Overview

Always love the Book Festival - and it's great to visit it at its new home! I loved all the various places and spaces within the courtyard and the stage and the big screen were fantastic additions! I loved the book shop set up in the old fire station - spacious and easy to find what you were looking for including limited editions and signed editions. Staff were brilliant as usual. Sad it is over for another year but looking forward to visiting it again next year!

Transport & Parking

Easy for us as we came on the 124 bus which stops on Lothian Road - then it is a 10 min walk / wheel to Lauriston Place. Edinburgh being Edinburgh there are some hills to navigate! There are other buses though that do stop on Lauriston Place itself which would be even more convenient!

Access

On approach you'll probably see the pop up cafes just outside the main entrance and the book shop. These have canvas awnings to help protect you from the elements! The main entrance is well signposted and you go through this entering into a fantastic courtyard! There are several different areas centred around a giant screen and stage - this worked really well in showing what was going on I really enjoyed watching events on the big screen. Seems like lots of other people did this too and there was a grassy bank to sit on as well as viewing areas and some picnic tables too. There is a slope in the courtyard down to the main auditoriums and the children's area. We checked out the children's area which had some great features for kids and was accessible with a ramp to get into the area itself. The bar was to your right as you entered the courtyard and was an accessible deck with canvas awning. If you carried on past the bar you enter a permanent building which is the cafe and also housed the loos. The Book Shop is in it's own building, an old fire station with amazing high ceiling. Bookshelves look great in there and although there are some tables dotted around they added to the whole experience rather than cluttering things up unnecessarily. The different sections are clearly labelled and there were plenty of staff around if you needed to ask for help. The only thing I was sad about was that I didn't get to attend any in person events - but this was because I wasn't fast enough when booking opened!

Toilets

Staff

I've been to the book festival several years and the staff are always super smily, helpful and knowledgeable. This year was no exception!

Anything else you wish to tell us?

I wasn't sure how the Book Festival would work in its new home but for me, although I'm sad to lose the magic of Charlotte Square, I really enjoyed the new magic being created at the College of Art!

Photos