Fringe By The Sea announces full festival programme for 2026
The North Berwick festival returns with more than 300 music, comedy, film and family events
Multi-arts festival Fringe By The Sea will return to North Berwick from Friday 31 July to Sunday 9 August, bringing more than 300 events across 10 days in what organisers describe as a ‘feel-good’ summer programme in the East Lothian town. Tickets go on sale at 9am on Friday 29 May on the Fringe By The Sea website.
The festival will once again offer a mixture of major international names with leading Scottish talent, alongside emerging artists and community-led programming. At its heart is a free-to-enter hub in the Lodge Grounds, featuring The Lighthouse Live stage, a children’s zone, Coulter’s Makers Market, street food, drinks and a new dining addition Còmhla By The Sea.
This year’s programme also includes work supported by the Scottish Government’s Expanded Festivals Fund through Creative Scotland. A major strand titled Love Of Life, developed in collaboration with Kelburn Garden Party, will explore ‘biophilia’, humanity’s connection to nature. Among the highlights is new work from Emmy-nominated multi-instrumentalist Erland Cooper.
The festival's music programme features a wide-ranging bill including Alex James’ Britpop Classical, Belle & Sebastian, Maribou State, Kool & The Gang, LEVI.SCT, Bay City Rollers, Capercaillie, Tinderbox Orchestra with Kathryn Joseph, Colonel Mustard & The Dijon 5, Bombskare and Fayne & The Cruisers.
Comedy guests include Lou Sanders, Russell Howard, Marjolein Robertson, Fred MacAulay and Corbett’s Comedy Cabaret. In conversation events return with Ian Hislop, Sarra Hoy, Ben Fogle, Michelle Ogundehin, David Olusoga, Greig Laidlaw, Hannah Lavery & Michael Pedersen, Gardening Question Time and Louis Theroux, hot on the road after his Inside The Manosphere documentary for Netflix. The literary strand will welcome Maggie O’Farrell, Joseph Coelho, Jenni Fagan, Doug Johnstone, Alastair Chisholm and Morag Hood.
Family highlights include MASSAOKE: Sing The Movies, The Black Blues Brothers, Big Top Ceilidh with The Jacobites, Circobello, Artie’s Singing Kettle, Comedy Club 4 Kids, Fischy Music, Monski Mouse, Kevin Quantum, Mr Boom, Circus Skills workshops, Hansel & Gretel and Musical Mill Theatre.
The festival’s film strand, Wavelength, returns with support from Screen Scotland. The programme includes screenings, director Q&As and film-panel performances such as Belle & Sebastian On Film, work from director Grant McPhee, and screenings of Pauline Black: A 2-Tone Story, God Help The Girl, Recomposing Earth, Teenage Superstars and The Herring Queen. Across the 10 days, festival-goers can also take part in a range of workshops and masterclasses, from cocktail making and wicker weaving to (somehow) underwater drawing.
Fringe By The Sea, various venues, North Berwick, Friday 31 July–Sunday 9 August; main picture: Mr Smith Aerial.