Morning Sauna Rave: Edinburgh Fringe Review 2026 ★★★★★

Date: 10 August 2026
Time: 10.30am
Venue: Sauna Sessions Arts Club, Summerhall
Running time:
Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5)
Reviewed by: Jo Sansom

All the best parts of a club night packaged up in a mid-morning wellness practice.

The Morning Sauna Rave is less of a show and more of a fully immersive, sensory experience, intertwining relaxed club beats, intense heat, enchanting aromas and collective participation.

I left the space sweaty, happy and with several new friends.

Firstly, the venue, which is a custom-built 80-person sauna situated in the courtyard of the iconic Summerhall Arts Centre. The sauna theatre beautifully merges its two functions; a terraced wooden seating area and large-scale sauna plinth are complemented by a powerful sound system and lighting rig. The sauna feels spacious and welcoming. Created by set designer Lucy Osborne, it is the largest sauna of its kind and will eventually tour the UK as part of a pop-up sauna festival.

The venue is well served with changing rooms, showers, a cold plunge pool, hairdryers and a bar serving water and non-alcoholic options, and you are invited to come and go from the sauna as much as you’d like. The staff at the Sauna Sessions Arts Club (the sauna is hosting a whole range of experiences throughout the festival) were so helpful and friendly and really communicated their love for sauna culture. And you don’t have to be a regular sauna-goer to enjoy the experience… the larger space feels much more open than a traditional hut, which means there is more room to find the right level of heat to suit you.

The audience are welcomed in at the start of the session and given a quick reminder on sauna etiquette (you don’t want to skip this bit if you want to be a considerate audience member during the performance!).

We were then introduced to our Aufguss master for the morning, who went on to perform three rounds of Aufguss.

Aufguss is a traditional sauna ritual that uses water, ice, heat and aroma to immerse you and your senses. She used towels and fans to disperse the scented steam around the room, and her choreography and stage presence were so engaging.

With each round of Aufguss, she built up the intensity… with more heat, scent and water used each time. By the last round, she was spraying the audience with water droplets from the botanical brushes, which felt so delightfully playful and had the whole audience squealing and giggling like kids.

The Aufguss master managed to be balletic, theatrical and flamboyant with her choreographed routines. She engaged the audience through eye contact and playful uses of the towels and fan, which made the audience feel like they were creating the experience alongside her.

If the Aufguss master was the main character, then the music played its role as the supporting ensemble. The DJ had put together a playlist of chilled club tracks that built gently throughout the hour. As the waves of heat increased in intensity, the music came in to carry us through.

This type of immersive experience really hinges on the audience’s ability to be generous with their own energy and involvement; the more you put in, the more you get out.

There is no expectation to dance, and some audience members preferred to sit or stand instead.

Personally though, getting fully immersed in the experience meant dancing and moving to the music… and I’m very glad I did, and by the end everyone was up on their feet soaking up the tunes and steam together.

I was a little reticent attending this solo (without a tried and tested dance buddy to rave with). However, I needn’t have worried, as within a few minutes I’d made friends with half the women on my bench who were just as excited as me to be trying out a sauna rave on a Monday morning… in their finest swimwear!

As a huge advocate of clubbing’s ability to unify audiences and create a feeling of community and shared experience, I was so happy to find that the Morning Sauna Rave tapped into the same energy. Moving to music as a group is such a glorious collective moment in any setting, but add in the energising and restorative effects of the sauna and you’ve got a truly glorious way to start the day. I left completely invigorated and wishing I could start every morning the same way!