EAF (Edinburgh Art Festival) will return in 2026 between Friday 14 — Sunday 30 August, for EAF26, the Festival’s 22nd edition.
For three weeks, the festival will present a programme of exhibitions, installations, and live events, enlivening unexpected corners of Edinburgh with visual and performance art. Rooted in Scotland’s thriving cultural communities, and connecting them to international collaboration and artistic dialogue, the festival creates space for challenging, artist-driven work and alternative perspectives on the festival city.
EAF26 is set to have an equally packed and varied Partner Gallery programme across the city: Gwen John and Catherine Opie at the National Galleries of Scotland, Eva Rothschild at Fruitmarket, Katie Paterson at Collective, Esther Castle at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, a group show centred on Frank Walter at Ingleby, a sculptural commission from Sgàire Wood at Jupiter Artland, and Costume Couture: Sixty Years of Cosprop at Dovecot. The full programme and all partner gallery shows and events will be revealed in Spring 2026.
EAF are also thrilled to announce the relaunch of PLATFORM, the festival’s early-career artist award, which is now open for applications. Responding to the developing landscape for the arts in Scotland, the re-formed PLATFORM offers two 18-month residencies during which artists can develop their work. Since its inception 12 years ago, PLATFORM has supported 45 early career artists with visibility, mentorship, and resources to develop their work — PLATFORM alumni have gone on to show nationally and internationally including Rae-Yen Song, Paloma Proudfoot, Crystal Bennes, and Aqsa Arif.
The new model responds to the lack of long-term creative development opportunities currently available in Scotland, and is designed to give artists the freedom and security to explore, with enough flexibility for existing practice, other work and commitments, and rest. Now open for applications, 2026’s selected emerging artists will form part of the EAF26 and EAF27 programme.
Trans Masc Studies: Memory is a Museum, Launch Day, EAF25. EAF Pavilion. Photo: Jules Lacave-Fontourcy
EAF’s year-round programme continues to grow, with local communities and overlooked histories taking centre stage. This Winter, EAF marks Trans Awareness week with Living Memory: A Trans Masc Archive, an event uniting research project Trans Masc Studies and poet Remi Graves, exploring the potentials of trans masculine archives, on 17 November at Fruitmarket.
On World AIDS Day (1 December), EAF commemorates AIDS activist pioneer and Leith resident Ally van Tillo, who was instrumental in the founding of the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt, recently shown in the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall. The intimate evening at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop will include a torchlight procession, a screening of There Is A Light That Never Goes Out, 1995, which explores the quilt’s legacy, followed by a panel discussion between local queer and sexual health activists: Dom Miller-Graham of Our Story Scotland, Christopher Ward of Scotland’s leading HIV and Hepatitis C charity, Waverley Care; Bob Orr and Raymond Rose of Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive and its queer bookshop forerunner, West and Wilde; and chaired by queer visual culture researcher Dr Cole Collins. Sections of the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt will be on display during the event at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, with a panel on public display at EAF’s office at the French Institute throughout December.