Climate- themed show recommendations for Edinburgh Fringe 2026
Discover the best climate-themed comedy, theatre, dance and music shows at the 2026 Edinburgh Fringe. This list will keep you entertained from 7-31st August with artists exploring the climate challenge facing the planet.
This curated guide looks across the major venues in the city and draws recommendations from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Edinburgh Book Festival and the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
People are moved to action in lots of different ways, being influenced by friends, watching documentaries or even culture and entertainment that helps them see the world differently. That’s why we wanted to share our recommendations on the shows that address the climate challenge we face. We picked shows that highlight the power of community, how individuals are processing their climate feelings, have a new way of portraying the science and even performance that align with our campaigns.
This guide is for everyone, whether you are looking for drag musicals, poetry-led theatre or stories of collective hope, we have you covered. We even share some tips for how to have a greener festival and reduce your climate impact. Enjoy the climate show!
Our Edinburgh climate show recommendations
Love Letters to the Public Transport System
Theatre, Female led
Changing how we get around is a key climate solution that will improve lives. In a fast-moving world where no one stays in one place for too long, this show seeks to find and thank the people who transport us daily – to friends, to lovers, to work, to moments of significance in our lives. But who do you thank, and how do you find them?
This will be a special stripped-back version of Molly Taylor’s Fringe show, reimagined for Shedinburgh.
Monday 24 August, 5:00pm
Venue: Shedinburgh @ Assembly Checkpoint
Acid’s Reign
Drag, Musical, Theatre
In what surely is the only drag musical about climate change at the fringe, Acid’s Reign is a riotous celebration of activism, community, and the transformative power of performance.
The story echoes the rising hope for climate in 2019 to the fading attention of the present day. Now when commercial success comes calling, the group faces an impossible choice: stay radical — or stay visible. Provocative, hilarious, and deeply moving, these drag superstars promise powerhouse vocals, razor-sharp wit, and unapologetic queer energy.
5 – 31 August, 15:45
Venue: Pleasance Courtyard
Where we choose to stand
Dance, Theatre
This ambitious dance-theatre work is inspired by climate activism amid political upheaval. Embedded in Nicolette Macleod’s evocative soundscape are first-hand accounts from people from across the UK who have been involved in direct action, amplifying the voices of those often silenced for their actions.
Through audience interaction, the work challenges audiences to reflect on where they stand, asking how we position ourselves in moments of crisis.
7 – 16 August, 20:30
Venue: Dancebase
Stuart Goldsmith: Canary
Stand-up, Comedy, Storytelling
Stuart was as scared about the climate crisis as you are. But he did the reading, and now he’s terrified. Come and watch him do something about it. In his most honest, hilarious, and hopeful hour yet, Stuart applies his stand-up skills to the apparent collapse of absolutely everything.
His climate-crisis comedy show Spoilers was one of the best reviewed shows at the 2023 fringe. He says that he is using comedy to engage people in climate change – and to send out a call to action that will help alleviate our collective dread.
17 – 30 August, 14:25
Venue: Cabaret Voltaire
The Song of the Ice
Music, Science & Technology, Visual Art
A personal response to Antarctic exploration, Earth history and climate change informed by Antarctic experiences in the 1980s and 2020s. How did the continent and ice sheet form, and how is it changing?
Stunning new music, leading-edge science, animation and imagery developed in collaboration with British Antarctic Survey (BAS) scientists. This solo performance by innovative guitarist Steve Garrett includes an introductory talk including perspectives from the scientists and a Q&A session helping you to engage in the performance and develop a deeper understanding, interest and affection for the southernmost continent.
13- 28 August, 20:30,
Venue: Church at artSpace@StMarks
The Land Beneath Our Feet
Theatre, Political, Spoken Word
Nathan Parker rehearses poems from the show
One man, one garden, one last day. On his last day in Blackpool before the waves take it away, Ted, an old-timer with a big heart, recalls the stories and people who made his beloved community garden so special.
This new play, written and performed by acclaimed poet Nathan Parker, is full of love, hope and heartbreak as it celebrates community spirit and shines a light on the reality of climate change for seaside towns. This evocative story promises to leave you feeling inspired, moved and ready to change the world.
10 -14 August 15:00,
Venue: Surgeons Hall
We Love and Then We Drown
Theatre, New Writing, Drama
Set in 2075 when half the UK is underwater, ‘We Love and then We Drown’ centres around former climate scientist Catherine Hardy, who spends her days looking back on her life’s work – wondering why it wasn’t enough, and whether it was a mistake to sacrifice everything for her research. But when an unexpected visitor shows up asking questions about the past, Catherine realises there might yet be a chance for love – and hope – to prevail.
This is a new climate play written by Professor in Creative Writing Ruth Gilligan who is exploring the potential of the shared experience of theatre as a place to inspire the type of communal action we need.
17 – 29 August, various times,
Venue: Greenside @ George Street
Edinburgh Book Festival Recommendations
James Crawford: The Vanishing Earth
In the last fifty years alone we have taken more out of the planet than in all prior history combined. Everything we touch ― rock, metal, sand, water, even thought itself ― feeds the pursuit of limitless economic growth.
James Crawford has travelled through the living ruins of extraction and meets the people living within its extremes: the lithium flats of the Atacama, Greenland’s collapsing melt-edge, the desertified shores of Spain’s Sea of Plastic, and the resource-hungry cloud centres birthing new artificial intelligences, to expose the true cost of this hollowed-out dream. Yet, within the same landscapes experiencing the ruins of extraction, radical alternatives are emerging. Hope emerges in the communities waging battles to leave oil untouched and restore nature ― finding the path to repair for a world pushed to the brink.
Discussing his incisive new book, The Vanishing Earth, acclaimed historian, writer, and BBC Radio 4’s Take Four Books presenter James Crawford exposes the cost of endless growth on our planet and the essential actions that could save it. Chaired by Cal Flyn.
Tuesday 25 August, 12:45,
Venue: Book Festival @ Edinburgh Futures Institute
Nicolas Niarchos & Alex Perry: Blood & Oil
We are all aware of the environmental cost of using fossil fuels to power our lives, but the human and cultural impact is arguably just as damaging.
In Blood Will Flow, investigative journalist Alex Perry illuminates the dark underbelly of the oil industry through a massacre in Mozambique, while The New Yorker writer Nicolas Niarchos’ The Elements of Power examines the bloody history of cobalt, from Congolese mines to our phone batteries. Chaired by Sally Hayden.
Wednesday 26 August, 17:30
Venue: Book Festival @ Edinburgh Futures Institute
Film Festival recommendation: First Zone
Living out existence in an abandoned wind turbine high above an endless ocean, ultra tough Fenna (Minis) has become used to surviving alone in the aftermath of a climate catastrophe. But when a violent storm separates her from home, she embarks on an odyssey across the vast wetlands of a post-apocalyptic landscape.
Along the way Fenna will encounter other survivors and begin remembering connection, community and a life before the end of the world. Resourcefully and beautifully shot in real Holland locations, debut director Thom Lunshof’s film is thoughtful and unsettling. A unique, compelling and urgent film for our times. – synopsis by Paul Ridd
16 – 18 August, various times,
Venue: Various cinemas as part of Edinburgh International Film Festival
Tips to reduce your climate impact whilst at the festival
Climate change is a collective problem and it will take systemic solutions to fix it. But that shouldn’t mean that we can’t make greener choices as individuals where possible. In that vein, Home Energy Scotland have produced this list of top tips to help have a greener Edinburgh fringe.
Feeling inspired to take action after watching a climate themed Fringe show?
Last updated: 10 July 2026. We’ll continue adding recommendations and updates throughout the Fringe.