The 2026 edition of the National Festival of Youth Theatre took place from Friday 3 – Monday 6 July 2026 at Eden Court in Inverness. The event included programmed shows as well as artistic workshops, social events, a final-night wrap party, and of course, festival camping!
If you missed out this time, be sure to follow our social media and newsletter to make sure you get the dates for 2028 in your diary when they’re released.
About the National Festival of Youth Theatre
Every two years, NFYT creates an explosion of young creative talent, enabling young people to discover and celebrate a shared passion, offering them the opportunity to develop as artists, leaders, audience members and creative thinkers. With an emphasis on inclusion, education and collaboration, NFYT aims to remove barriers, teach valuable life skills and provide extraordinary new experiences.
NFYT was established by Youth Theatre Arts Scotland in 2004 as the UK’s largest gathering of youth theatres. It usually welcomes around 200 participants representing around 15 different youth theatres from across Scotland and often from further afield.
Who performed?
Our NFYT performance programme is one of the highlights of the festival, and for 2026 we turned over the producing aspects to our Young Leaders! Youth voice was truly front and centre, and we couldn’t be happier with the choices they made.
Our Young Producers read through all of the show applications, discussed, debated, debated some more, and voted on the shows from across the country that would join us at Eden Court. So what did we all see together in July 2026?
The Outsider: Bute Youth Theatre
Enter Chaos: Eden Court Young Company
Are You Listening?: Deaf Youth Theatre and Youth Theatre Kenya
Hexenhammer: Young Quines
Anhedonic: Firefly Arts
Heart of the Storm: Strange Town Youth Theatre
Midnight Library: Macrobert Youth Theatre
Yer Da Works At Tesco: Platform
What did the young people think?
Our Young Leaders chatted to some of the participants outside Eden Court during the festival. Check out the video below to find out their #NFYT2026 best bits, and those all-important top tips for people coming along in the future.
Scratch Film
As part of the festival programme, some of our young participants made a learned how to make a film from scratch during the NFYT weekend, with the guidance of Eden Court’s film engagement team. They acted, crewed, filmed, and edited their piece, Eden Courting, which you can enjoy below.
There’s even a Behind the Scenes documentary!
Information Session and Creative Exchange
We hosted an open Information Session and Creative Exchange in January for youth theatre leaders who were interested in offering NFYT as an opportunity for their group, whether they want to perform a show, attend without a show, or visit for one day. We’ll leave the video of this session below, as it’s still useful for future years. The video is captioned and BSL interpreted.
Acknowledgements
NFYT 2026 was produced by Youth Theatre Arts Scotland in partnership with Eden Court Highlands and Highland Council.
Youth Theatre Arts Scotland gratefully acknowledges core funding from Creative Scotland, as well as additional funding for this event kindly provided by Inverness Common Good Fund, Silverhill Trust, Birkdale Trust for the Hearing Impaired, The Arts Society, William Syson Foundation, and The Misses Barrie Charitable Trust.
YTAS also thanks Actiph Water and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society for their generous support.