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TAGS Festival Sequential Scotland
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TAGS Fest 2025 Report

0.0 Introduction

Tabletop and Graphic Storytelling Fest (TAGS Fest, or TAGS) was held on the 25th and 26th of October 2025. The event opened to the public from 10am to 5pm both days. It took place inside of the Fruitmarket, which is a local art gallery located on Market Street, Edinburgh, just next to Waverley Station.

A marketplace ran in the Fruitmarket’s Upper Gallery, featuring 57 different exhibitors across the weekend. Exhibitors could arrive for set up from 9am to 10am, and needed to pack down from 5pm to 6pm, though they could leave their stall overnight if they were selling both days.

A free board game zone was run by Ancient Robot Games (ARG) in Fruitmarket’s Warehouse, which featured volunteer-run Tabletop Roleplaying Games (TTRPGs) for visitors from 10:30am to 1:00pm, and 2:00pm to 4:30pm, as well as larger games of Blood on the Clocktower running from 11:00am to 1:00pm and 2:30pm to 4:30pm both days. Additionally, there were drop-in tables for visitors to borrow board games from ARG’s library for free and play them together, with an attendant from ARG on hand to explain rules as needed.

Talks and panels ran in Fruitmarket’s Studio, for the most part moderated by La Belle Adventure. Some of the talks were moderated by Brian or Eve. There were 4 talks a day, each running for 45-60 minutes.

Previous reports. You can follow these links to compare this year’s report to our 2023 report and our 2024 report.

Comments. This report is human-assessed and human-written, including all graphics. As artists, we abhor the use of Generative AI in the arts, especially its tendency to hallucinate details and present information that is intentionally falsified by design or heavily biased by sponsors.

0.1 About the show

TAGS Fest 2025 was organised with the combined efforts of Eve Greenwood (Quindrie Press) and Brian Tyrrell (Stout Stoat Press). This was the first year that we were directly compensated for running the show, and also the first year that the event spanned an entire weekend.

We founded TAGS as a response to Scotland’s diminishing convention scene, where self publishing and small press businesses are increasingly priced out of the events that they depend on to make ends meet.

Our aim for TAGS was to curate a show where small press was elevated. While exhibitors were permitted to sell merchandise or prints, our intention was that the focus of all table displays be on self-published projects like comics, tabletop games, or zines.

0.2 Floorplan

This year’s event took place across Fruitmarket’s Upper Gallery, Warehouse and Studio spaces.

0.3 Report Summary

This year’s event scaled up in all dimensions: space, budget, number of exhibitors, visitor footfall and features delivered. Exhibitors and visitors enjoyed the show and highly rated its expansion. Through our exhibitor and visitor surveys we received high ratings across the board, though as in previous years written feedback remained a mixture of positive and constructive.

While the show demonstrated confident growth (i.e. higher footfall and total spend), the individual successes of exhibitors saw more varied highs and lows (i.e. in median sales and average spend). Sunday was marginally stronger than Saturday for footfall and sales. While the average exhibitor made between £200 – £300, a handful saw great success while others left the show without breaking even. With only one exception, weekend exhibitors all saw more revenue than single-day exhibitors.

Our operations were smoother than ever, with reliable support from our fantastic stewards. Safety and comfort at the show remained highly rated. Masking was widely supported across both days by the majority of visitors, though we hope to improve communication about its importance for next year’s event. As organisers, we felt confident and in control this year, where in previous years we admittedly felt on the brink of being overwhelmed.

Reviewing our data and experiences, we’ve decided for next year’s event will return to a single day, but remain at our expanded venue size. We’re going to collaborate with Fruitmarket to secure more favourable dates for events going forward. We’re also going to be refining our external and internal policies to further enshrine TAGS Festival’s core goals. Our overarching target for next year will be to focus more on quality and less on quantity.

0.4 Transparency

In last year’s report we raised a concern that as organisers we could not afford to invest hundreds of hours into organising TAGS Fest without compensation. In previous years each organiser was allotted a free 6’ table in the market, and then sold at those tables while also running the event. This was no longer a sustainable or safe practice. We are grateful that in response, members of our community reached out to inquire about sponsoring TAGS.

To ensure we could dedicate ourselves fully to running TAGS 25 over the weekend, and in line with the total anticipated budget, we made a decision in May 2025 to pay ourselves £1,300 each (or £2,600 total) as a flat fee for our labour. This number was calculated as a rounding up of 100 hours paid at the Real Living Wage, which in 2024 was £12.60/hour.

We also allotted ourselves a single 6’ table in the market, stocking both Quindrie Press and Stout Stoat Press titles. As part of the budget we paid for an additional fifth steward to run this table over the weekend, alongside contributing to set-up, pack-down and occasional public-facing responsibilities on the day. Quindrie made £235.00 in sales, and Stout Stoat made £215 in sales. This table also held some stock from one of our sponsors, who made £50 in sales.

1.0 Budget

This year’s budget began with a float of about £580.00 from last year’s event. We raised a further total of £8,920 across all sources of income, and spent approximately £7,980.00. We have a remainder of about £940 for next year’s event.

This year has been our largest in terms of income and expenditure, with both figures reaching almost 4x what they were last year. This naturally comes from doubling the venue space, expanding to two days, and also opting to pay ourselves and our core staff.

1.1 Sources of income

Exhibitor fees. This year exhibitor fees remained at a similar price point to last year, modified to reflect a change in furniture. This year we raised a total of £3,300, and charged:

There were 11 6’ tables and 26 4’ tables available for exhibitors across both days.

Correction 04/02/2026: Exhibitor fees were incorrectly reported as £3,840, due to a formula error. They were actually £3,400, before transaction fees.

Sponsorships. Following our TAGS 24 report, we received three generous offers to sponsor the event. Several months later, we standardized these offers into Sponsorship packages, something we will be continuing for future events.

Our three sponsors gifted1 £500 each (totalling £1,500), and in turn were offered a guaranteed2 6’ table at the event, a thank you on our about page, a highlight on our social media, and a thank you on the front of our Visitor Guides. Our sponsors for TAGS 25 were:

1 This money was given to Small Press Scotland CIC. As a community interest company, this money is bound by our constitution to be used to support our aims as an organisation, but does not count as a donation to charity, cannot be used as a tax write-off by the gifter, and will be taxed in our 25/26 reporting as a registered company. For clarity, we won’t call them “donations.”

2 Sponsors attending the show were still judged in line with our Curation Policy. We would not accept sponsorships from those we felt clashed against the other exhibitors, or who broke our Friendly Spaces Agreement.

Anonymous gift. We received a single one-off gift of £3,500 from an anonymous donor. They have enjoyed seeing TAGS Fest become part of the small press scene in Scotland, and wanted it to grow into its expanded space this year. We are aware of the importance of this gift; without it TAGS 25 may not have been able to take place.

Public Tips. We opted not to run a raffle this year, as we had in TAGS 23 and TAGS 24. Instead, we had a fish bowl for cash tips and a contactless card machine with a default transaction of £2 available, both were displayed as visitors left our talks. We raised £60.00 across the event. Most tips were small amounts of pocket change, with the occasional bank note. Though we didn’t raise a significant amount of money, we accepted that this was likely inevitable. Prior to this year’s event we reaffirmed our aims to provide an optional form of supporting the show, rather than monetised options like charging for tickets. This helped keep TAGS Fest as accessible as possible, an effort that was positively recognised in Visitor Feedback:

“I really appreciate TAGS fest and its talks being free entry, as I am disabled and on a low income so it removes a barrier and lets me spend the limited budget I have in the vendor hall.” Visitor #18.

Depending on next year’s budget, we may attempt to expand the number of tipping points throughout the event. However, we remain cautious of situations where visitors feel pressured to donate. Anecdotally, we can recount times when those with less have been more willing to share their support than those with excess. It would be antithetical to our goals to create a situation where the show pushes down on the same low income and underrepresented communities it is seeking to uplift.

1.2 Expenditure

Our main costs broke down into:

1.3 In-kind support

Though much larger than previous years, our event’s budget is still relatively small, largely due to the in-kind support given to the show to help keep it going.

Concessionary venue hire. As in previous years, Fruitmarket has offered their venue space to us at a concessionary rate. This year we paid £1,700 for access to the Upper Gallery, Studio and Warehouse spaces for Friday (our setup), Saturday and Sunday.

Partnership with Ancient Robot Games. Located at the foot of Leith walk, Ancient Robot Games is our friendly local gaming store. Staff from the store ran the Board Game Zone at TAGS, as they have in previous years. This included supplying titles for the free library, and co-ordinating all of the volunteer GMs that ran games for members of the public. Though we offer the mutual benefit of allowing them to have a large pop-up shop in the Board Game Zone, the store’s resources and Morgan’s organisational support reduces the budget of our event significantly.

Partnership with La Belle Adventure. Located in the lower half of Leith walk, La Belle Adventure is a comics and graphic novel shop specialising in beautiful and award winning translated foreign media. Similar to Ancient Robot Games, they supported the show by hosting many of our talks and panels over the course of the weekend, and in turn were provided with a free table space to sell their wares in the Marketplace. They also loaned us equipment, such as their projector and screen, and supported the show with their labour and their own community roots.

Undervalued labour. This year Brian and Eve began logging the exact hours spent working on TAGS Fest, starting from early July 2025. To date, including the writing of this report, we have spent a combined 200 hours total working on the festival. Considering that our labour from March to June was not tracked (i.e. planning, budgeting, venue management, updating policies, exhibitor callouts, exhibitor curation, social media and admin work), we have a better estimate but not fully accurate account of the time it takes to organise TAGS Festival. In past reports we have guessed our combined labour as 200+ hours total; we now feel it would be fairer to update this estimate to 300+ hours.

Referencing Glassdoor, the average pay for a freelance events manager with 1-3 years experience is £34,000 pro rata (ranging from £28,000 to £42,000), or about £20.23/hour. Paying for the organisational labour of TAGS 25 at a going rate would cost around £6,100, meaning that after current compensation Eve and Brian provided a total of £3,500 in unpaid labour as organisers.

Eve and Brian also folded many other separate responsibilities (graphic designer, art worker, social media manager, copy writer, data analyst, etc) into their roles as events managers. As is the way with small press, multi-disciplinary skills are needed for progress, but multi-disciplinary pay is rarely possible.

Use of existing and spare resources. Both Eve and Brian have access to different resources through their full-time professional practice. For example: Adobe CC subscriptions, two professional quality A3+ printers, various craft supplies (glue, paper, posca markers, etc), home workshop spaces, and so on. It’s hard to quantify the “cost” of these resources, as their benefit comes not just from their incidental use but also their consistent availability.

Volunteer labour. Though we were able to pay our stewards this year, our budget was not nearly large enough to compensate all of the people who helped improve, run or support the show. These volunteers included:

Edinburgh Mask Bloc. TAGS 25 was also supported by the Edinburgh Mask Bloc and their sister group Air Library Scotland. Both groups helped bolster our supply of face masks and provided air filtration machines for this year’s event respectively, and also contributed volunteers to discuss masking guidance and to help visitors with putting on masks safely. The EMB also took C02 readings in the marketplace, which we refer to later in this report.

2.0 How the event went

2.1 Footfall

Across the weekend just over 1,100 visitors attend the event (up from 807 at TAGS 24).

Our stewards did their best to count unique visitors entering a space over the course of each hour slot; they did not count how many people were in a space on the hour mark. They aimed not to re-count people popping out briefly (e.g. to the toilet, for snacks, to find a friend, etc). Anecdotally, the Board Game Zone remained relatively full and lively until 5pm on both days. We believe the lower entrant numbers reflect fewer games starting, rather than fewer players overall.

With the flow of foot traffic and Fruitmarket’s layout, we assume that almost all visitors entered the marketplace first, with a large portion then going on to visit the board game zone and/or the talks and panels. Our total counts are:

Footfall on Saturday was slightly lower than on Sunday, we believe owing to many other events taking place on the same day; there was a pro-Palestine march in the morning, and several other crafts markets around Edinburgh that afternoon. Bazaars and farmer’s market style events in Edinburgh typically run on Saturdays from the early morning until the early afternoon.

TAGS 23 and 24 took place at the start of December, which allowed them to benefit from casual Christmas shopper traffic in the city center. We’re pleased that this year’s event at the end of October didn’t appear to suffer a lack of footfall in total, but recognise that this year’s single-day footfall was lower compared to previous years.

Comparing footfall figures from across all of our events, we can see the same trend of mornings being quiet, with the bulk of visitors arriving from 12-1pm, and a peak lasting until 3-4pm.

Exhibitor feedback this year widely perceived or assumed visitor engagement would be better on Saturday, which matches a widely-held stereotype for events of this nature. However, for TAGS 25, both our footfall counts and median spend figures show that Sunday was stronger.

“We expected to be busier on Saturday but we found we sold slightly better on Sunday and that the customer attendance for both days was comparable.” Exhibitor #2

“It felt a quieter on Sunday and my sales reflect that but the people who came seemed to be a more dedicated comics crowd” Exhibitor #5

“For a Sunday it was a really solid turnout, and more importantly the people who came seemed eager to look around and talk and buy things. I visited as a punter on the Saturday and both days seemed quieter in the mornings but did get going later on. Several people said it seemed busier on the Sunday, very unusual.” Exhibitor #12

“I had great sales on Sunday, which is a bit unusual. Overall the place felt busy all weekend […], exceeded my expectations” Exhibitor #12

”Saturday was busy from the jump and remained steady, dipped a little at lunchtime, then returned towards the end of the day. Sunday took longer to gather speed but once it did it remained steady. Sunday had slightly fewer sales overall but not by much.” Exhibitor #25

Post-event we noted our people counting methods may be lower than reality; some visitors took the lift, which was out of sight of our welcome table, or initially went through Fruitmarket’s cafe towards the Boardgame Zone, but then turned back up the stairs, walking past the talks room into the marketplace, and therefore going uncounted. Fruitmarket’s digital people counter affixed to their main entrance was broken during the weekend, so we have no other counts to compare to.

2.2 Total and average spend

A total of 34/60 exhibitors declared their revenue, summing up to a total of £11,369.00 being spent across them over the weekend.

By averaging the median spends of Saturday-only (£130), Sunday-only (£184.50), and Weekend tables (£543, halved to £271.50), we can estimate a single-day median spend of £282.25.

11/19 Saturday-only, 10/19 Sunday-only and 12/22 Weekend exhibitors replied to our survey. We can use this estimated single-day median spend to fill in the remaining 36 day-sized gaps, for a total of £10,161.

Combining declared and estimated totals, we can suggest that about £21,500 was spent at this year’s event, or roughly £10,750 each day. This is down from last year’s estimated single day total of £13,000, but overall shows that significantly more was spent at this year’s event than last year.

Dividing our estimated total spend by our total footfall, we can assume the “average” visitor at TAGS festival spent ~£20 (down from last year’s average spend of ~£26.50). Repeating a sentiment from last year’s report, this figure reflects an average visitor’s spending capacity at an event, and its purpose is to be a guide to future exhibitors for where to pitch their price points.

2.3 Masking and Air Quality

This year we were very grateful for the voluntary support of Edinburgh Mask Bloc and the Edinburgh Air Library. They provided free high quality masks to visitors and exhibitors, air purifiers to filter cold, flu and COVID particulates for the Board Game Zone, and they attended in person to help visitors with their masking efforts on both days.

They also supplied a C02 monitor for the Marketplace space:

C02 levels (measured with Parts Per Million, or ppm) demonstrate how concentrated people are inside an enclosed space, and how effective ventilation is at cycling out old air with new air. While high C02 levels on this scale aren’t in any way dangerous, they do correlate with an increased likelihood for contagious airborne particulates to be transmitted from person to person, if present. The above graph demonstrates that ventilation in the Marketplace was poor, and that air quality was worst from around 1.30pm to 5pm, peaking at 3pm. Thankfully the majority of visitors and exhibitors were masking, lowering the potential for particulates to be spread. However, the market did not have air purifiers. Therefore, it should be noted that these conditions would be more likely to spread airborne infections like cold, flu or COVID spread from un- or poorly-masked attendees. We plan to open discussions with Fruitmarket about how we may be able to improve air quality for next year’s event.

Masking pushback. This year the vast majority of visitors to TAGS Fest wore a mask for the duration of their visit. However, we did see a louder minority of visitors who pushed back about masks. Anecdotally, stewards reported that a few visitors bragged about not wearing a mask and about holding anti-vaccination opinions, and who mocked other visitors who were able to and chose to wear masks. An exhibitor also reported being questioned about the masks by a visitor.

We can confirm that a single visitor attended the event who became verbally abusive, offended that anyone was wearing a mask. She was told to leave the event if she couldn’t be respectful of others around her, and she did.

Masking solidarity. The effort to mask was very strong in the Marketplace and Talks spaces. Anecdotally, stewards reported that some visitors would initially dismiss gentle explanations that TAGS Fest encouraged masking for everyone’s safety, only for them to return and put a mask on when they saw many other exhibitors and visitors wearing masks. Free masks on offer included less safe but more approachable surgical masks, and more reliable N95 masks (provided through Edinburgh Mask Bloc’s help). We believe providing options improved mask uptake for the weekend. Overall, the solidarity demonstrated was greatly appreciated, and we’d like to thank all of our masked exhibitors for their help.

We regret to note that masking efforts were largely absent in the Board Game Zone, though air filtration units were present in the space. We recognise that board games and TTRPGs often require a lot of talking, and masks can inhibit this. We plan to follow up on this matter, and hope to improve safety for next year.

Conflicting access requirements. We received a reasonable complaint from an understanding visitor during the event. They are hard of hearing, and rely on lip-reading to communicate. They felt awkward and guilty of undermining the masking effort by asking exhibitors to lower their masks. We reassured them that asking for mask-lowering as an accommodation was totally acceptable, and all exhibitors they spoke to were friendly and happy to help. However, we recognise that this would continue to be a chafing point for this visitor's experience at the event. We also received the following feedback from an exhibitor:

“It was extremely hard to communicate as [I] could barely hear and the masks made it impossible to lip read. I understand the need for masks but this made the event almost impossible for me to communicate effectively with visitors.” Exhibitor #3

We hope to reach out to a D/deaf and hard of hearing charity for guidance on this matter.  

Masking affirmation. We would like to reaffirm that TAGS Fest started as, remains, and will continue to be a pro-masking event. There are very few events in the UK that prioritise the safety of immunocompromised attendees. Encouraging masking and improving air quality is core to TAGS Fest’s identity, and we will continue to pursue both goals within our capacity as organisers.

We also plan to develop clearer and friendlier signage around why TAGS Fest is a pro-masking event, including that this isn’t “just a COVID thing”.

3.0 Advertising

Our main point of information for TAGS 25 was our website, tagsfest.co.uk. Web traffic in the lead-up to the event followed a similar shape and progression to last year’s event, with unique visits to the website building in the months leading up.

The first spike on the chart above, October 21st, coincides with the announcement that we were nominated for the Creative Edinburgh Awards 2025.  The second spike coincides with the weekend of this year’s event. Over the course of September and October 2025 we received 1.7k unique visitors to the website (up from 1.4k across a similar 2-month lead up period to TAGS 24).

3.1 Social media

As in previous years, we posted regularly on our Bluesky and Instagram accounts. In the months leading up to the event we spotlighted each of the exhibitors who would be at the show, and in the week running up to the event we highlighted talks, panels and other features of the event.

Engagement remained consistent on instagram, with 10-100 likes for each post, occasionally shared in stories, and a comment every now and then. Bluesky remained much quieter, with more posts only getting 1-10 likes, and a repost or two.

Social media numbers aren’t everything. Comparing our impact to Thought Bubble — an event with similar audience demographics but with attendance in the tens-of-thousands — their Instagram posts range from 200-1,000 likes, while their Bluesky posts receive 10-100 likes.

3.2 Flyers

Eve and Brian (and a few friends) gave out A5 TAGS Fest flyers at events in England and Scotland throughout the first half of the year, mainly aiming to raise awareness of the show to potential exhibitors. In the second half of the year, flyers aimed at potential visitors were also included in UK-based orders made through Stout Stoat Press. Flyers were printed at home by Brian.

3.3 Tram advert

From September 29th to October 26th we rented 20 small cove adverts on the Edinburgh tram, with the below graphic.

These adverts are the most expensive form of outreach we have, though they also have the largest potential number of eyes on them. At least one visitor’s feedback marked that they had come to the event because of the tram advert:

“Such a lovely, friendly atmosphere, we'll definitely be back next time” Visitor #17

This year the price of tram adverts was lower, costing £684.00 (down from last year’s £720). Anecdotally exhibitors and locals did enjoy looking out for them; morale is a factor alongside outreach in our decision to advertise in this way.

3.4 Posters

From November 18th to December 3rd we had 50 posters distributed across Edinburgh by Out of Hand Scotland, with the below graphic. This was a service we took up last year, and seemed cost-effective to continue this year. Additional posters were also put up in local venues, and with our partners Ancient Robot Games and La Belle Adventure. The price of poster advertising increased slightly, costing £210 (up from £180 for the same period of time last year).

3.5 Stickers

For the show, we printed 200 vinyl die-cut stickers with the design below. Each exhibitor received one, with the rest given away for free to the public. While much more limited in reach, we find stickers build word-of-mouth engagement and keep a show in current memory. For example, we have kept stickers for events we enjoyed attending on phones cases, laptops and cash boxes for years. We hope that these stickers will help keep TAGS in exhibitors and creators minds for next year.

3.6 Edinburgh Minute

On Tuesday 21st October we received a short mention in the Edinburgh Minute, a local newsletter with a readership of about 27,000. The community board was very full that day, and the entry was only in text (rather than as a featured instagram post, as we had last year), so we can’t be sure many people saw it.

3.7 Word of mouth

As the event becomes a recurring staple in people’s calendars, it also becomes something they mention to friends and make plans to attend, instead of casually dropping in to. Word of mouth has been the foundation our event has grown from, to the point where this year we’ve had people we’ve never met bring up TAGS Fest, not knowing we’re the ones organising it. Word of mouth was especially important this year, as the event took place in October rather than December as in previous years. 10/34 visitors cited word of mouth as how they found out about the event this year.

4.0 Exhibitor’s experience

We sent out a post-event survey to all of our exhibitors on Tuesday 28th of October, and received responses from 34 out of 60 exhibitors.

4.1 Pre-event

Overall, exhibitors remained happy with our website, with the information provided to them, and our level of communication in the lead up to the event.

Some feedback included:

“Still the cutest and best con website out there.” Exhibitor #12

“Communication was great both before and during the event. Information was sent out a good time in advance, and really comprehensive.” Exhibitor #15

“I appreciated how it was quite minimal, didn't feel like I was being overwhelmed with info.” Exhibitor #31

4.2 Table allocation

As we did last year, we made changes to our curation policy in an effort to centralise impartiality in our table allocation process. Once again, we enlisted the help of Nyla Ahmad as a guest curator, and she helped reach for impartiality in our curatorial decisions.

This year we received 87 applications, and an additional 10 inquiries after we had closed applications1.

TAGS 25 featured a floorplan with space for 14 6’-by-2.5’ tables, and 26 4’-by-2.5’. We were able to allocate tables to 50 exhibitors across two days:

We saw a wave of cancellations about a month before the event, as exhibitors were offered backfill tables at MCM Comic Con London, which is a much larger and generally more profitable show. Otherwise, we had no last minute replacements, unlike our previous two events.

1 We do not accept applications after the application window has closed, but we are noting these as it shows continued interest in the event from exhibitors throughout the year.

4.3 Table prices

Table prices remained similar to last year’s event. This year’s table prices were determined by table size:

Overall, exhibitors said that prices this year seemed fair:

“The fee is what I would expect to pay for an event like this and think its reasonable” Exhibitor #10

“If we hadn't needed to pay travel and hotel expenses, I'd say it was too low, but we were grateful it was low in this case.” Exhibitor #16

“The [4’ table] was as big as a lot of cons’ full tables. This was unexpected as prior years the half table was smaller. It was welcome however and was great value for money” Exhibitor #28

“£40 for a 1/2 table is high, and double what I’ve paid for half tables elsewhere, but not entirely unfair. I assumed the high cost is partially down to the cost of venue hire for somewhere like Fruitmarket.” Exhibitor #15

4.4 Venue

Overall, exhibitors remain pleased with Fruitmarket as a venue, with similar ratings compared to last year.

Their feedback also remained positive and constructive, especially in light of our new arrangements:

“I felt the floor swap this year worked well and suited both parts of Tagsfest better this way round.” Exhibitor #1

“Very accessible and spacious, we felt comfortable and accommodated.” Exhibitor #2

“The upper gallery felt really airy and light and made for a cheery, bright space. It was really beautiful too. The temperature wasn’t an issue either.” Exhibitor #12

“It's the perfect venue for this kind of thing, so I hope you can continue to hold the event there.” Exhibitor #24

“Lovely venue, so warm! I felt very comfortable all day, and the lighting/acoustics were nice as well. It never became unbearably loud or too quiet, and it felt very cosy and bright.” Exhibitor #14

“A couple of people that went to the panels told me it was a bit hard to hear because of the noise from the market. Probably [using mics for next year’s] show could help?” Exhibitor #19

4.5 Comfort station

Our hot drinks table returned this year, with much stronger awareness of its presence and a higher usage across the weekend:

We plan to continue supporting the comfort station in future events.

4.6 Safety & stewardship

This year we paid 5 stewards the Real Living Wage (£12.60/hour) to assist Eve and Brian to run this year’s event. They worked both days of the event, 9am - 6pm, with a paid hour lunch break.

Overall, the presence of stewards was positively received this year, as reflected in feedback submitted to us:

“They were great! Super attentive.” Exhibitor #4

“they were all so sweet and friendly, stopped by many times to check on me and offered to help with all kinds of things, from minding my table while I was in a panel to fetching tea or coffee to offering tape when I realised I'd not brought any during packdown.” Exhibitor #12

“The Stewards were awesome! Easy to find, plenty of them and very helpful.” Exhibitor #16

“Each and every one of them was an absolute joy. I felt very taken care of and could even take a bathroom break for a few moments since someone was almost always within eyeline to flag down and mind my table for a couple of minutes.” Exhibitor #25

“They were so kind and friendly.” Exhibitor #31

As detailed in 2.3 Masking & air quality, we did receive a visitor who was upset about TAGS Festival encouraging masking. Once they became vocally abusive they were encouraged to leave by stewards.

We did receive a single post-event complaint of annoyance with a neighbouring exhibitor. This would have been trivial to resolve on the day if it was brought to the attention of a steward — we’d like to remind exhibitors to come to stewards with their issues, even if they just feel like they need to grumble!

Due to personal capacity and time constraints, we did not advertise for stewards this year. Instead, we reached out to professionals we already had a working relationship with, knowing they would be able to support us on the day. While we would enjoy working with all of our stewards again next year, we do hope to also advertise for the role in an effort to remain transparent and open.

4.7 Exhibitor income

Exhibitors declared their revenue at this year’s event in their surveys:

From the chart above, we can see that for most exhibitors the revenue they earned was around what they would expect from other similar small events like TAGS. This is generally good news, as we’re performing at a similar level to other events in Scotland. This year’s show proved to be a major success for some, but also failed to meet the hopes and expectations for a few exhibitors. Detailed feedback reflects this:

“We expected to sell a lot more comics. We wouldn't have made nearly as much if we hadn't brought things like pins, TTRPG accessories, stickers etc. A bit of a shame when comics were meant to be the focus.” Exhibitor #16, Weekend, declared £980.

“I was really pleasantly surprised by how well my comics went down! I sold about 50 books over the weekend” Exhibitor #9, Weekend, declared £570.

“I didn't attend last year but I did attend the first year, and I made more sales this year.“ Exhibitor #10, Saturday, declared £670.

“[Visitors] did not seem very interested in comics.” Exhibitor #28, Saturday, declared £100.

“[My revenue at TAGS] wasn't too dissimilar to the revenue of the other cons I've been to this year.” Exhibitor #29, Sunday, declared £300.76.

“Last year when tabling on a Saturday I earned around £180, which was a good income for this type of smaller event and for covering costs. This year however [...] I ended up taking only £40 profit, which is significantly less in comparison to other events [...] such as Edinburgh Zine Fest, Sequential Scotland or Thoughtbubble “ Exhibitor #32, Sunday, declared £80.

4.8 Travel & accommodation costs

24 of our 34 respondents declared to have travelled from outside of Edinburgh to attend TAGS. Travel fees varied depending on where exhibitors came from:

Compared to last year, we have noticed an increase in travel fees affecting our exhibitors.

Exhibitors that stayed in Edinburgh on average £154.00 per night. Some exhibitors reported sharing rooms to cut costs, or staying with local friends for free.

4.9 First time exhibitors

Of the 34 respondents to our Exhibitor Survey, 13 responded as having never tabled at any event before. However, based on how some respondents answered their survey we think this number may be a little lower, as the question may have been misunderstood instead as never having tables at TAGS before based on other answers given. None-the-less, our first time exhibitor remained very positive:

Overall, detailed feedback was also positive:

“We loved it! It was so nice to meet everyone and a huge thanks to everyone who organised and ran the event. Thank you very much!” Exhibitor #2

“Stewards and other vendors went out of their way to welcome me and make me feel a part of the event. [Multiple] people [spoke] to me specifically because they didn't recognise me, which was really lovely. [...] I felt like I gained a lot of connections through the event.” Exhibitor #14

5.0 Visitor’s experience

We had signage around the venue and at the end of each talk asking visitors to give us their feedback. These feedback forms were short and sweet, designed to help gauge how attendees felt about the event.

Overall, 34 visitors responded. Of those, 11 attended a Talk, and 17 attended the Board Game Zone.

Feedback was often glowingly positive:

“In the illness prone month of October, having a crowd event that makes it so easy to mask is very welcome for my immune system.” Visitor #20,

“First time attending and it was a very cosy event, the artist selection was great.” Visitor #22

“As someone disabled with immune problems, I'm not supposed to risk unmasked indoor contact unless necessary, and have had to stop attending almost every single public indoor event. I can't say how much it means to be able to attend an event that encourages masking, especially one that was so friendly and wheelchair-accessible. Thank you so much for making it possible for me to attend more safely.” Visitor #31

“Very well organised event space, stewards very friendly and informative, the panel I attended was fascinating. Overall a fantastic event.” Visitor #13

“I loved participating in this year’s event- the board game zone specifically. Blood on the Clocktower was so much fun! I hope this event keeps going for years and years. It’s so special to have these kinds of spaces together. Brilliant job organizing this event!” Visitor #11

“I loved the vendors' hall, it was wonderful to find such an LGBTQIA+ inclusive range of content. I'd love to see more BPOC creators next year!” Visitor #18

“Stewards and stallholders were incredibly friendly and knowledgeable." Visitor #25

“Disappointed that it was the same weekend as MCM“ Visitor #28

We want to think of ways to increase visitor engagement with this survey next year so we can get a broader idea of what visitors think of the event.

6.0 Conclusions

After several weeks to rest, attend other events in the UK, reflect on survey feedback, and write this report, we have reached several important conclusions.

6.1 Budget overhead

This year’s budget has left us with a nest egg, one that is small relative to many other festivals but is sizable for an organisation of our size. In previous years, Eve and Brian have had to front organisational costs (like deposits, materials, web hosting, insurance, etc) out of pocket, and then reimburse themselves once that year’s income was secured. This pot of cash will help TAGS Fest no longer need that independent support up front.

6.2 Efficacy of a weekend-long event

This year was a double-experiment, where we expanded both the space and the duration of the event. The venue changes worked phenomenally, our team of stewards performed exceptionally across the weekend, and both exhibitor and visitor feedback reflects this. However, footfall and spending figures show that TAGS Fest isn’t quite big enough to justify a two-day marketplace, and a healthy marketplace is one of our core goals. This year many exhibitors who came to TAGS from outside of Scotland’s Central Belt struggled to break even.

For now, we’re going to go back down to a 1 day event, so we can concentrate public enthusiasm and footfall on a smaller cohort of exhibitors and events. However, we will aim to work with Fruitmarket to remain at the event’s expanded venue size, as this was still hugely popular. We will need to consider how this will affect next year’s budget, though we do plan to apply to local festival funds, and to Creative Scotland to help support the running of the show.

6.3 Event Timing

For TAGS 23, TAGS 24, and again for TAGS 25, we have had very little control over the dates for when our event could take place. Previously, we have slipped into gaps in Fruitmarket’s busy schedule.

This year’s timing was particularly competitive, with exhibitors and visitors pulled towards calendar-defining events, like MCM London and Essen Spiel. We suspect footfall and visitor spend would have been higher this year had we been lucky enough to avoid these schedule conflicts.

With the event’s continued growth, year-on-year successes, and clear support for the small press community in Scotland, we’re now confident enough to work on longer-term scheduling with Fruitmarket. We hope to secure reliable dates for future years going forward.

6.4 Building community

One aspect of TAGS Fest that we feel is currently underserved are opportunities for exhibitors to socialise, network, make friends, and see each other’s work. Travelling around the UK is tiring and expensive, and early opening hours for events compound those pressures.

We’re particularly fond of the mulled wine social that ECAF holds after its events in the cold winter months, and we’re considering how we can achieve something similar.

We’re considering updating our event schedule to include a “social hour” for networking. This proposed social hour would be semi-exclusive, open only to exhibitors, local artists and creators in the small press scene.

As mornings have shown consistently low footfall across all of our events, we’re considering hosting it at the start of the day, energising exhibitors for a busier open for the market. We may also be able to operate some sort of pre-order breakfast service through Fruitmarket’s in-house cafe. However, this would remove an hour of trading time from the event. Here is a proposed schedule:

Alternatively, we are considering a post-show social as well. For its positives, this would not eat into marketplace operation time, and would serve as a nice wind-down from a busy social day. However, hosting at the end of the show risks exhibitors needing to leave early to travel home, which could exclude those living outside of Scotland’s central belt. Here is an alternate proposed schedule:

This idea is aspirational at the moment, and we may not be able to implement it next year. If you have suggestions (especially with feasible plans of execution), feel free to email them in!

6.5 Growth and responsibility

As the show grows into its new shell, we feel we need to continue refining our public facing policies. Three years ago we were two friends pulling on favours to put on a market, entirely unpaid, motivated by the thrill of supporting our local scene. This year Eve and Brian joined with Faye to form Small Press Scotland CIC, in an effort to formalise and support the events we run in Scotland.

Going into 2026, we will be reviewing the language used on our website, updating our Curation Policy and Friendly Spaces policy, and creating new internal policies to support the core aims of the event. We also aim to reach out to larger organisations and events for their guidance. Now is the time to do this — Eve, Brian and Faye may not be running TAGS Fest in ten years time, but perhaps we can create reliable frameworks that will protect the small press spirit of this event in the hands of others.

6.6 Display policy

When we first started TAGS Festival, we outlined that we wanted to spotlight printed works, be they books, comics, games or zines. We made this goal very clear as part of our curation policy. Feedback (detailed in our TAGS 23 Report) overwhelmingly highlighted how surprised and delighted exhibitors were that books were outselling merchandise, which we attribute to the joint-armistice exhibitors agreed to by not letting tchotchkes, prints, and charms be the focus of their tables.

To some extent at TAGS 24, and worse again this year for TAGS 25, we noted a growing number of exhibitor displays straying from the “25% merch / 75% books” guidance in the Curation Policy. Exhibitor feedback this year confirms our suspicions that visitors are increasingly swayed to buy merchandise over books.

Going forward, we are considering the need for a more formal Display Policy, where all exhibitors more formally agree to focus on printed objects and games. The shape and extent of this policy will need further discussion over the coming months — if you have thoughts or suggestions on how we can achieve a small press forward space, drop us an email at hello@tagsfest.co.uk !

6.7 Picky bits

Finally, there were a number of minor things we’d want to do differently next year:

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