The grassy courtyard in front of the Futures Institute is the home of the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August, with a pop-up village of tents and picnic tables.
The Book Festival holds many events inside the Futures Institute theatres and rooms itself, while in the courtyard you can find:
- Spiegeltent One of various spiegeltents that pop up in August in the city, the vintage Book Festival Spiegeltent carries musical and theatrical shows, panels, podcast recordings, and conversations. The 230-capacity cabaret venue is open late and has a bar.
- Courtyard Theatre This pop-up venue hosts Book Festival conversational events, especially history and non-fiction events. Raked seating for 200.
- Festival Bookshop It's a tent with many shelves of books. Run in conjunction with Waterstones.
- Children's tent This can be found on the front lawn of the Edinburgh Futures Institute. It carries a programme of free, drop-in events for up to 100 small people.
The Courtyard is free to enter.
