Arts Industry Assistant (fixed term)

Closing date: 10:00 on Monday 27 May 2026

Interview date: Tuesday 9 June 2026

Start date: Tuesday 07 July 2026

End date: Monday 31 August 2026

Location: Office based, central Edinburgh

The idea at the heart of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is simple: anyone with a desire to perform and a venue willing to host them is welcome. No individual or committee determines who can or cannot perform at the Fringe.

It all began in 1947 with eight companies – six of them from Scotland – taking a risk, turning up uninvited and performing on the ‘fringe’ of the inaugural Edinburgh International Festival. Over 75 years later, the Fringe has grown to become one of the greatest platforms for creative freedom in the world, second only to the Olympics in terms of global ticketed events. In 2024, 3,745 shows took place in 296 venues across Edinburgh.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society was founded by artists to nurture and uphold the Fringe's values of inclusivity, experimentation and imagination. We exist to support, advise and encourage everyone who wants to participate in the Fringe, provide information and assistance to audiences, and celebrate the Fringe and what it stands for all over the world.

Thousands of industry professionals from across the arts and screen sectors engage with the Edinburgh Festival Fringe to discover shows, book work and network with peers from across the globe at the world’s largest arts marketplace. The Fringe Society Arts Industry Office operates to support industry professionals during August, helping them discover talent, see work and connect with colleagues.

We are seeking to appoint enthusiastic individuals to act as our Arts Industry Assistants, reporting to the Arts Industry Officer and Arts Industry Supervisors.

The Arts Industry Assistants share responsibility for operating and supporting delivery of the services provided by the office. These are demanding positions that involve working in a busy office and require the confidence, humour, patience and diplomacy to deal with the large and varied number of arts industry professionals using the service during the festival.

Role and responsibilities

You will perform a wide range of duties, including but not limited to:

• Ensuring a positive and welcoming experience to visiting industry professionals, including running an in-person check-in desk and being the first point of contact.
• Providing industry professionals with information and advice on Fringe shows, events, services and networking opportunities tailored to their professional interests, including undertaking relevant research to provide bespoke advice.
• Responding to enquiries over the phone, by email and in person at the Arts Industry Office during August.
• Enabling access to industry ticketing for professionals, administrating the complimentary ticketing service through our box office system, Red61
• Supporting the Fringe Central and Arts Industry events programme by communicating appropriate and detailed event information to all relevant stakeholders, creating invite lists, assisting in organisation and providing on the ground event support.
• Ensuring the successful delivery of projects and services with operational and administrative support, including Fringe Marketplace, Screen Fringe, the Associates programme, the Made in Scotland Showcase and more.
• Carrying out general administrative tasks in support of the office, events and projects in the run up to and during the festival as required.

Person specification

Essential

• Excellent administrative skills and keen attention to detail.
• A polite, friendly and professional manner.
• The ability to solve problems and respond to changing priorities confidently and calmly.
• Experience of working in a demanding and busy environment.
• Good working knowledge of Microsoft packages, particularly Excel, Outlook, and Word.
• Experience of managing information across different software and databases.
• Excellent English language skills.
• Experience working in some capacity within the cultural industries; eg theatre, festivals, screen, venues, cultural agencies.

Desirable

• Experience of working with a ticketing system, specifically Red61.
• Experience of working at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe or other festival environments.
• Ability to speak a second language.

Rate of pay and hours of work

The rate of pay for this post is £13.45 per hour.

Normal working hours are 35 hours per week, worked over five days, with a one-hour unpaid lunch break. In the run up to and during the festival, you may be required to work additional hours, which will be set by a rota issued in advance. Any additional work beyond the hours detailed above will be mutually agreed in advance and will be paid at the standard hourly rate.

We are a flexible working employer and therefore are happy to discuss flexible working at any stage of the application process.

We use positive action under section 159 of the Equality Act in relation to disability or race. This means that if we have two candidates of equal merit in our process, we will seek to take forward the D/deaf, disabled, Black, Asian or ethnically diverse candidate in order to diversify our staff team.

The Fringe are active members of the Festivals Edinburgh Sustainability Working group and include climate action as one of the headline targets in the Fringe development goals. As part of the commitments of this work, all Fringe staff members are expected to assist with the Fringe Society’s environmental goals and consider these in all elements of your work.

We are also committed to maintaining the open-access policy of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome applications from all sectors of the community. We are also proud to be a Disability Confident Employer and aim to successfully employ and retain disabled people and those with health conditions. We expect employees to support these commitments and to assist in their realisation.