TAGS Fest 2026

TAGS Fest is back at Out of the Blue Drill Hall in Leith on Saturday 17 October, from 10:00 to 17:00. The full name is The Tabletop & Graphic Storytelling Festival, and it's a free-to-attend day that puts Scotland's small press talent on display. The whole thing pairs tabletop games with graphic storytelling, so you'll find artists, comic authors and game designers all in the same room.

There's a curated marketplace with over 40 independent creators, and the day is built around talks, panels, a board game library and bookable sessions of TTRPGs and Blood on the Clocktower. The 2026 feature artist is Jack Magee, an illustrator and writer who won the British Cartoonist Association's Young Cartoonist of the Year in the under-18s category back in 2014. Nyla Ahmad is on as curation consultant this year, and the Board Game Zone is run by Ancient Robot Games.

It's worth knowing where it comes from. TAGS Fest was started in 2023 by Eve Greenwood of Quindrie Press and Brian Tyrrell of Stout Stoat Press, both indie creators who turned publishers in the comics and tabletop game industries. These days it's run by Eve, Brian and Faye Stacey under Small Press Scotland CIC, and the 2025 edition was shortlisted for Creative Edinburgh's Festivals Award. The venue itself is a former military building in Leith, sustainably restored into a participatory arts and cultural centre with artists' studios, rehearsal and performance areas, exhibition spaces and a cafe.

It runs from 10:00 to 17:00, and it's free to attend.