Edinburgh International Book Festival 2025: How to buy tickets - dates, venues, who is appearing

Here, The Scotsman takes a look at who is appearing and how and when to buy tickets - as well as answering all of your key questions around the event.

When and where is the 2025 Edinburgh International Book Festival?

The festival will run from August 9 to 24 .

This will be the second year the event will take place at its new home in the Edinburgh Futures Institute, near the Meadows.

Who is speaking at this year’s festival?

Scottish authors Irvine Welsh and Maggie O'Farrell are to join Heartstopper writer Alice Oseman, as well as former first minister Nicola Sturgeon at this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Outlander star Sam Heughan will also give a cocktail class to promote his new book of cocktail recipes, while actors Brian Cox, Viggo Mortensen and Vanessa Redgrave will take part in events.

Other highlights of the programme can be viewed here.

The festival’s programme is based around the theme of Repair, seeking to explore things which feel broken and looking at how they could be fixed – from the physical to the political, the emotional to the environmental, and beyond.

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What are the venues?

The layout is likely to be fairly similar to last year’s event. However, the book festival will have an extended bar area and a specially- created Kids Zone. A bookshop will remain on site, where author signings will take place.

Events will take place both inside and outside the Futures Institute, as well as a series of events known as the Front List in nearby McEwan Hall.

Venue T is the main venue within the Futures Institute building. There is also a Courtyard Theatre outside, as well as a Spiegeltent in the grounds and the Children’s Tent.

Tickets go on sale online at 10am on Saturday, June 21, and can be booked here. Ticket prices range from free events to £21 a seat.