The List, already known for our wide-ranging coverage of Edinburgh Festival season, is starting The List Festival Awards to celebrate the superlative performers, writers and directors who make August a landmark in the arts and culture calendar. The invite-only event will take place on Friday 23 August at Johnnie Walker Princes Street and will shine a light on the rich variety of shows in Art, Book, Film, Fringe and International festivals this summer. 

Our intrepid team of reviewers and arts writers collectively write hundreds of reviews of shows, interview boatloads of performers and artists, and help us publish four magazines throughout August. We’ve become known for our thorough and honest coverage (for anyone we’ve awarded one star, some might argue too honest) and will bring that depth of knowledge into our shortlists for this ceremony, taking into account our top reviews alongside views from a range of industry experts. 

The award categories are:

• Art - Best rising Scottish artist
• Books - Best rising Scottish author
• Film - Best Scottish film
• Fringe - Best show 
• Fringe - Encore Award for best rising performer
• Fringe - Sit-Up Award for best theatre production with a social impact 
• Fringe - Best show from Adelaide
• Fringe - Spirit of The Fringe Award
• International Festival - Best show

We’ve put on these awards with a few partners offering tantalising rewards for winners. The first of these partners is the Sit-Up Awards, which aims to ‘harness the power of theatre to achieve greater social impact’ with a focus on how the message of a theatre piece can be transferred from the stage to the wider world. Their Fringe award will be awarded to a theatre show with a social impact, and the winner will receive £5000 and a slot in the 2024/2025 Fringe Encore series. 

Then there’s Encore itself which, according to the brand’s website, ‘provides opportunities to emerging artists that show exceptional talent at Fringe Festivals both artistically and commercially’. The Encore Award sponsored by the brand will champion a rising star at the Festival and will award the winner a run at New York’s SoHo Playhouse, with accommodation, travel and financial support included. All other award winners will receive a not-too-shabby £500 award alongside one of our beautifully designed trophies. 

Our editor, Brian Donaldson, said, ‘Ever since we relaunched The List in March 2022, creating a new awards event at the Edinburgh Festival was one of our long-term goals. We might be here sooner than we thought but myself and our reviewing team will dive headlong into the challenge of producing shortlists and eventual winners that we can be excited about.’

Rob Maxwell, head of Johnnie Walker Princes Street and our proud partners in this venture, said, ‘Every August, Edinburgh cements its position as one of the world’s cultural capitals, and we are proud to continue our long-standing association with The List by supporting this celebration of our city’s iconic festivals.’

The Edinburgh Festival season is about the thrill of discovery, whether that means taking a punt on a show you’d hitherto never heard of, grabbing a ticket for the latest word of mouth success story, or scouring one of our August magazines or online coverage for a five-star breakout hit. Our awards are an extension of that, giving us the chance to plonk our favourite acts on our shoulders and give them the victory lap they deserve. 

Expect plenty more coverage of our awards, including shortlists and winners, alongside our usual raft of reviews, previews and interviews this August. And keep up to date with the latest Festival news with our weekly Road To Edinburgh Festival 2024 round-ups.