Summerhall Arts has announced the third and final programme reveal for its 2026 Edinburgh Festival Fringe season, adding 30 new shows to an already expansive line-up and unveiling plans for the UK’s first purpose-built theatre sauna.
The new announcement brings the total programme to 81 shows and introduces Sauna Theatre, an 80-seat venue described as the largest sauna in the UK, which will occupy Summerhall’s rear courtyard throughout August.
Sauna Theatre will present a programme of theatre, music, dance and Aufguss experiences, combining storytelling, performance and essential oil rituals within a working sauna environment.
Tom Forster, Programmer and Producer at Summerhall Arts, said: “It’s an immense privilege to present Summerhall Arts’ second festival programme in full. 2026 runs from drag kings to ballet, opera to satire, ceilidh to Aufguss. It cuts across class, identity, conflict, memory, care, and the digital age. Bold artists, urgent ideas — asking us to sit and sweat it out.”
The venue is a new collaboration with director James Grieve and designer Lucy Osborne, the team behind Paines Plough’s Roundabout theatre, and marks the first project from their company Sauna Sessions Arts Club.
Sam Gough, CEO of Summerhall Arts, commented: “We couldn’t be more excited to be bringing this ambitious Aufguss project here. It is a brilliant, brave and fun programme of work delivered in the most beautiful and innovative way and could not be more Summerhall Arts! This collaboration came about through our shared love for bold ideas and groundbreaking approaches to the arts, housed within one of Edinburgh’s most innovative and experimental venues. What better way to develop our space, in our second year of reimagining everything we do here. Where is my towel?”
James Grieve added: “It is thrilling to be launching this new pop-up space on the very same spot we launched Roundabout in 2014 at a venue and festival that means so much to us. We’re so excited to welcome Edinburgh audiences to relax, revive and be inspired in Sauna Theatre at Summerhall Arts.”
Among the newly announced performances is a work in progress of Kismet (قسمت), the debut play by award-winning comedian and author Shaparak Khorsandi, based on the true experiences of her Iranian family following the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
Hannah Maxwell premieres her new autobiographical show Turn Your Fucking Phones Off, exploring digital toxification and misinformation, following Fringe successes including Nan, Me & Barbara Pravi and BABYFLEAREINDEERBAG.
Francesca Moody Productions teams up with Global Creatures to present ROLEPLAY, a new one-woman play written and performed by Hannah Reilly and directed by Paige Rattray, interrogating sex, feminism and personal branding.
Other highlights include Thaddeus McWhinnie Phillips’ Méliès-inspired ArounD the WorlD in 80 ToyS, theatregoose’s new historical play THE PLOT, the UK premiere of The Subplot: A hyperfixation on the Titan submersible, and The Distance from former GB athlete and actor Ben Norris.
The programme also features returning initiatives including Summerhall Arts Surgeries, Summerhall Yoga, and four productions from Australian presenting partner House of Oz, alongside a wide range of international and UK-based work.
Summerhall Arts’ 2026 festival runs from 6 to 31 August, with all shows now on sale.
Listings and ticket information can be found here.
