About EFVGA

The Edinburgh Festival Voluntary Guides Association (EFVGA) was founded in 1947, the same year as the Edinburgh International Festival, with the aim of providing guided tours for Festival visitors. We have been running our tours every year since then.

At any one time, the Association has 40 to 50 active guides. The guides are all volunteers, and receive no payment of any kind.

The Association is run by a small committee which oversees the recruitment and training of the guides, the rota for our programme of free tours, bookings for custom tours, and the general administration of the Association. Committee members are themselves guides, and are elected by the Association's members.

The Association is funded entirely by donations and by the fees we charge for custom tours. We do not receive financial support from any pubic bodies.

We are grateful for the encouragement we receive from the City of Edinburgh Council, and especially from the Lord Provost, who is the patron of the Association.

For information about our tours and other activities, please use the menu near the top of this page.

You may also be interested in this short history of the Association.