Leicester Comedy Festival

 Leicester Comedy Festival is one of the biggest and longest running comedy festivals in the UK. For the past 30 years we have celebrated British comedy and have been dedicated to supporting and nurturing emerging talent. Being an open access festival means that anyone can pay a fee to put on an event – and we encourage people from all stages of their career to come and take part. We get a buzz from working with new comedians and being part of and watching their journey as they grow professionally and reach new heights. 

The dates of next years festival are 5th - 23rd February 2025. 

 The UK Kids’ Comedy Festival is the only dedicated Kids’ Comedy Festival in the UK. The Festival’s key focus is to engage children in creative and social contact with others and provide shows for all the family to enjoy. Each year we run educational and participatory events to enable children to build self-confidence, make friends, have social interaction, and enhance creative development.

The dates of next years festival are 5th - 23rd February 2025. 

Bridging the Gap is the latest initiative from Big Difference Company, and aims to support comedians from underrepresented groups in performing at Leicester Comedy Festival with a bursary, as well as a paid slot in a showcase towards the start of the festival. 

 Laugh Academy is a dedicated half-term comedy school for aspiring stand-ups! It consists of a full week of workshops where we develop young people's skills and give them an experience of performing live comedy. This specially designed course gives children and young people the chance to learn tips and tricks of the trade from real life comedians. The course consists of 5 half day workshops, for 11 - 14 year olds and 15 - 18 year olds which culminates with a performance on the final day of the course. Plus, participants get to perform at the Laugh Academy Showcase on the final day of the course. 

For any queries about Laugh Academy, or any other project from the UK Kids' Comedy Festival, please contact us.

 Circuit Breakers is a development programme providing comedians with the opportunity to perform at the Festival, attend industry network meetings and have their photographs taken by renowned comedy photographer Andy Holingworth.

Circuit Breakers is your chance within Leicester Comedy Festival to see the stars of the future from the best of emerging UK comedians. Each year we carefully select acts who have been gigging for a while but have yet to break into the big time. Trust us; you'll be seeing these acts in arenas soon so come and see them so you can tell your friends you saw them before they were famous...

If you have any questions about the programme, or to be notified of the application process opening for 2025, please contact us.

 Loving Laughing is one of our flag ship projects for the UK Kids' Comedy Festival.  Every year we host a showcase of the comedic talents of primary school children, as part of The UK Kids’ Comedy Festival.  Schools from across Leicester get involved in workshops to help young people develop their confidence and self esteem, as well as communication and presentation skills. Leading the project is…Rob Gee. Rob leads workshops in performance poetry, comedy, improvisation, performance skills and creative writing.  Over the years Rob has helped people of all ages create scripts, slam poetry, comedy songs and sketches, movies, raps, magazines and comic strips for a variety of specific purposes.

Rob’s workshops have an emphasis on literacy, teamwork and self-esteem. They can be tailored for any age or ability range and adjusted to incorporate any particular theme or area of the curriculum.

For more information on how your school can get involved please contact us. 

 Beyond A Joke is our annual series of debates, discussions and seminars which encourage people to delve a little deeper into issues linked to contemporary comedy.  In partnership with Centre for Comedy Studies Research. Past topics have included issues linked to access, change, politics, the environment, as well as Q&A’s with guests including Milton Jones, Lost Voice Guy, Arthur Smith, Jo Brand, Tom Allen, Andy Hollingworth, David Benson, Dave Johns, Sara Pascoe, Nicholas Parsons & Alexei Sayle.

If you have a suggestion for a topic, or would like to speak at an event please contact us. 

Big Difference Company are proud producers of the annual Silver Stand Up Competition. The competition takes place each February as part of Leicester Comedy Festival and is a unique search for the UK’s best seasoned stand-up talent.

Entry to the competition is for both new and experienced comedians strictly over the age of 55.

Visit our website for more information. 

 The BIG Weekends have been running across Leicestershire for the last few years and aim to extend the grin created by the main festival in towns across the County. The Big Weekend is a takeover of venues in districts across the county during the main festival period.

 In 2025 we will be taking the Big Weekend to Market Harborough. For more information please contact us.

Big Difference Company is dedicated to ensuring that those working on Leicester Comedy Festival are equipped with the tools to provide as inclusive and safe an environment as possible for all.

We have taken steps to achieve this by providing fully funded Safer Spaces training in sexual assault prevention, active bystander awareness training, access and inclusion and mental health first aid.  

This unique comedy experience returns to the Leicester Comedy Festival off the back of sell-outs at Edinburgh Fringe 2023. At Comedy in the Dark, the audience's senses are heightened - things look and sound different. Previous guests have included Helen Bauer, Stuart Goldsmith, Tony Law, Dane Baptiste, Ahir Shah and Mrs Barbara Nice. "Destined to become one of the most talked about shows" (Time Out).

In 2021, along with BID Leicester, we brought Luminarium by Architects of Air to Leicester. The Luminarium is a large scale, inflatable immersive installation using colour, shapes and soundscapes to capture audiences imagination. It attracted people into the city centre and raised the profile of the city. 

Always and Always facing towards the light was a culmination of a year long celebration marking the centenary of the first women getting the vote. It told the story of suffragette Alice Hawkins using theatre and video mapped projections. Big Difference Company provided project management support for this project. 

In 2018 we worked with BID Leicester and the Diocese of Leicester to produce Christmas in the Gardens. Across 10 nights in December we took over Leicester Cathedral gardens with a beautiful installation that projected colourful imagery on its surface. Members of the public could even project their own faces on the installation.