Our 10 Unmissable Children's Shows at the Edinburgh Fringe 2026
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe runs this year from 7 to 31 August 2026, and while the festival's reputation is built on late-night comedy and boundary-pushing theatre, the mornings and early afternoons belong to families. The children's programme is genuinely one of the strongest strands this year — the ten shows below are the ones worth building your day around. Always double-check dates, times and prices on edfringe.com before booking, as festival schedules can shift.
1. The Listies: 110% Ready — Assembly George Square Studios
The Australian duo have been a fixture of family programming for a decade, and their superpower is genuinely rare: they entertain the adults just as hard as the children, without ever winking over the kids' heads to do it. The giggling genuinely does not stop — regulars talk about leaving with their cheeks aching. If your family has never seen The Listies, fix that this year; if you have, you've already stopped reading and gone to book.
2. Mario the Maker Magician — Underbelly, Bristo Square, 11.00am
If you only book one children's show this August, make it this one. Mario builds his own robots, does slapstick like a silent-film clown, and somehow makes card tricks and homemade contraptions feel like the same act of wonder. He's been on The Tonight Show and Sesame Street, toured with David Blaine — who's called him "the best kids magician in the world" — but the reviews that matter are the ones from parents who say they laughed as hard as their kids did. This isn't a magic show you politely watch; it's one you get swept into, and in years of Fringe-going I've never once heard anyone come out of it unhappy.
3. Splash Test Dummies — Underbelly's Circus Hub on the Meadows
The crossover pick from our circus list, and it earns its place on both. A trio of Australian acrobats doing a PG send-up of Baywatch, full of slapstick, audience participation and genuinely impressive hoop, silk and rope work hidden under the chaos. It's been a Circus Hub regular for years because it works: kids leave buzzing, adults leave more impressed than they expected to be. A brilliant first circus show for younger ones.
4. Comedy Club 4 Kids — check listings for venue and times
Swear-free stand-up, silly sketches and a fresh line-up every single day — which means you can go twice and see two completely different shows. In August 2025 they won the Edinburgh Comedy Awards' panel prize for embodying the true "spirit of the Fringe," and that's exactly what this is: proper comedians doing proper sets, just without the material you'd have to explain in the car home. The rotating format also makes it the perfect rainy-day wildcard when nothing else fits your schedule.
5. Mama G: The Magic Bookmark — Gilded Balloon Teviot
"Everyone's favourite pantomime dame" (Metro) and Britain's Got Talent semi-finalist Mama G returns with an award-winning panto adventure in which the villainous Book Worm steals all the books from Mama G's library, and only the audience — plus a mysterious Magic Bookmark — can help save the day. It's warm-hearted, big-spirited storytelling about why books (and everyone in the room) deserve to be part of the story. Panto in August shouldn't work, but in Mama G's hands it absolutely does.
6. Olaf Falafel’s Stupidest Super Stupid Show: This Time It’s Stupider! — Free Fringe
The comedy show comedians take their own kids to, back after a sell-out run last year. Award-winning comedian and children's author Olaf Falafel (if that is his real name) promises jokes, poos on pogo sticks, truth-telling cheese, a time-travelling portal to the future and a live drawalong. It's free-Fringe, which makes it the easiest possible yes on a packed festival day — and the fact that it sells out anyway tells you everything about how funny it actually is.
7. Hugo's Rainbow Show — Underbelly, Bristo Square
A drag show for kids about the science of rainbows, and one of the most joyful concepts in this year's programme. New Zealand's Hugo Grrrl leads a musical hunt for Ray The Sun, Misty The Cloud and the fabulous Archie The Rainbow, making meteorology genuinely fun through original songs, dress-ups and outrageous costumes. It's pitched at 2–10 year olds and made with neurodiverse audiences in mind — wholesome, goofy and glamorous in exactly the right proportions.
8. BATSU! Presents GANBA!! — Underbelly, Bristo Square
The most physically involving show on this list — your whole family enters the Dojo to train like ninjas, taking on ridiculous challenges while the mischievous Spirit of Batsu tries to derail your training. It comes from the team behind the international hit BATSU!, and the interactivity is the point: this is for the kids (and parents) who can't sit still through a conventional show and don't want to. You have to go for it. You have to GANBA!!
9. Frogs in Bogs — Pleasance Courtyard
In 2026, a crack amphibian plumbing unit was locked up for a contamination crime they didn't commit — and if that A-Team setup has already made you smile, this is your show. Superhero frog plumbers Turner and Constable must smash the Megaclog and defeat the evil Cwac-Ty-Bach in a blockbusting amphibian comedy that comes with the Fringe programme's finest content warning: "Contains poo! May entertain teenagers!" Gloriously daft in the best Fringe tradition.
10. FoRT — Assembly George Square Gardens
The gentlest and most beautiful pick on the list — a multi award-winning show inspired by the timeless craft of turning living rooms upside down. Everyday objects transform into fantastical places to play through ridiculous clowning, spectacular acrobatics and genuinely lovely visual imagery. It's the one to book for the child who builds sofa-cushion fortresses at home, and the one you'll be quietly moved by yourself. A perfect palate-cleanser between the louder shows above.
A note on booking
Children's shows at the Fringe tend to cluster in the mornings and early afternoons, and the popular ones sell out at weekends especially — book ahead rather than chancing the box office. Always confirm venues, dates, times and age guidance on edfringe.com or the venue's own site before you book, as festival schedules can shift right up to and during August. And if you're after an extra pick, Max Fulham's family-friendly Monkey Business (Gilded Balloon Teviot, 11:50am, 5–16 August) — the companion show to his main evening hour from our cabaret list — is well worth a look for the first half of the festival.
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