The 30th Anniversary of Leicester Comedy Festival and 5th Anniversary of The UK Kids’ Comedy Festival came to an end last week, having featured a staggering 704 events across the festivals.
Following the hugely successful year, the organisers of the comedy event are proud to announce the award nominations for 2023, which will take place on Monday 27th March.
Geoff Rowe, Festivals Founder:
“We are thrilled to announce the nominees in our annual awards. The lists for all the categories help demonstrate the incredible range and diversity of acts who perform at our festivals, and I think help show that British comedy is back after so many years of disruption. We’re looking forward to opening the gold envelopes at the awards ceremony later this month and announcing the winners.”
Best Show contenders include Stuart Goldsmith, Ali Woods and Chloe Petts, Best New Show contenders include Bethany Black and Thanyia Moore. Olaf Falafel’s Super Stupid Show and Shelf: The Kids’ Show are some of the nominees for Best Kids Show and Mitch Benn and Any Suggestions Doctor? are included in the nominees for Best Improv/Musical Show. In addition, the Legend of Comedy and Lifetime Contribution Award winners will be announced on the night of the awards.
Previous winners of the Legend of Comedy Award include Victoria Wood, Barry Cryer, Rik Mayall, Lenny Henry & Stewart Lee. The festival awards also highlight the people and venues behind the scenes, with nominations for Best New, Large and Small Venues and Promoters being announced today too.
The festivals this year have had a growth of 6% in events from 2022 and in a positive sign for the ongoing recovery of the live event industry post-pandemic, ticket sales were up a massive 23% from 2022. Comedy fans travelled from across the UK, Northern Ireland and Europe to see shows, with the official streaming platform NextUp Comedy streaming 19 live events throughout the festival. One comedy fan even enjoyed over 77 live shows across the 19 day period! The UK Kids’ Comedy Festival issued 70% more tickets than in 2022 and box office takings were up by 60%.
Leicester Comedy Festival 2023 featured 870 comedians performing at 630 events which equates to over 52,000 minutes of comedy. Sell out shows and appearances included Stewart Lee, Celya AB, I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, Scott Bennett, Fatiha El-Ghorri, Seann Walsh, Nish Kumar, Eshaan Akbar, Stephen Bailey, Chelsea Birkby, Simon Brodkin, Alfie Moore & Ignacio Lopez. Perhaps the fastest selling show at the festival was the appearance by Rosie Jones which sold out in less than 4 hours.
Over 1,100 people watched the Beyond A Joke seminar programme online. The programme included discussions around mental health and comedy, combatting sexual harassment in live comedy, and the future of the Live Comedy Association.
The UK Kids’ Comedy Festival 2023, featured over 74 events in 29 venues. Performances included Masai Graham, Alasdair Beckett-King, Comedy Club 4 Kids, Comedy in the Dark For Kids, Rob Gee, Marcel Lucont, Olaf Falafel, Kyle D Evans, Shelf, Jarred Christmas and Wifi Wars. The UK Kids’ Comedy Festival engaged 14 schools, over 550 primary school children for Loving Laughing. It delivered eight joke spots which attracted 200 children. Sixteen 11-18 year olds attended workshops to learn how to write and perform jokes as part of Laugh Academy.
Geoff Rowe, Festivals Founder:
“We are incredibly proud and delighted with the response to Leicester Comedy Festival & The UK Kids’ Comedy Festival 2023. We saw amazing growth in terms of attendance and ticket sales, and the number of people who continue to visit the festivals from across the UK. A massive thanks to all those who performed on stages and those who attended events. Our festivals remain not for profit and the continued support from the comedy industry, fans, promoters, venue staff, funders & sponsors, volunteers and all members of the festivals community means we can remain the largest comedy festival in Europe.”
