Women in Comedy Festival 2014 - Preview

This October, the Women in Comedy Festival is set to return for its second year, and the organisers have planned a programme that is 'bigger and better than ever'.

Running in Manchester from Saturday 11th until Sunday 26th October 2014, the festival comprises of more than 80 shows across 16 venues.

Over 125 acts have been confirmed as taking part, with names including Jo Caulfield, Luisa Omielan, Felicity Ward, Jo Neary, Barbara Nice and Jo Enright.

The festival launch night on Saturday 11th will be compered by Janey Godley and features Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee Zoe Lyons alongside Kate Smurthwaite, Jana Kennedy, Amy Vreeke, Ms B Haver and Lesley Kershaw.

A number of the acts are arriving at the festival with their Edinburgh Fringe shows. Zoe Lyons presents Mustard Cutter; there's Barbara Nice's Squirrel Proof; Hayley Ellis with We Need To Talk About Kevin; Wendy Wason's Hotel California; and sketch trio Birthday Girls with Party Vibes; amongst many others.

There are also compilation shows (such as the best of the North West), workshops, panel shows, comedic plays, and sketch comedy on offer across the 16 days.

The festival is also presenting a number of open mic nights featuring new talent. The organisers point out these shows will provide "the opportunity for burgeoning talent to develop and for the punters to say, in years to come, that they were there at the beginning when a new telly star or award winning comic was performing their first gig."

The festival was set up by Hazel O'Keefe (pictured) as the natural progression to her successful female comedy clubs, Laughing Cows. She explains: "My passion for this project arose from the need to show the vast number of women involved in the comedy scene and to encourage promoters and agents to attend the festival and scout for talent.

"It's been something I have wanted to do for several years, so it was a matter of timing. Over the past couple of years I feel that the comedy scene has changed for the better, I used to be able to confidently name most of the female acts in the UK. That's not the case now. A festival in the UK to showcase and celebrate in this way was inevitable."

The club began life in London in 1998 when O'Keefe took up the gauntlet thrown down by a well-established club promoter when he confessed that the reason he wouldn't book two female acts to play the same bill was that, 'I wouldn't take that risk'. Now in their 16th year, Laughing Cows have opened clubs across the nation and expanded onto the continent playing host to a number of big name female comedy acts whilst also nurturing new talent.

Peep Show star Isy Suttie is a patron of this year's Women in Comedy Festival. She comments: "It surprises me how many audiences haven't seen girls do comedy before, and some promoters are still very bad at booking women for their gigs. Anything that works to get rid of that being an issue by putting on funny women is fantastic and the festival is a brilliant thing."

To find out more about the festival and download the full brochure featuring the complete line-up of shows and events visit www.womenincomedy.co.uk