How To Get Fringe Reviews: The Recs' Top Tips

Every August, Edinburgh transforms into a beautiful, bonkers, sleep-deprived fever dream. The streets swarm with flyering comedians, emotionally overwrought theatre-makers, and at least one person dressed as a lobster handing out Haribo at 10am.

Somewhere amidst this glorious chaos lurk the review sites: the critics, bloggers, recommendation platforms and culture obsessives who can help a show find its audience (or on a bad day, send performers into an emotional spiral over the wording of a three-star review.) But here’s the important thing: most reviewers are not villains. They are dedicated — but often tired — arts lovers trying to cram too many shows a day into bodies powered almost entirely by caffeine, Mosque Kitchen Chicken Shawarma, and blind hope

Platforms like The Recs exist because we genuinely want to champion good work, help audiences discover hidden gems, and stop brilliant shows disappearing into the Fringe void between a copyright-challenging Kath and Kim drag parody and a “darkly comic meditation on grief” performed in a shipping container.

So, if you’re bringing a show to Edinburgh Fringe 2026, here’s how to approach review sites like ours without losing your sanity or dignity.

First Things First: Reviewers are People (no, it's true!)

It can be tempting to imagine critics sitting atop Arthur’s Seat, dispensing stars like mercurial theatre gods, holding the fates of Edfringe shows in their hands. In reality, we’re usually speed-walking through the rain while inhaling a Tesco meal deal and trying to remember whether your show is in Venue 42 or Venue 94.

The very best thing you can do? Make our life easy.

A good pitch is simple:

What’s the show?
Why is it interesting?
Where and when is it on?
And a key consideration, why might this publication’s audience like it?

That’s it.

This is not the moment for a 2,000-word treatise about the collapse of modern society told through the medium of absurdist mime clowning. I’m not sure when that moment might be but now, it is not.

Timing is everything

HEAR YE, HEAR YE! MAY AND JUNE EQUALS YOUR GOLDEN WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY.

This is when most review sites start planning coverage.

By then, ideally, you should have:

- - Your Fringe listing live
  - A decent press image – you will be spending a lot to bring your show to Edinburgh – you absolutely must have (at least) one proper, text-free image for the press
  - A clear show description
  - Performance times confirmed
  - The first date that you show can be reviewed
  - Confirm whether you need a review during your run – or if you are planning a post-Fringe life would you accept a review coming after the Fringe has finished?
  - And a window in the editors’ diaries that actually allows us to give more than a speed read to incoming review requests

A short, friendly email in early summer works wonders. Especially if you’ve actually researched the outlet first.

You are asking us to invest time and resources in your show out of thousands that will be performed – in return, it is so worthwhile that you invest a little bit of time in familiarising who you are asking for this review from, which could substantively change your Fringe fortunes. If you’re contacting somewhere like The Recs, take five minutes to understand what we cover. Publications can instantly tell when they’ve been sent the same copy-and-paste email as 400 other sites.

Have you actually spent time looking at what we do? Why would you send us a press release about your children’s show when we don’t have a single review of a children’s show on our site? Honestly, spending time understanding what sites like The Recs and other Fringe sites do will pay dividends because your approach will be more bespoke – and will ping on our radar far more than a one-size-fits-all release.

Also, how can I put this: Nothing says “I value your publication” quite like accidentally addressing us as “Dear London Cabaret Weekly”.

Your First Week of Fringe Matters Enormously

Don’t want to over egg the Fringe pudding but getting momentum for the start of your Fringe run is pivotal.

Edinburgh runs on momentum.

Review sites are constantly looking for:

Early buzz
Audience reactions
Strong word-of-mouth
Shows people are talking about in queues

If your opening performances land well, invite reviewers quickly. A great review during your first week can genuinely change the trajectory of a run.

A glowing review published on the penultimate day of Fringe is emotionally lovely, but slightly akin to arriving at a party just as everyone has ordered their taxis home.

Our Biggest Fringe Review Tips

Be Concise

Review sites, editors and reviewers receive hundreds upon hundreds of emails.

Nobody — and I say this with love — nobody needs seventeen attachments and your complete artistic biography dating back to when you played the Artful Dodger in your Year 6 production of Oliver! – even if it was a triumph.

Keep it clean and clear:

Title
Genre
Venue
Times
One punchy paragraph
A link to a Dropbox or Google Drive folder of press images – I will park and bark this instruction until the end of days: please, get someone to check the link works
Your social media channels

Done.

Make Your Press Images Easy To Find

The press images for your Edinburgh Fringe show should not be like Brigadoon – glimpsed through the mists on a single day every 100 years! Make sure they are an easy click away from every desperate, overworked Fringe editor.

For example, as editor of The Recs, a reviewer might send through a glowing five-star review for your Edfringe show. It’s already to go – but wait. Where are your images? You’ve not included them in your email. The venue doesn’t seem to have them. Yes, I’ll email you but that’s a day lost before your rave review can be published.

Instead here is my ideal practice so that this never happens.

Create a folder – [Name of Show press images] – this can be a dropbox or a google drive. This will be where all the production images, actor head shots, show artwork with and without text will be kept.

Put the URL of that folder into your press release (preferably near the top), into your review request email and even consider adding it to your email signature. Even if there are no production images at the time you are sending the review request email, just add ‘images coming soon’. So that when weeks later I am looking for your images, that unpopulated link you sent originally will be full of images and easy for me to find.

Label your images – if yours is a show with two performers or more, please labels the images as to who is who. If there is a paragraph in the review submitted that waxes lyrical about one performance in the show, I’m probably going to try and have an image of that person next to the paragraph. As I won’t have seen the show myself, it’s so helpful if you’ve labelled the pics.

Not essential but certainly desirable – try and have a mix of horizontal and portrait within your press images collection.

Your Artwork Matters More Than You Think

Fringe reviewers and potential audiences spend August staring at thumbnails until their eyes stop functioning properly.

A strong image helps hugely. It doesn’t need to cost a fortune, but it should feel clear and professional.

I sometimes think Fringe shows underestimate quite how much your artwork is both a calling card and a first impression. That is what you are putting out into the world to represent your show. You must ask yourself if your poster is messy, convoluted, unimaginative, or poorly executed, why would anyone imagine that your show would be any different?

Don’t Chase Editors like a Debt Collector

One polite follow-up email? Completely fine.

Four emails, two Instagram DMs and a passive-aggressive tweet about “supporting emerging artists”? Less ideal.

Most sites covering the Fringe staffing levels fit seamlessly under the little engine that could umbrella. There are too few of us trying to do more than is possible.

Here’s the bold truth: Every incoming email will be read, most won’t get a reply. Not because of the lack of desire to reply, or indifference on our part. Far from it. But the sheer volume of incoming requests is beyond what most sites can cope with. Our focus is on getting reviewers out to see shows, arranging press tickets, editing the reviews we receive, uploading them to the site and probably creating social posts to accompany the published review. If that sounds like a white-knuckle ride, it is – and most editors are just about clinging on.

If we are interested in your show, we’ll be in touch.

If it’s not something we are interested in, or something that despite the best intention that we can’t make fit within our schedules, then you won’t hear back.

Also, the truth is that few reviewers want to see every kind of show, and most want to review the areas they are not only interested in, but also have some expertise/experience in. So don’t take it personally if a reviewer doesn’t want to see your show; it may just be the quirks of a specific reviewer. Moreover, do you really want someone who’s inclined not to like your show to come see it anyway?

Invite Critics When Your Show is 'Review Ready'

This is a real toughie.

You may love your preview audiences. Your mum may insist the show is ready. But if the ending still doesn’t work and your opening currently feels the length of Oppenheimer, wait a few days and fix it before you allow reviewers in.

A reviewer seeing an undercooked show can affect momentum far more than missing a couple of early performances.

Think of it like serving someone cake batter and saying, “Trust me, eventually this becomes the best Victoria Sponge you ever tasted!”

On the other hand, if you are doing previews of your show before you get to Edinburgh AND you know your show is 100% ready, then you should invite the critics. It helps review sites cover more shows, there is less pressure to write up a review quickly, it can be embargoed to land around your first Fringe performance and it will guarantee some coveted early publicity.

Build Relationships, Not Transactions

The smartest Fringe artists understand this immediately.

Publications like The Recs aren’t just there to hand out stars like Olympic judges. They’re part of the wider Fringe ecosystem.

Be warm. Be professional. Say thank you. If you get a great review, share it on your socials and say who gave you the review.

People remember artists who are pleasant to work with – and equally they remember who are not. Even if you think your Fringe show is a one-and-done, you never know when a producer is looking for works to tour post-Fringe. It’s a small world and word gets around.

A Big Question: Is Hiring A Professional PR Worth It?

Ah yes. The perennial Fringe dilemma.

Should you:
A) hire a PR
or
B) spend that money on accommodation that doesn’t contain visible mould?

Our honest answer is: it depends.

A good PR can absolutely help by:

- Arranging reviewer attendance
- Managing press outreach
- Chasing coverage
- Advising on marketing
- Freeing you up to focus on performing
- Stopping you sending emotionally charged emails at midnight – step away from that keyboard

For larger productions, established comics, ambitious transfers, or shows chasing awards and industry attention, a PR can be enormously valuable.

But PR is not wizardry. There is no mystical lever they can pull.

A publicist cannot magically turn a confused three-hour mime opera into the hottest ticket in town. Nor can they guarantee five-star reviews from every publication.

And for smaller shows, the cost can sometimes outweigh the benefits.

Quite often, emerging artists are better investing in:

- Better design
- More rehearsal time
- Social media promotion
- Decent accommodation
- Some pre-Fringe publicity – more on that soon
- Actual food

Truthfully, personal outreach combined with the right show still goes a long way. Many reviewers and editors genuinely appreciate thoughtful emails from artists themselves. Authenticity cuts through.

Reviews Are Not The Whole Story

The Edinburgh Fringe has always had a slightly unhealthy obsession with stars.

Five stars? You’re a genius.
Three stars? Time to flee the country, retrain as an accountant and never darken our door again.

Audiences discover shows through so many methods other than reviews:

- Word-of-mouth – Edinburgh in August is filled with theatre-lovers who are bursting with burning recommendations for shows you must see. (Yeh, get off our turf!) Ask and you will receive plenty of advice
- Social media – you cannot underestimate how much social media really can spread the word for you – even while you sleep. (Google that word, it may come in handy by the end of August)
- Audience recommendations on the Edfringe.com site
- Friends dragging friends
- Recommendation sites like The Recs (who I hear are terrific)

Because we have offered all this free (and hopefully invaluable) advice, I hope you don’t mind us flagging up a cheeky plug for an Edinburgh Fringe opportunity we are offering this year to Fringe artists.

The Recs Q & A Interviews

The Recs has a history in our Edinburgh Fringe coverage to conduct interviews with Edfringe acts in the run up to the start of festival. It’s a terrific way for shows to get the early word out there about what they are bringing to Edinburgh, to capture the all-important early attention of our readers, and to have a chance to discuss their work in their own words.

If this is something your show might be interested in, click the button below for more details.

Still on the subject of reviews, there was one last piece of advice we wanted to impart.

In recent years, a couple of very unscrupulous sites have offered paid-for reviews to the unwary. There is no such thing as a paid-for review – it is an advert pure and simple.

The Edinburgh Fringe Society does not approve of these sites – but more importantly neither does the ticket-buying public. Even if you are truly struggling to get reviewers through your door, it is NEVER worth paying for a review. It has no legitimacy. There is no critical assessment at play. You are simply being fleeced. Instead, speak to your venue press officer or to the Fringe team – they might have some advice to help get that elusive review.

Do try and bear in mind, some of the most beloved Fringe hits build slowly and organically rather than exploding overnight.

So yes, reviews matter. But they are only one part of the wonderfully chaotic Edinburgh machine.

The artists who tend to thrive are not necessarily the ones obsessively refreshing review pages at 2am while eating a Nature Valley Crunchy bar in a stairwell.

They’re usually the ones making good work, treating people kindly, staying adaptable, and embracing the glorious madness of a city where someone dressed as a Victorian ghost will hand you a flyer before breakfast.

And honestly, that’s the Edinburgh Fringe!