We're back! Edinburgh Zine Festival 2023 follows on from the success of EZF 2022, and continues our partnership with Fruitmarket, bringing a zine-shaped space to Fruitmarket’s annual celebration of artists’ book culture. The Edinburgh Zine Festival will take place alongside the Artists’ Bookmarket in early 2023, over the weekend of 18th and 19th February.

Edinburgh Zine Festival will be an affordable, accessible, welcoming, and inclusive space to explore DIY self-publishing and zines. Applications for tables open October 17th 2022 and close November 20th 2022. We'll offer tables by January 7th 2023.

What’s the difference between zines and artists books? We like to refer to Holly Casio’s excellent essay on ‘The economy of zines’. Whilst Casio acknowledges that zines are difficult to define - something that we probably have no business doing anyway- she suggests that what really matters is that zines are non-profit, operating in a different economy of gifts, swaps and trades. Boiled down - zines don’t cost much and this will be reflected in our tables!  

The Edinburgh Zine Festival 2023 will provide a space for non-profit forms of self-publishing, showcasing some of the amazing and exciting things happening in zines. A zine festival happening in tandem with the artists’ bookmarket will also illuminate some of the exciting overlaps and intersections between zines, artists' books and other forms of self-publishing.

Think your work is better suited to the Artists' Bookmarket - you can apply for a table for this here.

We especially want to offer tables to people often underrepresented at zine fairs and you can read more about our priorities when assigning tables here. We recognise that money can be a barrier to tabling at zine fairs, especially for people from marginalised groups, so we are offering subsidised tables, and working to fund contributions to travel and accomodation costs for zinesters who need it.

Costs

A half table costs £10 per day. This reflects the cost of hiring tables and chairs and we aren't making a profit from the zine fest (last year, including merch sales, we ended up about £100 in the red). We are working with half tables as standard as this allows us to be more flexible with numbers and also social distancing if Covid restrictions are still necessary. We are offering subsidised tables to zinesters who otherwise would not be able to attend.

About Edinburgh Zine Library

Founded in 2017, Edinburgh Zine Library is an independent, collectively run, and grassroots reference library of contemporary zines currently hosted by the Art and Design Library, Edinburgh Central Library. Alongside managing the collection, the zine library runs events and workshops. Find out more @edinburghzinelibrary on Instagram or Facebook, @edzinelibrary on Twitter or at www.edinburghzinelibrary.com.