Arts in 2026: Theatre reopening; Bon Jovi at Murrayfield and new era for Pitlochry
This year promises to be a bumper one for Scottish arts.
Many arts events and festivals - including the Edinburgh International Festival - are back to full strength after winning multi-year funding from Creative Scotland at the beginning of last year. Uncertainty over funding had left some events unable to plan for a full programme for 2025 - and they hope to make up for it in 2026.
We take a look at some of the most exciting events planned for this year’s arts and culture calendar.
Theatre
Highly-anticipated musical One Day will be a hot ticket at Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum Theatre in February, as will Jodie Comer in Prima Facie by Suzie Miller. Comer said she would reprise her role “one last time” after a sell-out show in the West End in 2022 and a Broadway run in 2023 and also recorded an audiobook adaptation.
The National Theatre of Scotland has already unveiled a promising touring programme for the coming season, including The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, starring House of the Dragon actor Gayle Rankin.
NTS is also to stage a new play about the Lee Jeans factory protest, as well as the musical reboot of cult 1990s TV series The High Life, with Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson. Stand and Deliver: The Lee Jeans Sit-In tells the story of the legendary occupation by 200 female workers at the Lee Jeans factory in Greenock. Written by Frances Poet, who was behind Small Acts of Love, which launched the newly-refurbished Citizens Theatre in Glasgow earlier this year, the play will be performed with a live 1980s soundtrack and will tour ten Scottish theatres from Glasgow to Peebles and Inverness.
The King’s Theatre in Edinburgh is set to reopen in July in time for the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) in August. The theatre has been closed since 2023 for a major refurbishment. There have been numerous delays to the project, initially due to the Covid pandemic, but also relating to funding issues. The latest came in November, when opening was delayed further from the spring, and bosses admitted costs had risen slightly again, however, Capital Theatres chief executive Fiona Gibson insists she is confident that the end of July will be set in stone.
Causing a bit of a stir after scrapping the Pitlochry repertory theatre system and admitting he does not take a salary for his work as artistic director at the Perthshire theatre, Alan Cumming has a busy few months ahead.
The US Traitors host kicks of the year with his inaugural Out in the Hills festival, which he has promised will be "a celebration of queer culture". Acting legend Sir Ian McKellen will appear at the festival, as well as Graham Norton and Evelyn Glennie , while Cumming will also perform in a staged reading of an adaptation of a short story by Noel Coward.
He also has a packed programme - his first as artistic director - which will include a production of musical My Fair Lady, in which Cumming will play Henry Higgins, as well as the Scottish premiere of musical Once, with music by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová.
In February, Scottish Opera presents the world premiere in Glasgow of Dai Fujikura and Harry Ross's The Great Wave: a story about Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai and his famous woodblock print.
Meanwhile, Scrooge the Musical - starring Wet Wet Wet legend Marti Pellow - is to take over the SEC Armadillo in Glasgow for a seasonal run next festive period.
Festivals
The Edinburgh TV Festival may have to change its name later this year when a bidding process for a new host city comes to a close. The festival took the step of saying it was opening bids to potential venues for the festival, which has been based in Edinburgh since its inception 50 years ago. The tender is open to bids until the end of February and will announce the winner later in the year. Organisers have been careful to say that it is not “necessarily” planning a move out of Edinburgh - or Scotland.
This year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe will undoubtedly focus again on affordability, with hotel prices already sky rocketing for the weekend Bon Jovi is due to play a gig at Murrayfield Stadium. Venue Summerhall has already announced plans to expand its subsidised weeks for artists.
The Edinburgh International Festival has already announced its programme highlights for this year, including a partnership with two European festivals founded around the same time. The EIF will collaborate with Holland Festival and Festival d’Avignon for the first time since their founding 79 years ago on new theatre commission The Trial – after an Enemy of the People by Brazilian director Christiane Jatahy.
Gilded Balloon flagship venue Teviot - in the academic year, a student union - is finally to reopen this year following a three year closure due to refurbishment. Meanwhile, Shedinburgh, which was launched by Fleabag producer Francesca Moody for the first time this year in a partnership with Gilded Balloon, is due to come back for a second year in a bigger space at the Edinburgh College of Art.
Wigtown Book Festival will host its first year without the leadership of creative director Adrian Turpin, who stepped down after this year’s festival following 20 years at the institution, where he began as a volunteer. Turpin oversaw the expansion of the festival, which has grown from three days to ten, quadrupling its audience to more than 20,000 people and generating £4.2 million a year for the region. Isla Rosser-Owen has been appointed the new chief executive of the festival and will oversee the annual event and year-round programme.
Glasgow’s Celtic Connections has partnered with the Edinburgh International Book Festival for a series of literary-linked events to run alongside the annual music event - and will expand into the newly re-opened Citizens Theatre.
Crime festival Granite Noir has already unveiled its line up for its tenth edition in February, with a focus on acclaimed TV series Shetland, including a talk from author Ann Cleeves , whose book Red Bones, was turned into the series.
Music
Jon Bon Jovi is to take to Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium in August in this year’s stadium-gig-versus-Edinburgh-festivals showdown. Last year, the timing of the Oasis concerts sparked outrage from Fringe venues, which claimed ticket sales had been hit on the days of the gigs, while the double whammy sent hotel prices soaring.
Maximo Park and Florence and the Machine are both playing in Glasgow in February, at the O2 Academy and Ovo Hydro respectively - while Florence returns to Scotland in August to take part in the Summer Sessions series at the Royal Highland Showgrounds.
Meanwhile, also in February, the Kaiser Chiefs are taking to the Barrowlands in Glasgow after a performance on Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage, while Lily Allen is to play in Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in March. Also in Glasgow, Calvin Harris, Metallica and Take That are set to perform at at Hampden Park.
The Edinburgh Castle series of summer concerts for 2026 includes Garbage, Callum Beattie and already-sold out shows from Deacon Blue and Snow Patrol.
American country singer Luke Combs quickly sold out his first July date at Murrayfield, adding another which also sold out fast.
Film
Scotland has seen a record breaking year for entries at US film festival Sundance, with seven films selected for the event in January. The films, The Incomer, Lady, Everybody to Kenmure Street, Birds of War, Filipiñana, The Story of Documentary and Extra Geography, will be screened at the festival in Park City, Utah in January.
The full programme for the Glasgow Film Festival is to be announced later in January, however we do know that James McAvoy's directorial debut, California Schemin', will close the festival.
Museums and Galleries
2026 is the year more than 100 venues and galleries across Scotland and beyond are to host exhibitions to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) in the largest ever celebration of its kind in Scotland. Major exhibitions featuring work by the RSA’s 500 academicians and other works and venues with links to the RSA will take place across the country, from Edinburgh to Orkney and beyond.
At the National Galleries of Scotland, the centenary of Scottish artist Ian Hamilton Finlay will be marked in a new free display of his work at Modern Two, as will exhibition Joan Eardley: The Nature of Painting.
Meanwhile, Turner in January, a showcase of paintings by William Turner, will return to Edinburgh for a National Galleries of Scotland exhibition at the RSA.
The last letter of Mary, Queen of Scots will be on display at Perth Museum from January to April, giving members of the public a “once in a generation chance” to see the document. The letter, held by the National Library of Scotland (NLS), is rarely seen outside of storage.
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