The Besties 2025: Week Two Winners

As the Edinburgh Festivals continue to snowball towards their conclusion next weekend, we're delighted to announce the week two winners of The Skinny-Fest Festival Awards, aka The Besties.

The only awards celebrating all of the Edinburgh festivals, The Besties will honour the best of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh International Book Festival, Edinburgh Art Festival and more across this year's three award ceremonies. The Besties are a collaboration between The Skinny, Fest, Capital Theatres, and Premier Scotland.

Here are our week two Besties winners, handed out at the Festival Theatre this morning (Sat 17 Aug) in a ceremony hosted by Michelle Brasier.

The Listies

The Kids Award for Make Some Noise, as voted for by Fest's kids critics

The Listies pull off the incredibly rare feat of creating a comedy show aimed at children that will also make accompanying adults cry with laughter. We polled the Fest kids reviewers and their friends, and they resoundingly recommended ‘these silly guys’. This award is a thank you for bridging the gap between generations, and making a show that we can all laugh at together. The Listies: Make Some Noise, Assembly George Square Studios, until 25 Aug, 11.30am

Sam Kruger and S E Grummett

The Genre Chaos Award for Creepy Boys: SLUGS

Oozing with humanity and powered by sheer chaos, Sam Kruger and S. E. Grummett offer an impish and eccentric antidote to the horrors of modern life, as evidenced by their performance at our week one Besties ceremony. The Skinny’s reviewer commended the duo’s delicious chemistry, and the down-to-earth poignancy of a show that constantly strives to be out-of-this-world. Creepy Boys: SLUGS, Summerhall (Red Lecture Theatre), until 24 Aug, 9.15pm

Sami Abu Wardeh

The Heart Award for PALESTINE: PEACE DE RESISTANCE

Described by Fest Deputy Editor Louis Cammell as “passionate, epic and very funny,” Irish-Palestinian comic Sami Abu Wardeh's PALESTINE: PEACE DE RESISTANCE is densely layered, drawing righteous energy from the current situation in Gaza and the spirit of intifada more generally. There were suggestions in the judging room to name the award the ‘Fuck the UK’ or ‘Fuck Empire,’ but the Heart Award seemed apt to mark Abu Wardeh’s hearfelt, impassioned performance and demand for recognition for himself, his homeland, and the suffering of his people beneath the boot of the IDF. PALESTINE: PEACE DE RESISTANCE, Pleasance Dome, until 24 Aug (not 21), 9.45pm

Ayo Adenekan

The Emerging Talent Award for Black Mediocrity

The team wanted to award the great potential of local comic Ayo Adenekan, whose ‘incredibly impressive’ debut hour takes us through his experiences of growing up as a Black man in Scotland. Fest's reviewer said Black Mediocrity ‘solidifies himself as a star on the rise – but he doesn't need our approval.’ Ayo Adenekan: Black Mediocrity, Monkey Barrel Comedy (Cabaret Voltaire), until 24 Aug, 1.30pm

Orpheus and Eurydice

The Collaboration Award, to Opera Queensland, Opera Australia, Circa, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Opera and the EIF

Multiple world-renowned companies join forces for this spell-binding work of collaboration. Opera Australia, Opera Queensland and contemporary circus visionaries Circa work alongside with Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Scottish Opera for this awesome staging of Orpheus and Eurydice as part of this year's Edinburgh International Festival. 

Karine Polwart

The Nature Award for Windblown

As Arthur’s Seat burns behind us, it seemed appropriate to celebrate Karine Polwart’s widely lauded Windblown, her homage to Edinburgh’s oldest sabal palm staged through a sublime mix of song, poetry and storytelling. Polwart follows the tree’s journey from the Port of Leith to the Botanics glasshouses and its ultimate felling in 2021, weaving what The Skinny’s reviewer described as ‘a tender, glowing paean to nature, humanity and life itself.’

Edinburgh Art Festival Pavilion

The Venue Award

The hub and heart of this year’s Edinburgh Art Festival is a collaboration with Outer Spaces, a charity which works with artists and commercial property owners to provide free studios and activate disused spaces. The Pavilion includes residency space for artists, accessibility resources and a Welcome Space. Exhibitions include work by Lewis Hetherington and CJ Mahoney, JJ Fadaka and Ria Andrews, Alice Rekab, and Memory is Museum, part of the ongoing research project by Trans Masc Studies. We wanted to celebrate the Pavilion’s commitment to accessibility, and clear expression of the values of Edinburgh Art Festival’s 2025 programme as a whole.

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Winners of The Besties are chosen each week by the editorial teams of The Skinny and Fest, drawing on their cross-festival expertise to celebrate the best work happening anywhere in the festivals. The categories reflect the diversity of the magazines’ coverage and might be different every week. The final Besties ceremony for 2025 will take place on Saturday 23 August at Festival Theatre.