--- title: "Our History | Assembly Festival" meta: "og:description": "We are based in Edinburgh at Assembly Roxy, run Assembly Festival at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and tour with the best of our programme." "og:title": "Our History" "twitter:description": "We are based in Edinburgh at Assembly Roxy, run Assembly Festival at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and tour with the best of our programme." "twitter:title": "Our History" description: "We are based in Edinburgh at Assembly Roxy, run Assembly Festival at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and tour with the best of our programme." --- # Our History Assembly was born in 1981 when our founder and artistic director William Burdett-Coutts took on the iconic Assembly Rooms to present several shows at the Fringe. This concept of a curated hub, or festival within a festival, proved a hit and set the mould for countless others to follow, propelling the Fringe to become the world-renowned event it is today. In the intervening four decades, we’ve spread our wings across Edinburgh. Today we operate across five locations, including our eponymous first home, the Assembly Rooms, and our year-round performance space Assembly Roxy. In 2011, we opened our Assembly George Square Gardens hub for the first time, which has become one of the go-to social and performance hubs at the heart of the Fringe. Described as one of the most prestigious production companies at the Fringe and as the ‘powerhouse of the Fringe’ (Edinburgh Evening News), the Assembly Festival operation is three times the size of the Edinburgh International Festival and plays to an audience the equivalent size of the BBC Proms each summer. After a pandemic enforced hiatus in 2020 and a triumphant return in 2021, we celebrated our 40th anniversary in 2022 and have continued to grow our star-studded programme each year. We are proud of our distinguished alumni with an impressive list of now household names having launched their careers on an Assembly stage, including Suzy Eddie Izzard, Jo Brand, Bill Bailey, Sandi Toksvig, Adam Hills, Dawn French and Rik Mayall, to name a few. ## Explore the Archive [![1981 Festival Team Credit William Burdett-Coutts](https://assemblyfestival.com/_vercel/image?url=https:%2F%2Fassemblyfestival.pazaz.studio%2Fassets%2F46ac97e8-ae4e-4656-b5ea-34e5833e46bb?width=300%26height=300%26format=webp&w=1536&q=100)](https://assemblyfestival.pazaz.studio/assets/46ac97e8-ae4e-4656-b5ea-34e5833e46bb?width=2000&format=webp) [![Assembly Festival Alumni - Credit William Burdett-Coutts](https://assemblyfestival.com/_vercel/image?url=https:%2F%2Fassemblyfestival.pazaz.studio%2Fassets%2Fcde176a4-eed4-445a-b088-f65bbcad3983?width=300%26height=300%26format=webp&w=1536&q=100)](https://assemblyfestival.pazaz.studio/assets/cde176a4-eed4-445a-b088-f65bbcad3983?width=2000&format=webp) [![Assembly Festival Team 2025 - Credit William Burdett-Coutts](https://assemblyfestival.com/_vercel/image?url=https:%2F%2Fassemblyfestival.pazaz.studio%2Fassets%2F4bfa61cb-fcca-439f-9343-e4579a58bed5?width=300%26height=300%26format=webp&w=1536&q=100)](https://assemblyfestival.pazaz.studio/assets/4bfa61cb-fcca-439f-9343-e4579a58bed5?width=2000&format=webp) [![Dangerous Goods 2025 - Credit Jade Ellis](https://assemblyfestival.com/_vercel/image?url=https:%2F%2Fassemblyfestival.pazaz.studio%2Fassets%2F6f469993-88cb-402b-88d3-c1bb37088449?width=300%26height=300%26format=webp&w=1536&q=100)](https://assemblyfestival.pazaz.studio/assets/6f469993-88cb-402b-88d3-c1bb37088449?width=2000&format=webp) [![Assembly Gala, 2024. Credit: Ari Ejay](https://assemblyfestival.com/_vercel/image?url=https:%2F%2Fassemblyfestival.pazaz.studio%2Fassets%2F0253f133-1c47-4481-9794-59ed29010670?width=300%26height=300%26format=webp&w=1536&q=100)](https://assemblyfestival.pazaz.studio/assets/0253f133-1c47-4481-9794-59ed29010670?width=2000&format=webp) [![Barrowland Ballet Presents Wee Man, 2025. Credit: Viktoria Begg](https://assemblyfestival.com/_vercel/image?url=https:%2F%2Fassemblyfestival.pazaz.studio%2Fassets%2F602f83c1-620d-4da6-8fbf-d616d44c88d1?width=300%26height=300%26format=webp&w=1536&q=100)](https://assemblyfestival.pazaz.studio/assets/602f83c1-620d-4da6-8fbf-d616d44c88d1?width=2000&format=webp) [![Mediocre White Male, 2021. Credit: Ambra Vernucci](https://assemblyfestival.com/_vercel/image?url=https:%2F%2Fassemblyfestival.pazaz.studio%2Fassets%2Fdb505a6b-9b09-464a-8bba-ddd2e79064a2?width=300%26height=300%26format=webp&w=1536&q=100)](https://assemblyfestival.pazaz.studio/assets/db505a6b-9b09-464a-8bba-ddd2e79064a2?width=2000&format=webp) [![Silkworm, 2022. Credit: Tommy Ga Ken Wan](https://assemblyfestival.com/_vercel/image?url=https:%2F%2Fassemblyfestival.pazaz.studio%2Fassets%2Fc102a820-0fb5-4526-9de2-c8d4871d6c6c?width=300%26height=300%26format=webp&w=1536&q=100)](https://assemblyfestival.pazaz.studio/assets/c102a820-0fb5-4526-9de2-c8d4871d6c6c?width=2000&format=webp) [![Assembly Gala - Reuben Kaye, 2022. Credit: Tom Duffin](https://assemblyfestival.com/_vercel/image?url=https:%2F%2Fassemblyfestival.pazaz.studio%2Fassets%2Fa16c9f08-1815-4be9-8198-4983ef703719?width=300%26height=300%26format=webp&w=1536&q=100)](https://assemblyfestival.pazaz.studio/assets/a16c9f08-1815-4be9-8198-4983ef703719?width=2000&format=webp) [![The Other Mozart, 2025.](https://assemblyfestival.com/_vercel/image?url=https:%2F%2Fassemblyfestival.pazaz.studio%2Fassets%2F7eea04bc-eb65-4638-9692-81afc451bea4?width=300%26height=300%26format=webp&w=1536&q=100)](https://assemblyfestival.pazaz.studio/assets/7eea04bc-eb65-4638-9692-81afc451bea4?width=2000&format=webp) ### **Follow Us** ### **Sign up to our newsletter** ## **THANK YOU TO OUR SUPPORTERS, SPONSORS AND PARTNERS** [![The City of Edinburgh Council](https://assemblyfestival.pazaz.studio/assets/d379ddbf-66cc-4bb3-909e-c524a9e673ac?width=400&height=200&fit=inside&format=png)Visit The City of Edinburgh Council website](https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/) [![The Church of Scotland](https://assemblyfestival.pazaz.studio/assets/49185c32-3f2d-4eda-ae62-d01a3e04c659?width=400&height=200&fit=inside&format=png)Visit The Church of Scotland website](https://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/) [![Essential Edinburgh](https://assemblyfestival.pazaz.studio/assets/bbd576d2-3705-41b9-94af-7dfe6f96b6b2?width=400&height=200&fit=inside&format=png)Visit Essential Edinburgh website](https://www.essentialedinburgh.co.uk/) [![The University of Edinburgh](https://assemblyfestival.pazaz.studio/assets/56257592-6b16-4180-9c7c-562de7a6cc0e?width=400&height=200&fit=inside&format=png)Visit The University of Edinburgh website](https://www.ed.ac.uk/) [![Inchs](https://assemblyfestival.pazaz.studio/assets/fb42cf05-8f22-4aea-8e08-24e008e57457?width=400&height=200&fit=inside&format=png)Visit Inchs website](https://www.inchscider.co.uk/) [![encore](https://assemblyfestival.pazaz.studio/assets/d961c754-dd20-40c1-b476-5369a4076745?width=400&height=200&fit=inside&format=png)Visit encore website](https://www.encore-emea.com/) [![Deltalive](https://assemblyfestival.pazaz.studio/assets/1ca2a489-690b-4b55-b16a-cd6d2e539d7c?width=400&height=200&fit=inside&format=png)Visit Deltalive website](https://deltalive.net/) [![Robe](https://assemblyfestival.pazaz.studio/assets/b21f6feb-a965-4482-b78a-4466a153d45b?width=400&height=200&fit=inside&format=png)Visit Robe website](https://www.robe.cz/) [![Matthew Clark](https://assemblyfestival.pazaz.studio/assets/1a437a3c-6fa6-4078-a071-17d0e0b860d0?width=400&height=200&fit=inside&format=png)Visit Matthew Clark website](https://www.matthewclark.co.uk/) [![The List](https://assemblyfestival.pazaz.studio/assets/86335248-6c14-4676-bcb8-291543a4c604?width=400&height=200&fit=inside&format=png)Visit The List website](https://list.co.uk/) [![Capital Radio](https://assemblyfestival.pazaz.studio/assets/71f29d18-debc-4592-8ae7-0aa4f5163117?width=400&height=200&fit=inside&format=png)Visit Capital Radio website](https://www.capitalfm.com/) ![Forth 1](https://assemblyfestival.pazaz.studio/assets/dc387b7e-8339-4d99-b9be-b1a256439563?width=400&height=200&fit=inside&format=png) [![Deputy](https://assemblyfestival.pazaz.studio/assets/7e02ca85-c474-41c6-bd00-beb95ab98ece?width=400&height=200&fit=inside&format=png)Visit Deputy website](https://www.deputy.com/gb) [![Lothian](https://assemblyfestival.pazaz.studio/assets/c55784eb-57f5-464e-8f82-ad0e480d3b30?width=400&height=200&fit=inside&format=png)Visit Lothian website](https://www.lothianbuses.com/) [![Edinburgh International Film Festival](https://assemblyfestival.pazaz.studio/assets/bf554013-50b4-4eb8-91df-aeaa7ef890ac?width=400&height=200&fit=inside&format=png)Visit Edinburgh International Film Festival website](https://www.edfilmfest.org/) [![Street Assist Edinburgh](https://assemblyfestival.pazaz.studio/assets/d64fb877-77c5-4c98-bd42-15db5069750c?width=400&height=200&fit=inside&format=png)Visit Street Assist Edinburgh website](https://www.streetassist.co.uk/)