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Back to the King’s. The Edinburgh Gang Show comes home.

After four shows at the Festival Theatre, The Edinburgh Gang Show returns to the newly redeveloped King’s Theatre from 17 to 21 November. If you’ve never been to a Gang Show, this is the year to start.

Every year, young people from Scouts and Girlguiding across Edinburgh and South East Scotland take over a professional theatre for a week. They sing, dance, act and land comedy sketches in front of a full house, backed by a live band, proper lighting and a backstage crew that runs like clockwork.

That’s The Edinburgh Gang Show. And this year, it’s going home.

So what is a Gang Show?

Think of it as a variety show. Big ensemble numbers, smaller songs, dance routines and comedy sketches, moving at pace across about two and a half hours with an interval in the middle.

The idea started in London in 1932, when Ralph Reader, a Scout who had made his name as a choreographer on Broadway, wrote and produced a Scout show called ‘The Gang’s All Here’. The cast became ‘the Gang’, and the name stuck. His song ‘Riding Along on the Crest of a Wave’ is still the Gang Show anthem around the world.

Months in the making
The cast in rehearsal ahead of a previous show

A few things it isn’t. It isn’t a campfire sing-song moved indoors. It isn’t a school concert. And you don’t need any connection to Scouts or Guides to come along. It’s a night at the theatre, made to be enjoyed by anyone.

Back where it all began

Scouts in Edinburgh were putting on concerts as early as 1910, but The Edinburgh Gang Show itself first opened at the King’s Theatre on 14 November 1960. After a single year at the Lyceum in 1962, it returned to the King’s in 1963 and stayed for more than half a century. In 1964 it earned the Red Scarf, the mark of an officially recognised Gang Show. In 1967, Ralph Reader allowed Edinburgh to become the first Gang Show in the world to include girls, and Scouts and Guides have shared the stage ever since.

After the pandemic cancelled the 2020 and 2021 shows, the King’s closed for redevelopment and the Festival Theatre hosted four Gang Shows from 2022. The King’s reopened in August with a raised fly tower, lifts to every level and a fresh look. This November, the Gang walks back through its doors, 66 years after that first night.

There’s far more to the story than fits here. Explore the history of The Edinburgh Gang Show, decade by decade.

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The faces change. The neckerchief doesn’t.

The Edinburgh Gang Show, on stage since 1960

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More than knots and tents

Scouting is known for the outdoors, and rightly so. But it has always been about trying something new, and for a lot of young people that something is a stage.

Behind every number are months of rehearsals: harmonies, choreography and comic timing. Adult volunteers direct, choreograph, make costumes, run the stage and look after the cast. For many in the cast it’s their first time on a real stage, and the confidence they take from it goes well beyond the theatre.

Home
The King’s Theatre in Gang Show colours, in watercolour

Buying a ticket is the simplest way to back that. It fills the seats, keeps the show on the stage, and tells young people that their creativity counts as much as their campcraft.

Get your tickets

The Edinburgh Gang Show 2026
King’s Theatre, 2 Leven Street, Edinburgh
Tuesday 17 to Saturday 21 November
Evenings at 7pm, with a 2pm matinee on Saturday

Book online through Capital Theatres or call the box office on 0131 529 6000. Groups of eight or more get one free ticket for every eight booked; call the groups team on 0131 529 6005. The Saturday matinee is audio described, with a touch tour at 12.30pm.

For show news, auditions and more, visit edinburghgangshow.co.uk.

Book tickets

Back to the King’s. See you there.

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