance is inspired by an Asian theme or genre.
  4. The performance has a strong and clear link with Asian culture, eg an adaptation of a classic Asian story.

Please note: no stand-up comedy.

Judges will be looking for acts that display outstanding originality, creativity and innovation in their work.

In order to encourage new artists to enter the awards, productions that have won awards in previous years will not be eligible for entry again.

Binge Fringe Black Performers' Awards

The Black Performer’s Awards Shortlist will be announced on Friday 22 August, with a ceremony to be held on Sunday 24 August at 11:00 at Pleasance Courtyard – Cabaret Bar. All are welcome to attend.

The initiative for this award has been launched by Binge Fringe Contributing Writer Lamesha Ruddock, to celebrate the achievements, contributions and quality of work presented by Black performers at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025. Any show reviewed by Binge Fringe by Tuesday 19 August, and led by a Black-identifying performer, will be eligible for the longlist. Four awards will be given out at the ceremony.

The reviews form the basis for shortlist assessment but star rating is not considered in the criteria. Our shortlist is then judged by independent assessors – a panel made up of leading Black journalists and theatre directors.

For enquiries about the awards please contact Lamesha – [email protected]

2025 award winners

  • In the Black
  • Black to My Roots: African American Tales from the Head and the Heart
  • Ma Joyce's Tales from the Parlour
  • 3 White Guys Named John

Binge Fringe Queer Performers' Award

The Queer Performer’s Award Shortlist will be announced on Tuesday 19 August, with a ceremony at Edinburgh’s Surgeon's Hall Museums to be held later in that week. All shortlisted acts will be invited.

Eligible shows for the longlist must have been reviewed by a Binge Fringe writer by Sunday 17 August and tagged ‘Queer’ on our site. The reviews form the basis for shortlist assessment but star rating is not considered in the criteria.

Our shortlist is then judged by independent assessors – a panel made up of leading international Fringe Festival Directors and Editors of major publications covering the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Four awards will be given out at the ceremony. We do not label the awards by category or genre, because labels are only useful for the cis-hetero gaze.

For enquiries about the awards please contact Jake – [email protected].

2025 award winners

  • Queer Performer's Award
    • ALTAR
    • Derek Mitchell: Goblin
    • Shitbag
    • Su Mi: THISMOTHERPHUCKER
  • Queer New Writing Award
    • Roadkill Bambi
  • Grassroots Heroes Award
    • Awkward Prods’ Linus Karp and Joseph Martin

Mental Health Foundation Fringe Award

The Mental Health Foundation Fringe Award was established in 2017 in recognition of the most compelling new show about mental health at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It is presented by the Mental Health Foundation and supported by the Scotsman newspaper. From 2023 to 2025 it will be sponsored by the Cornwell Charitable Trust, in memory of the arts journalist Tim Cornwell who died in 2022.

The longlist is compiled from a combination of self-nomination, nominations by venues and promoters, and recommendations from the Mental Health Foundation's network of cultural contacts. The winner will be announced as part of the Scotsman Fringe Awards ceremony at the Pleasance Courtyard on Friday 22 August. The winner will be offered a £3,000 prize plus a flexible package of support tailored to the needs of each creative team and the future development of their show, which may include mentoring support and mental health training, support with funding applications and / or a contribution to production costs.

If you wish to be considered for the award, please contact Andrew Eaton-Lewis on [email protected].

2025 award winner

  • Beth Wants the D (Pleasance)

The Neurodiverse Review Awards

Neurodiverse Review is working with charities and theatre companies to provide awards for exceptional work at the Edinburgh Fringe 2025. Autistic, neurodiverse and disabled-led work can often be ignored or misunderstood. All our awards are open for anyone from our community; you can also nominate an act that is not yours.

Judges will be going to see shows during the Fringe, you can request to be considered for an award by contacting us via neurodiversereview.co.uk. Also, any show reviewed by us with a 4/5 star rating will also be considered for longlisting in an eligible category.

The nominations will be judged by a panel from our communities.

2025 award winners

  • Actually Autistic Excellence
    Jain Edwards: She-Devil
  • ADHD Comedy Award
    Alice-India: See You in Hell
  • Outstanding Visually Impaired Creative
    Jamie MacDonald: Toxic Bastard
  • Birds of Paradise Exceptional Theatre
    Cartoonopolis by Lewis Ian Bray
  • Birds of Paradise Emerging Talent
    Theodora Van Der Beek: Mr Creep
  • North Bridge Media Comedy Writing Award
    Niall Moorjani: The Green Knight (But It's Gay)
  • Disability Champions
    Abnormally Funny People (Steve Best / Simon Minty)
  • Neurodiversity Representation Award
    Hunter King: A Northern Tr*nny Hootenanny
  • Neuroqueer Excellence Award
    Mr Brake Down – Doom and Glitter: A Tribute to Tom Waits
  • Deaf Action Deaf Excellence Award
    Dregs (Emery Hunter / Bobby Bradley)
  • Lifetime Achievement
    Paul Sinha

Somewhere: For Us Fringe awards

The Somewhere: For Us Fringe Awards (aka the Queer Fringe Awards) were launched in 2023 by the team behind Scotland’s award-winning LGBTQ+ magazine and podcast, Somewhere: For Us, and the LGBTQ+ Edinburgh Fringe Guide.

The awards reward and recognise LGBTQ+ shows and performers that have had a big impact with their audience and beyond, and shows that have been on a unique journey. There were over 300 shows staged by LGBTQ+ performers or shows with LGBTQ+ themes at the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Somewhere: For Us has been working hard to amplify and celebrate queer voices at the Fringe since 2018 – through reviews, LGBTQ+ show listings and features in their magazine, research, podcast and printed Fringe guide.

Discover more about the social enterprise at somewhereforus.org.

2025 award winners

  • Kim Blythe: Cowboy (Gilded Balloon)
  • House Party (Pleasance)
  • Burst (Summerhall)
  • Little Squirt (Gilded Balloon)

  • Fringe Icon Award
    Craig Hill

Previous awards

Each year these awards recognise the improvements that are being made to make the festivals more accessible to everyone, regardless of their disability. 

The Sustainable Fringe Awards recognise innovative ideas that seek to tackle issues of climate change or environmental sustainability at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, in design, content or execution.

Artists and venues are invited to submit new, novel, creative or ambitious ideas for increasing the sustainability of their work, and nominate themselves to be a ‘Green Pick’ of this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Ideas can tackle ways of reducing environmental impact (eg changing resource use or minimising carbon emissions); creating pro-environmental behaviour among participants, organisers or audiences; or changing our wider society’s perspective of climate change.

Hosted by Creative Carbon Scotland (the national charity for environmental sustainability in culture) in collaboration with Staging Change (a new network of theatre-makers committed to greening the industry), the winning artist / company and winning venue will be awarded £100 to help implement their green idea and will be featured on the Creative Carbon Scotland website.

Ideas should relate to productions or practices taking place at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, but do not need to be implemented during that year's festival or already be in progress at the point of submission: this award rewards the idea.

Winning ideas are selected by a judging panel made up of representatives from Creative Carbon Scotland and Staging Change.

More information and the application form can be found on the Creative Carbon Scotland website.

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