180 Box Office Assistant (fixed term)

Closing date: 10:00 Thursday 16 AprilInterview date: Thursday 23 AprilStart date: Monday 18 May 2026End date: Monday 31 August 2026Location: Based in our central Edinburgh office

Background

The Fringe Society was founded by artists to nurture and uphold the Fringe's values of inclusivity, experimentation and imagination. We exist to support, advise and encourage everyone who wants to participate; provide information and assistance to audiences; and celebrate the Fringe and what it stands for all over the world.

180 Box Office is the ticketing agency that is managed by the Fringe Society to run the Fringe Box Office. Established in 2009, 180 Box Office is a full-service, end-to-end box office agency. We offer support in communications, ticketing and customer services for events large and small, allowing them to focus on doing what they do best: creating amazing, unforgettable events. We operate using the Red61 ticketing system.

The primary responsibility of the 180 Box Office Assistant is to provide an exceptionally high standard of service to the customers of the clients who have contracted the 180 Box Office to provide a ticketing facility for their festivals and events.

Under the guidance of the 180 Box Office Coordinator, and 180 Box Office Supervisor, and with the support of the rest of the Box Office team, the successful applicant will be responsible for dealing with both customer queries and assisting the client in the delivery of the event. The candidate will assist customers with ticket sales, customer services, access bookings and occasionally complaints. Your role will also support the Fringe Box Office team if required.

You will work closely with the Box Office Management team to ensure that the 180 Box Office and Fringe Box Office ethos of providing excellent customer service is adhered to. The ideal candidate will have previous customer services experience and the confidence and patience to deal with customers for multiple festivals concurrently in a fast-paced environment. This position reports to the Box Office Operations Manager.

Role and responsibilities:

The successful candidate will perform a wide range of duties, including but not limited to:

• assisting customers with ticket sales over the phone and in person
• processing access bookings for customers with specific access requirements
• issuing refunds/exchanges to customers who have booked tickets for cancelled shows
• dealing with customer queries by email across the multiple inboxes that are monitored by the team
• assisting in the facilitation of delegate programmes when required for an event.
• arranging the postage and collection of physical tickets.
• abiding by pre-defined policies and procedures to ensure the professional, efficient and effective operation of the 180 Box Office.
• processing and maintaining appropriate paperwork relating to customer queries and complaints
• offering advice to the temporary event staff on how best to deal with customer queries.

Person specifications

Essential

• Proven experience in a demanding customer facing role.
• A polite, professional and confident manner when dealing with the public, both oral and written.
• Proven ability to work calmly and efficiently in high pressure situations.
• Proficient computer skills including a good working knowledge of MS Office packages.
• Good judgement and troubleshooting skills.

Desirable

• Experience of working in a festival environment.
• Knowledge of general box office procedures and practices.
• Experience of working with Red61 ticketing system.
• Experience with people with additional access requirements.

Rate of pay and benefits

The rate of pay for this post is £13.45 per hour.

Normal working hours are 35 hours per week, 09:30 to 17:30, Monday to Friday with a one-hour unpaid lunch break with the occasional weekend and evening work. Any additional hours will be paid at the standard hourly rate.

We are a flexible working employer and therefore are happy to discuss flexible working at any stage of the application process. We are unable to offer remote working for this position. We can offer varied start and finish times and core hours with flexibility around them.

We use positive action under section 159 of the Equality Act in relation to disability or race. This means that if we have two candidates of equal merit in our process, we will seek to take forward the D/deaf, disabled, Black, Asian or ethnically diverse candidate in order to diversify our staff team.

The Fringe are active members of the Festivals Edinburgh Sustainability Working group and include climate action as one of the headline targets in the Fringe development goals. As part of the commitments of this work, all Fringe staff members are expected to assist with the Fringe Society’s environmental goals and consider these in all elements of your work.

We are also committed to maintaining the open-access policy of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome applications from all sectors of the community. We are also proud to be a Disability Confident Employer and aim to successfully employ and retain disabled people and those with health conditions. We expect employees to support these commitments and to assist in their realisation.