Leicester launches UK Kids' Comedy Festival
- The Leicester Comedy Festival will run from the 6th to 24th February 2019
- The event is also launching a "sister festival" to run at the same time, The UK Kids' Comedy Festival
- Headliners for The Leicester Comedy Festival 2019 include Jo Brand, Russell Howard and Jason Manford
The Leicester Comedy Festival - which returns in February - will run alongside The UK Kids' Comedy Festival for the first time.
The long-running festival revealed its "sister festival" today, which it says will aim to "celebrate the comedy talent of the future while nurturing and growing younger audiences."
Both the Leicester Comedy Festival and The UK Kids' Comedy Festival will run from the 6th to 24th February 2019 in the East Midlands city.
The UK Kids' Comedy Festival will include shows, workshops and events aimed at children under 12 years of age, including Loving Laughing, a project teaching joke telling to Primary School children. James Campbell, Bec Hill and Jarred Christmas are amongst the acts putting on family-friendly shows as part of the programme.
Meanwhile headline acts for the main festival, which is now in its 26th year, will include Jo Brand, Johnny Vegas, Zoe Lyons, Jason Manford, Nish Kumar, Dave Gorman, Russell Howard, Henning Wehn, Jason Byrne, Paul Sinha, Rich Hall, Shazia Mirza, Hal Cruttenden and Gary Delaney.
The programme also includes many other solo shows, including offerings from Adam Kay, Adam Rowe, Ahir Shah, Alasdair Beckett-King, Alex Edelman, Andrew Maxwell, Chris Washington, Daliso Chaponda, Dane Baptiste, Darren Harriott, Ed Gamble, Henry Paker, Jack Gleadow, Jen Brister, Joanna Neary, Lauren Pattison, Lloyd Griffith, Lloyd Langford, Lost Voice Guy, Pat Cahill, Rob Kemp, Rosie Jones, Tom Lucy and Harriet Kemsley.
Geoff Rowe (pictured), founder and Director of Leicester Comedy Festival & The UK Kids' Comedy Festival, says: "We're delighted to be launching the 26th Leicester Comedy Festival today, with full details of the hundreds of shows planned to take place from 6-24 February. The last 26 years have been amazing and I'm really proud that comedians flock to Leicester in February and support what we do each year. We have made so many friends along the way and in 2019 many of them will be returning to a record number of venues to entertain over 135,000 people.
"We're also thrilled to be launching The UK Kids' Comedy Festival, featuring loads of shows and activities for children under 12 and their families. There has been a huge growth in comedy shows for kids over recent years and we hope this new festival will be a celebration and help inspire young people to get into live comedy, either as audience members of performers."
The 2019 events will include a 25th Special Anniversary Show linked to the festival's prestigious Leicester Mercury Comedian Of The Year competition. Past winners of the contest, including Romesh Ranganathan and Josh Widdicombe, will take to the stage.
The brochure, which is the festival's biggest ever, comprising of 170 pages of comedy events, also includes The UK Pun Championships, Silver Stand-Up Competition, the Hotel D'Comedie experience and other festival-specific shows.
For the first time, Leicester Comedy Festival has been commissioned by BBC local radio to produce three live comedy shows too. These will be broadcast by BBC Radio Leicester, and online via BBC Sounds. Featuring a range of festival comedians, and special guests, BBC Radio Leicester Presents will take place on Tuesday evenings throughout the festival period.
To view the full brochure and find out more about the festivals visit www.comedy-festival.co.uk