Frequently Asked Questions

Tickets can be booked online 24/7 through our website or you can call our box office phone lines.

For our full opening hours, see our visit us page here. The box office closes 15 minutes after the final performance of the day.

We encourage advance booking wherever possible to avoid disappointment!

EDINBURGH

0131 556 6550  (August Only)

Edinburgh Courtyard

In Person: 

2 - 6pm I 30th July

9.30am* - 11.30pm I 31st July - 26th August (or 15 mins after the final performance)

*11am opening on 14th August only

Edinburgh Dome

In Person: 

2 - 6pm I 30th July

10am* - 11.30pm I 31st July - 26th August (or 15 mins after the final performance)

*11am opening on 14th August only

EICC

From 30 mins before the first performance to 15 mins after the final performance I 31st July - 26th Aug

LONDON

020 7609 1800 I From 12pm Mon - Sat (Closed on Sundays)

In Person:

Available around show times.

What's an e-ticket?

An e-ticket stands for an electronic ticket which is the digital equivalent of a paper ticket and a more efficient method of entry. You will see a QR code in your email confirmation after purchasing tickets. On the door, front of house teams will scan your QR code or mark you off on the digital doors list by your surname. Your email confirmation is essentially your ticket and contains everything you need for entry to the show on the day. (No collection from box office necessary!)

Is e-ticketing compulsory?

Pleasance introduced e-ticketing back in 2022 and we have reduced the amount of printed tickets in circulation year on year in accordance with our sustainability aims. E-ticketing is our default option for ticket delivery.

How fast is the transaction? Can I book close to the start time?

We strongly encourage booking in advance to guarantee availability for the show you want. The online transaction itself is instant so you can book up until the show start time in some cases.

Do you have to have a smartphone for e-ticketing?

No, any device which has access to your email inbox is fine for the front of house team to scan on the door. Please try to have the whole confirmation email available rather than a fixed screenshot of the QR code.

What if I can't find the confirmation email?

Sometimes our confirmation emails can get caught up in spam/junk folders. Always check those folders first if your order confirmation email has not arrived within 5 minutes or add [email protected] to your contacts (safe sender) list. 

If you still can't locate your email confirmation, head to your online account and you can re-send your confirmation email from the 'my orders' section of your account. 

If I can't attend the show, can I give my tickets to a friend?

Yes. You may forward your email confirmation (e-ticket) on to a friend if you are no longer able to make the show. If you have booked multiple tickets in one order, please note that transaction barcode will grant entry to all shows contained in the email confirmation.

What if my QR code won't load?

Alternatively, you can access your QR code by logging into your Pleasance account and heading to 'your orders' and re-sending your confirmation email.

If you have any issues, please email [email protected] and we can help troublsehoot.

Do I need to bring any form of ID with the ticket?

We recommend carrying ID with you in case venue staff choose to sight this on the door to verify a concession ticket or when purchasing alcohol.

In line with our terms and conditions, please note that latecomers may not be admitted and venue/event staff reserve the right to deny entry to anyone arriving late. 

Latecomer policies are set by performing artists and are there to prevent disruption to the performers and other audience members. Many shows have a strict no-latecomer policy and no refunds will be issued if entry is denied. 

We always recommend arriving in good time (approximately 30 minutes before the publicized start time) to allow for any travel disruption or unexpected delays.

If latecomers are allowed into the venue, you may be asked to wait outside the venue until the appropriate latecomer entry point. 

If you would like information about a specific show, please contact the box office.

As per our terms and conditions, all tickets (including booking fees) are strictly non-exchangeable and non-refundable. 

Booking fees contribute towards the numerous charges associated to online bookings, such as payment gateways and banking charges. We do not wish to penalise performing companies with additional costs and for transparency, do not include booking fees in the listed price of the ticket. In the event of a performance cancellation, handling fees are non-refundable.

EDINBURGH

There is one till at the main Pleasance Courtyard and Pleasance Dome box offices which accepts cash. 

Other concessions (inlcluding bars/food stalls) are card only.

LONDON

Pleasance London is a fully cashless venue. We do not accept cash on site.

Pleasance defines babes in arms as infants under 2 years old who are sat on a parent or guardian's lap. For shows where babes in arms are permitted, under 2 year olds do not require a ticket.

All children aged 2+ will require a ticket.

Babes in arms policies vary between shows and venues. Please check in with the box office to confirm if babes are permitted in your show before booking. 

Unfortunately, we are very limited on space and do not have an on site cloakroom or storage space for luggage during performances.

Age suitability is split into two categories: guidelines and restrictions. 

A guideline recommendation means that people under that age bracket can watch the show.  A restriction means that no one under the age specified will be admitted to the show. 

For age restricted shows, our Front of House teams are instructed to check the identification of anyone who looks under the age rating. We always advise bringing ID to age restricted shows as you may be refused entry if proof of age can’t be supplied. In this event a refund will not be available.

Before booking, we always recommend checking age guidance and content warnings to help decide if a show is suitable for you.

We are very limited on space and recommend travelling as light as possible! There are no on site cloakrooms or storage space for luggage at the Courtyard or Dome.

Courtyard

In the Courtyard, buggy parking is available in the Kidzone area and by the Grand Box Office. This space is limited and offered on a first come, first serve basis. Please note that Pleasance can’t take responsibility for possessions left at the buggy parking so we recommend taking any valuables or favourite toys with you!

Dome

There is no designated buggy parking at the Pleasance Dome.

No. Under 18 year olds must be accompanied by an adult at all times on Pleasance sites and when watching shows.

Children and young people can be in any of our sites, except directly in front of or near bar areas. 

Yes, accompanied young people (16+) can watch the show and 16 and 17 year olds will be allowed on site during all operation hours. 

However, 0 - 16 year olds are only allowed on the premises until midnight and must be accompanied by an adult. 

Save yourself the hassle and beat the queues! There is a bar down in the Grand Corridor which offers the same selection of drinks as bars in the main Courtyard area. This bar often has smaller queues and services nearby venues including the Grand, Baby Grand and Bunkers.

If you have already purchased a drink from a bar in the upper Courtyard site, you can walk down along the Pleasance but only if heading directly to your venue. In all other cases, drinks cannot be consumed outside of Pleasance premises or taken off site.

Pleasance Dome has an array of bars and drink concessions both at the Plaza and inside the Dome itself.

If you do purchase a drink from a bar at Potterrow Plaza, you can cross directly over into the Dome if heading directly to see a show. In all other cases, drinks cannot be consumed  outside of Pleasance premises or taken off site.

We recommend reading our comprehensive Performer Information Pack. This contains a full rundown of what it means to bring a show to the festival with us.

We programme on a rolling submission basis. To be considered for a slot at the Pleasance you will need to fill out our submission form. This helps us track your process and gives us the information we need to make a decision about your show. You can find this alongside our Performer Information Pack on the Perform With Us page of our website.

We consider submissions from anyone with a great idea. You can be a festival veteran, international touring company or a complete newcomer. You do not have to have performed at the Pleasance before to be part of the programme.

You are welcome to apply with as many shows as you would like, however we will need you to make a submission for each show you are looking to bring. 

Pleasance programmes a wide range of work across comedy, text based and physical theatre, and family and children's work. We also programme circus, dance and cabaret, but careful consideration is needed to ensure we can meet your technical and space requirements. We rarely programme revivals or amateur productions of established texts.

In the first instance we are looking for work premiering at the Fringe. We sometimes programme returning shows who have been successful in our programme previously and on occasion we will consider a show that had a successful run in another venue in a previous year. However in prioritising new work we are usually only able to confirm returning shows toward the end of the programming process around late-March/early-April. 

The large majority of the shows we present perform for the full festival as we find this is the best way for a show to truly make an impact and reap the benefits of the festival. That being said, we do programme shorter running slots, however these are more difficult to finalise and tend to be confirmed later in the programming process as we need to find work to take the remainder of the slot and time for technical rehearsals to take place mid-festival within a full performance schedule.

When you made your submission, you should have received a confirmation email with a copy of the form. If you haven’t received this, please check your spam or junk folder in your email account. If you cannot find this, we likely will not have received your submission. 

Yes you can, just respond to the confirmation email that contains the copy of your submission with any updates or supplementary information.

Of course. In fact we encourage and expect this, we only have so many slots available and would hate for you to miss out on the opportunity of bringing a show to the Fringe because we aren’t able to offer you a slot. 

No, we curate our festival programme. As such, we are trying to create a balanced programme with a blend of styles, topics and voices that speaks to a diverse range of audiences. With this in mind, some shows take longer to confirm than others as we properly consider the breadth of work out there.

We programme on a rolling basis through until the final submission deadline for the printed Fringe brochure in early/mid April. It’s worth noting that some venues and slots take longer to confirm than others. 

Yes, if you have another offer on the table we might be able to give you an answer or indication sooner. You can get in touch with our programmers on [email protected] or [email protected].

Of course, we are more than happy to discuss this with you. Please contact us on [email protected] or phone us on 020 7619 6868. We also have an Artist Access Guide which provides more information about the accessibility of our spaces on our Edinburgh Fringe Spaces page. 

I’m afraid not, we receive an incredibly high volume of submissions for our Fringe programme and we simply aren’t able to provide feedback on individual submissions. 

Our standard deal is a 60/40% split of the Box Office in the visiting company's favour, set against a minimum guarantee which is based on the Pleasance's share of the Box Office at 40% capacity. The split is 55/45% for non-VAT registered companies. A full guide to the deal can be found in the Performers Information Pack.

All shows pay their Fringe registration fee, marketing contra (£600 standard) and deposit at the point of accepting a slot. The deposit is based on your venue's size and duration of your run - a full guide to estimating your deposit can be found on page 13 of the Performers' Information Pack.

No, the Pleasance will manage your registration with the Fringe Society and will provide you with a full overview of the process at the point you are programmed.

We pride ourselves on the support we provide to our companies in the run up to and during the Fringe itself. We put in place infrastructure to ensure you are best placed to make the most of the opportunities the festival affords. While this provides a strong foundation on which to build, performing companies are required to match this with their own investment in the show they are bringing to the festival.

Technical

Arts Industry Reception

Arts Industry Reception who support our artists on the ground and work with you to coordinate industry and guest ticketing. 

Press Office

Our press office operates throughout the festival (located in Brooke's Club), which manages all incoming press enquiries, liaises with company PRs, processes press tickets and scours festival publications for your reviews each day. They also hold informal press and marketing surgeries for companies seeking advice.

Playwell x Pleasance Preventative Care Programme

Pleasance Producers

Not a problem, you are welcome to contact us on [email protected].

We have a variety of venues in different layouts and sizes. You can find these listed on the Edinburgh Fringe Spaces page of our website. For the most part the playing area of our spaces scales with the capacity and therefore it is important to balance the technical ambition of your show with what you can realistically sell at the festival. 

For shows doing a full festival run, technical rehearsals take place on the Sunday, Monday and Tuesday before the first preview on the Wednesday. We aren't able to confirm technical rehearsal slots until the programme is finalised and we have all the technical information for shows performing in a given venue - we tend to start confirming slots from late-May. If your show is quite technically ambitious and will require longer to tech, we recommend planning to arrive as early as possible since we are usually able to be more flexible with the time we can afford you earlier in this period. Due to the number of shows we need to tech in a short amount of time, the less flexible you are with then you can tech, the less time we will likely be able to give you. The amount of time we can provide is dependant on what you need to achieve and confirmed as part of a discussion with our technical team. Shows doing shorter runs and starting midway through the festival will tech within and around the performance schedule of the venue. The programming team will usually discuss and allocate time for a late starting show when confirming a slot. 

Projection is possible in some of our venues, where not possible we opt for the use of a plasma screen instead. When projection is essential, we try and place shows into end on spaces in the first instance - though this is not always possible. If your show required projection, make sure this is included in the technical information section of your submission and is discussed with your programmer in any ensuing conversation about a slot.

You can find the technical specifications for each of our spaces linked from the Edinburgh Fringe Spaces page of our website - NEEDS LINK?. Please note that video equipment does not come as standard in any of our spaces.

You can find the venue plans for each of our spaces linked from the Edinburgh Fringe Spaces page of our website. As standard we do not publish the .vwx file online, but a Vectorworks file can be obtained by emailing Edinburgh technical team. Please note that building Fringe venues is an art and not a science and while we try to ensure this information is as accurate as possible, sometimes small aspects of the venue change in the festival run-up as well as the build phase due to changes in the room they occupy. 

You can hire equipment through our lighting, sound and video suppliers - you can find rate cards for each here. Please note that our rates are renegotiated annually with our suppliers and therefore are subject to change in the run up to each festival. If multiple companies use a specific piece of lighting or sound equipment, the cost is split accordingly. If multiple companies in a given venue are looking to use similar kit, our technical team will endeavour to find the most cost effective solutions for all involved to achieve their desired effect. For video equipment the cost is already split across all venues based on estimated demand for equipment. This allows us to provide a clear quote upfront for companies to budget on which isn't dependant on the number of companies using a given piece of kit. It also makes video kit more affordable in venues where not as many shows are using video equipment. 

For the most part we encourage companies to hire in any additional equipment, this allows us to pre-rig it in the build ahead of shows arriving for their technical rehearsal and allows us to make efficiencies in the rig where multiple shows utilise the same equipment - preventing an overloaded rig. Additionally, we can also guarantee the functionality of the equipment for the duration of the run as our onsite lighting, sound and video team can respond to any issues on the ground and substitute in new equipment/parts if needed within a shorter timeframe. Any use of personal technical equipment needs to be fit for purpose, PA tested and signed off by our technical team in the run up to the festival. 

All of our venues have the ability to provide a “Lights up/Lights down” operator, there is a cost of £20 + VAT per operator per performance. More complex, “Full show” operation is possible in our larger spaces (Above, Pleasance Two, Queen Dome, King Dome, Pleasance One, Beyond, Forth, Grand), but is at our discretion in our other spaces. If you do not have an operator staying for a full month we advise you to provide a detailed script, allow time for shadowing a performance and that the show be “locked” by the time your creative team leave so there are no changes to cues or cue points. "Full show" operation is charged at £30 + VAT per operator per performance. We advise you to provide your own operators for productions that are dependent on sound mixing or live music.

The turnarounds between shows range from 15 minutes in our smallest venues to 60 minutes in our larger venues, estimated turnarounds by venue size can be found on our Edinburgh Fringe Spaces page of our website. Please note that turnarounds are shared between both performing companies (not split into a distinct halves) and include the time required for audiences to leave/enter the venue.

For the most part it is not possible to change the layout of a venue and reset it within the timeframe of the turnaround. Any change to the layout or reduction/increase in capacity needs to be signed off by the programming and technical teams and safe evacuation routes for audience members need to be maintained at all times. 

Subject to appropriate sign off by the Technical team naked flame is possible in our Courtyard venues, but due to building restrictions not in the Dome. This sign off will involve appropriate risk assessments, method statements and a visit from one of the senior team, and possibly a University Fire Marshall to see the scene in your tech slot. RAMS must be kept up to date and followed, and there will be check ups in the run to ensure they are being adhered to. 

Each venue has a dedicated team of technicians, sometimes this team works between a pair of venues in close proximity to one another. The sizes of these teams vary depending on the size and requirements of a given venue, but at any time you can be guaranteed a dedicated crew member plus someone working across their shared venues to assist with turn arounds. Our venue teams rotate to allow for breaks and days off, as such we can't guarantee the same members of the team working your show throughout the run but we have processes in place to ensure that show specific information is circulated amongst the full team between given days. The venue teams are supported by duty technicians who look after different zones of our festival sites, our video/lighting/sound teams who respond to specific issues within these areas as well as the senior technical team. Our venue team's main priority is to ensure the smooth running of the venue and its schedule, they will work alongside your team in the delivery of this. With this in mind, we expect each show to have their own team (be this a dedicated stage manager, the performer(s), producer or members of the wider team supporting the show) as our team cannot be relied upon solely to deliver your show technically. 

Yes, each venue is running a Mac Mini for QLab. Please see the tech specs or consult the Technical Team for the version etc. It is advisable that shows running video on QLab should bring an additional machine (or hire through us) to support the additional processing required to output video and sound. 

Yes, all companies require public liability insurance with a minimum indemnity limit of £5 million. We accept Equity membership, however since the public liability insurance that accompanies this covers solely the performer, if there are multiple performers in a show they must all have a membership. It is also worth noting that Equity doesn't cover the props or equipment and therefore if your show is heavy in these areas it may be worth exploring a show policy - especially if there is audience participation - our public liability insurance covers any equipment hired through us. We don't require companies to insure their equipment for loss, theft or damages, but if you have anything of value it may be worth exploring as our insurance does not extend to cover this and we can't be held liable.

While the Pleasance build and run the venues at the Courtyard and the Dome, those at the EICC are built, maintained and managed by their year-round in-house team. There isn't a huge amount of difference, however any technical correspondence in the run up to Fringe will happen in conversation with them as well as us. If you have any questions about bringing work to the EICC, you can get in touch with our programming team.

We curate a mixed programme of comedy, theatre, drag and cabaret on a seasonal basis throughout the year. 

Around this, we also hire our spaces for a variety of events/bookings from drama school productions, gigs, weddings or events. If you are interested in hiring our spaces you can find more information here.

You can find out more about these specific seasons as well as hiring our venue on the Perform With Us page of our website. 

We have three performance spaces, these are our Main House, Downstairs and Studio venues. You can find out more information about each of these on our London Spaces page. 

For our curated programme, for the most part we operate on a slit of the box office. The exact deal differs from season to season and is dependant on a few factors.

Similarly with hires, the price involved is dependant on what you are trying to achieve during your time with us. To find out more about how much your event will cost, please get in touch with us on ?? with prospective dates - provided we have availability we would be happy to discuss a price for hiring our spaces. 

Our timeline for programming and hires changes from season to season and at different times of years, but broadly speaking we confirm the schedule of our venues between 3 and 12 months in advance. 

For the most part Pleasance are a receiving house. As such, the work presented in our programme comes to us fully formed with a cast and creative team around it. 

We co-produce and support work in various ways, for the most part this is formalised through the artist development opportunities we offer. You can find out more information on LINK

Unfortunately the Pleasance does not receive regular public funding, we are lucky enough to receive trust and foundation funding as well as donations from patrons to support what we do - however this tends to be on a project by project basis.

If you would like to donate to us and support what we do, you can do so on our donation page.

Unfortunately due to our small team, we don't have a huge amount of capacity to read unsolicited scripts and provide feedback. We do accept script excerpts as part of wider applications for opportunities at the theatre, but given the number of submissions we usually receive we are usually unable to provide specific feedback.

Yes, our team regularly see work across London, nationally and even on occasion internationally with the view to future programming or developing relationships with artists. If you have something coming up which you would like us to come along to please get in touch with the details and how you would like to get involved with the Pleasance at the following email addresses: 

• For comedy shows: [email protected]
• For theatre, children's work, cabaret and drag shows: [email protected]

Artist development sits at the core of what we do at the Pleasance. We are able to support artists in the creation of new work in a number of ways. To find out more, please visit the Artist Development page of our website. 

To keep up to date with upcoming opportunities, please follow our artist development X account LINK? and sign up to our newsletter.