The Camden Fringe Festival programme announced — with 400+ shows who needs Edinburgh Festival?

Live in London and can’t afford the fortune it costs to stay in Edinburgh during the festival? The Camden Fringe is the next best thing.

The Camden Fringe runs from 3rd August to the end of that month, and its full line-up of events was recently revealed.

More than 400 events make up The Camden Fringe, which touches on comedy, theatre, dance, magic and more. Its events also spill out way further than Camden, with featured venues across central London.

Latest Videos From

Watch full video here:

As Edinburgh festival, which also takes place during August, will have bogarted many of the biggest names in comedy, don’t dig into the line-up expecting to see many TV-bothering stand-ups. But there’s an awful lot of stuff here. Many of the shows are also on for just a day or two, rather than running throughout August.

Picking a few random events from the calendar, we came up with Most Rare’s production of King Lear at Clarence Hall, on 17/21st August at £15 a pop. Or there’s dark comedy theatre production Sorry I Can’t Come Into Work. My Cat Died. from KC Thomas at the Museum of Comedy on 21/22nd August, and £10.25 a ticket.

For something a bit lighter, head to Aces and Eights for A Dinner with the Sluts, a comedy night from Laura Moss & Amelia Fritz. It’s on a handful of times throughout the month and costs £7 a ticket.

You could easily spend a couple of hours rifling through the Camden Fringe’s shows, but the official site lets you filter by day and venue. That’ll save a bit of time.

The Camden Fringe takes place across 38 venues including Shortlist favourites like the Hen & Chickens Theatre, the Phoenix Arts Club and The Bill Murray. And as tickets are booked on a per-event basis, there’s zero pressure to dig in any more than your schedule allows.

The Camden Fringe has now been around for 20 years, its first run having taken place in 2006.

All the A-list celebrities starring in London’s West End theatres (and beyond) in 2026

Skip the search — follow Shortlist on Google News to get our best lists, news, features and reviews at the top of your feeds!

Andrew Williams has written about all sorts of stuff for more than a decade — from tech and fitness to entertainment and fashion. He has written for a stack of magazines and websites including Wired, TrustedReviews, TechRadar and Stuff, enjoys going to gigs and painting in his spare time. He's also suspiciously good at poker.