The 2003 Edinburgh Festival Fringe was the 56th Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The Fringe ran from 3–25 August 2003 and presented 1541 shows over 207 venues. 2003 was the first year that over one million tickets were sold at the Fringe.

Venues

The Pod, a 400 seater theatre on Festival Square, was erected for the first time and hosted acts including Daniel Kitson

Daniel Kitson

Daniel Kitson is an English stand-up comedian.-Career:Born to a lecturer father and primary school head teacher mother, Kitson began performing comedy at the age of 16. He was a pupil at Scissett Middle School and Shelley College in Yorkshire, England...

, Tommy Tiernan

Tommy Tiernan

Tommy Tiernan is an Irish comedian, actor and writer. He and Hector Ó hEochagáin present The Tommy and Hector Show on i102-104FM. Tiernan also featured in Father Ted.-Early life:...

 and Danny Bhoy

Danny Bhoy

Danny Bhoy is an Indian-Scottish comedian who has performed in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada...

The Spiegeltent moved to a new location on George Square Gardens, to where it has returned each year since.

Unusual venues at the 2003 Fringe included a public toilet, a bus and a lift.

Perrier Comedy Awards

Perrier Comedy Award

Winner:

• Demetri Martin
  Demetri Martin
  Demetri Martin is an American comedian, actor, artist, musician, writer and humorist. Martin is best known for his work as a stand-up comedian, contributor on The Daily Show and for his Comedy Central show Important Things with Demetri Martin.- Early life :Demetri Martin was born to a Greek...
  
   - If I

Nominees:

• Adam Hills
  Adam Hills
  Adam Hills is an Australian comedian and television presenter. He has appeared on Australian and British television and is best known for his role hosting the Australian ABC music trivia show Spicks and Specks...
  
   - Cut Loose
• Flight of the Conchords
  Flight of the Conchords
  Flight of the Conchords are a New Zealand-based comedy duo composed of Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement. The duo's comedy and music became the basis of a BBC radio series and then an American television series, which premiered in 2007 on HBO, also called Flight of the Conchords.They were named...
  
   - High on Folk
• Howard Read
  Howard Read
  Howard Oliver Drinkwater Read is a British comedian, animator and aspiring song writer best known for his work with his animated sidekick, Little Howard. His other creations include an angry manager with a conversational style and the worldview of Bernard Manning, Roger T Pigeon, and H:BOT 2000, a...
  
   - The Big Howard and Little Howard Show
• Reginald D. Hunter - White Woman

Best Newcomer Award

Winner:

• Gary Le Strange
  Gary Le Strange
  Gary Le Strange is a character created by comedian Waen Shepherd. Le Strange is played as an eccentric English cult-rock composer, songwriter and performer, who believes his surreal and abstract performances to be groundbreaking....
  
   Polaroid Suitcase - (with Waen Shepherd)

Nominees:

• Alex Horne
  Alex Horne
  Alex Horne is a British comedian.He was educated at Lancing College and the University of Cambridge, where he was a member of Footlights.-Career:...
  
   - Making Fish Laugh (with Tim Key
  Tim Key
  Tim Key is an English actor, comedy writer, and performance poet. In 2009, he was the winner of the Edinburgh Comedy Award and was also nominated for the Malcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality.-Edinburgh Fringe:...
  
  )
• Miles Jupp
  Miles Jupp
  Miles Jupp is a British actor and comedian, probably best known as Archie in the children's television series Balamory....
  
   - Gentlemen Prefer Brogues
• Michael McIntyre
  Michael McIntyre
  Michael Hazen James McIntyre is an English stand-up comedian. He is well known for appearing at many British stand-up comedy events and for several roles on television stand-up programmes such as Live at the Apollo and his own show, Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow...
  
  

Scotsman Fringe First Awards

• Pandora 88 (Fabrik)
• Those Eyes, That Mouth (Grid Iron)
• Pugilist Specialist (The Riot Group)
• The People Next Door (Traverse Theatre Company
  Traverse Theatre
  The Traverse Theatre is a theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded in 1963.The Traverse Theatre commissions and develops new plays or adaptations from contemporary playwrights. It also presents a large number of productions from visiting companies from across the UK. These include new plays,...
  
  )
• Boy Steals Train (78th Street Theatre Lab)
• NE 2nd Avenue (Teo Castellanos)
• Pickle (indian ink)
• Baby Jane: Show Number 113 (The People Show)
• The Birds of Sarajevo (Théâtre de la Fenêtre)
• The Echo Chamber (en masse theatre)
• Love, Sex and Cider (Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama
  Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama
  The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland is a conservatoire of music, drama, and dance in the centre of Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1845 as the Glasgow Educational Association, it is the busiest performing arts venue in Scotland...
  
  )
• Thebans (Theatre Babel)
• White Cabin (Akhe Group)
• Ladies and Gents (Semper Fi)
• A Very Naughty Boy (Vivienne Smith Management)