Plus new open-air festival launched

The organisers of the Leeds, Reading and Latitude festivals have launched a plush open-air stand-up festival they hope will become ‘the Glyndebourne of comedy’.

The first Pimm’s Summerfest will even take place in a London venue designed for opera, the Holland Park Theatre

Jo Brand, Russell Howard, Lucy Porter, Puppetry of the Penis and American musical comic Stephen Lynch have already been confirmed for the first festival, which will run from August 27 to 31.

Melvin Benn, managing director of organisers Festival Republic, said: ‘I’d been thinking about his for about three years.

‘To hold a comedy festival in standard venues often doesn’t feel quite right. We needed to put this in an open space – and Holland Park Theatre is perfect: prestigious, beautiful, big, fantastically well-located.’

Kensington and Chelsea council recently spent £1million on a temporary 1,200-seat structure that is erected in the park every summer for a season of opera. The new comedy festival will extend its use by another week.

‘We will have five comedians a night for five straight nights,’ Benn added. ‘There will be picnics and barbecues, it will be like a Glyndebourne or Kenwood for comedy.

‘We will be attracting a new audience. As well as regular comedy-goers, this will be for people who feel that a night of comedy in a club or a room above a pub isn’t for them. We hope they bring their hampers after work for a picnic before the comedy starts.’

Although the festival has been designed for relaxed summer nights, Benn insists the venue will still work in bad weather. ‘It’s completely weatherproof.’

He added: ‘The comedy arena at Latitude has positively heaved over the past couple of years, to the point where I’ve had to increase its size and put screens outside. It’s wonderful that on the back of that success we can focus on an event that’s just about comedy.’

Pimm’s has signed a sponsorship deal for one year, but Benn – who took control of th Reading Festival in 1989 says the festival is here for the long haul, and is confident the brand will want to continue its backing in future.

‘What I like to do is build things, so they become part of the future,’ he said.

Meanwhile, the line-ups have been announced another London open-air comedy festival – in nearby Ealing.

Tim Minchin, Ed Byrne, Danny Bhoy, Bob Mills and Felix Dexter are among those appearing in Lammas Park between July 11 and 18. Click here for listings.

Published: 9 Jun 2008