The venues of the Edinburgh International Festival

The International Festival has never owned a stage. Since 1947 it has borrowed the city instead: a whisky distiller's concert hall, two Victorian variety houses, a Free Church that became a council theatre, a chapel turned chamber room, and the Gothic church on Castlehill that now sells the tickets. This is the standing circuit, with what each building was before the Festival moved in and how many people it holds when it does.

Places in this collection

  • The Hub — Built in 1842 to 1844 as the Tollbooth Church, to house the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and taken over by the Festival in 1…
  • Royal Lyceum Theatre — Opened in 1883 and used by the Festival since 1947, almost entirely for drama. The 658-seat house is Edinburgh's principal producing theatr…
  • Church Hill Theatre — Built in 1892 as North Morningside Free Church and bought by the City of Edinburgh Council in 1960, which converted it and still runs it. C…
  • Queen's Hall — A chapel converted to a concert hall in 1979 and now the performance home of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, seating around 920 under the o…
  • King's Theatre — Opened in 1906 and used by the Festival from 1947, mainly for opera in the early decades and for theatre since. It closed for renovation in…
  • Festival Theatre — Opened in 1892 as the Empire Theatre, a variety, musical and opera house, and taken into the Festival in 1947 for ballet before the 1994 re…
  • Usher Hall — Built in 1914 on money from the whisky blender Andrew Usher, who gave £100,000 towards it, and in Festival use since the first programme in…

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