Assembly Festival has announced the first wave of acts that’ll be performing as part of its Fringe offering this year, in what the organisation is calling one of its ‘biggest first on sale announcements to date’. Tickets for all announced shows, which includes a raft of big-hitters, are on sale now.

Leading the line-up is Susie McCabe with Best Behaviour, alongside Nish Kumar with Nish Don’t Kill My Vibe and Jason Byrne with Head In The Clouds. They’ll be joined by multi-award-winning impressionist Jess Robinson, who’ll bring new hour Your Song to this year’s Fringe, which finds her mining the discography of Elton John through the voices of various pop divas. 

In circus, festival favourites Gravity & Other Myths will return with international smash hit Ten Thousand Hours. We awarded the show five stars when it was performed in 2024, writing, ‘It’s clear every member of this troupe has put in their 10,000 hours and the result is nothing short of breathtaking. They are living proof practice makes perfect, though something tells me a million hours wouldn’t bring me to their level.’ Read the full review. 

Showcasing a raunchier side to circus is Sexy Circus Sideshow: 2.0, which will be performed at the Fringe every night at midnight and promises ‘saucy showgirls, sexy sideshow stunts, neurotic novelty and vaudeville variety’.  Also providing a grown-up atmosphere is the magician Ben Hart, whose The Remarkable Ben Hart will likely be a complex and entertaining theatrical experience. 

Meanwhile, cabaret acts are in fruitful supply, with Pansexual Manchester-based drag agony aunt Aunty Ginger presenting Ginger’s Problem Area; Best of Burlesque: Iconic returning to the Bijou spiegeltent; and Las Vegas clown Old God (Alec Jones-Trujillo) bringing a taste of vaudeville to Edinburgh. 

The teeming line-up follows similar announcements from Pleasance, Just The Tonic and Underbelly in recent weeks, and already promises a strong showing at the Fringe this year. Read the full Assembly line-up here. 

Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025, various venues, Friday 1–Monday 25 August.