Why the Worst Shows are the Best Part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival
The circus hub at the Fringe might be hosting your favorite worst show!
The ushers closed the door and my stomach dropped with the awareness that I was the only audience member in the theater for this very personal, one-woman show. Theater is a generous word: the space was actually a classroom that had been converted for the festival with a makeshift stage and maybe 15 desk chairs now acting as seats for the non-existent audience.
For most people, this sounds like a nightmare. But as an experienced Fringe-goer, I knew that I had been given a gift.
I moved from my back corner position to front and center and locked in. As the actor gave it her all, I gave mine in return, laughing loudly when she hit the joke and gasping when she revealed the twist. When it was over, after bowing while I applauded, she came down from the stage and hugged me.
What it good? Absolutely not. But she was trying out new material and I got to be an active part in her creation in a way many audience members never get to experience.
When you attend the Fringe only hoping to stumble upon the next Fleabag or Baby Reindeer, you miss some of the most memorable experiences. These aren’t often found bearing “⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️” on their flyers. They are the awkward and the strange, taking place in the back of shops or converted offices. They are the worst of the Fringe and you should make it your mission to find them.
WHAT IS THE FRINGE?
The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is the largest arts and performing arts festival in the world, taking over the city every August. Artists and performers from around the world come to the city with new shows and big dreams, filling hundreds of venues with theater, music, comedy, circus, drag, and more. It’s a feast of creation, with over 3,600 shows set for 2026, most costing less than a full English at Weatherspoons. Sub-festivals like the Street Events, the Free Festival, and PBH’s Free Fringe are free or pay-what-you-can, making the performances accessible to everyone throughout the month.
WHAT MAKES A “BAD” SHOW?
Art is subjective, right? THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS is not my jam, but it’s a multi-billion dollar franchise that has brought joy to people around the world for more than two decades. Meanwhile, I spent an entire year reading THE WHEEL OF TIME series, but can’t seem to find many people who also found it worth their time.
The biggest Fringe shows, the ones selling out venues like Underbelly or Assembly, can be just as cringe as something pieced together by students in a tent pitched in someone’s garden off of the Meadows (yes, they exist). I once watched a famous drag queen bomb inside the massive McEwan Hall while a friend’s show was packing audiences in at a venue that seated less than 50.
The Fringe rewards a sense of adventure. Just as you can’t necessarily win if you go looking for the best shows, you have to allow a little luck when looking for the delightfully, existentially bad ones. Allow a weird flyer to grab your attention. Talk to the comedian desperately trying to convince audiences at Bristo Square to follow him to his show. Don’t leave when you find yourself in an empty house. Lean in when you begin to feel the most awkward.
HOW TO FIND THE WORST OF THE FRINGE
When looking for the strangest shows, it's important to ignore reviews and follow your gut. Do you find your eye continuing to catch on a specific poster around town, even though it sounds truly terrible? Did you get handed a flyer promising - the horror - audience participation? These can be signs that you're in for an incredible, terrible show.
I find that some of the strangest shows often take place in the earlier hours of the day or late at night. An 11 p.m. show promising a psychedelic DJ experience turned out to be just a playlist that accompanied a video that looked like it had been made in MS Paint. But the venue was one of the gothic, arched vaults tucked under South Bridge and the audience was prepared to have a great time. Instead of staying in our seats as instructed, we were soon up and dancing in the aisles as the projection painted us with light.
Then there was the amateur drag show taking place, not in a bar, but in a converted hotel conference room. The queens were rough around the edges, but performing their hearts out, and the ten of us in the audience hooted and hollered like we were in the club with RuPaul. The night lingered as we all joined the queens at the hotel bar for a celebratory post-performance drink.
Bristo Square is the perfect place to find inspiration
FORTUNE FAVORS THE BOLD
The Edinburgh Fringe plays host to almost 4,000 distinct shows every August. Artists from all over the world raise money, move into run-down student housing, and put all other plans on hold to spend a month performing every day, hoping that someone might come see what they made. Some are works in progress, some have been finely tuned, and still others are pieced together at the last minute. It’s impossible to know early on what will be a hit and what will fade into obscurity.
So why not take a chance?
Sure, after the reviews begin to come out, you might feel drawn to the shiny shows, the ones that show up on the “Sold Out” boards every day. No one wants to look back and know they missed the next big thing.
But in those early days, when shows are still in previews and the gossip mill hasn’t yet started up, why not take a chance on the weird? The quirky? The strange? It might just be your favorite part of the festival.
The Edinburgh Fringe Festival runs from August 7 - 31, 2026, with shows running all day, every day at hundreds of venues citywide. Information can be found at EdFringe.com.
