Friends of the festival

Become a Friend of the Book Festival

Becoming our Friend is an easy way for you to support our world of words and ideas. Your contribution will help us to continue to bring the world's finest thinkers and writers to Edinburgh. Annual membership is available at different levels so you can decide how you would like to support us and which benefits you'd like to receive. Please note that Level Three membership is now fully subscribed.

Friends membership has now closed for the 2011 Festival. If you would like to become a Friend and enjoy the benefits of Advance Booking in 2012, please download a membership form. You will be able to purchase a Friends membership online from July.

If you'd like to talk to someone about becoming a Friend, please telephone Eli Di Paolo on 0131 718 5666 between 10am and 5pm, Monday to Friday.

Level One Friends membership

• Individual Level One membership: £12*
• Joint Level One membership: £18*

Level One membership benefits:

• Membership card
• Advance mailing of the programme before the public launch
• Book Festival Newsletter twice a year to keep you up to date with the world's greatest book festival

Level Two Friends membership

• Individual Level Two membership: £60*
• Joint Level Two membership: £100*

Level Two membership benefits:

• Membership card
• Advance mailing of the programme before the public launch
• Book Festival Newsletter twice a year to keep you up to date with the world's greatest book festival
• Advanced booking before the box office opens to the general public for up to 10 events (20 events if buying Joint Membership). Limited to 2 seats per event, or 4 seats for children's events.

Level Three Friends membership

(Please note that Level Three membership is now fully subscribed)

• Individual Level Three membership: £180*
• Joint Level Three membership: £300*

Level Three membership benefits:

• Membership card
• Advance mailing of the programme before the public launch
• Book Festival Newsletter twice a year to keep you up to date with the world's greatest book festival
• Advanced booking for unlimited events. Limited to 2 seats per event (4 seats if buying Joint Membership), or 4 seats for children's events.
• An invitation to attend the exclusive Director's Programme Preview reception

* The subscription prices above include a donation to help support the Edinburgh International Book Festival to continue to bring the very best writers from around the world to Charlotte Square Gardens each August.

Price without donation: L1 £10 (ind) £15 (joint) L2 £50 (ind) £85 (joint) L3 £150 (Ind) £250 (Joint).

We have limited tickets for all our events, with our largest theatre holding only 570 people. For a small number of events, the demand for tickets considerably exceeds availability. It is our policy to ensure that some tickets will always be available for members of the general public when the box office opens on the first day of public booking. The number of tickets available to Friends during the Advance Booking Period is therefore limited and all tickets are subject to availability.

Membership does not guarantee tickets will be available for every event, but the number of Friends at Level Three is limited to 75, and we currently have fewer than 1000 Friends at Level Two. This means that Level Two and Three Friends have a significantly greater chance of getting 'hot tickets' than those who do not join up.