Poor sales at weekend event

Another small comedy festival has been cancelled at short notice because of low ticket sales.

The Newport Comedy Fringe in Shropshire was to feature eight acts, including Jason Cook, James Acaster and Nish Kumar over this weekend.

However, last night organisers pulled the whole weekend. 'Sadly due to low ticket sales we have been forced to cancel this event,' they said in a post on Facebook. 'Tickets booked through WeGotTickets will be automatically refunded.'

The news comes just days after the Sunderland Comedy festival was cancelled with less than two weeks notice, featuring Lee Nelson, Ray Peacock – and Jason Cook again. Organiser Si Burglass blamed poor sales for this cancellation, too.

The events are among dozens of small comedy festivals now held across the country in the run-up to the Edinburgh Fringe, featuring comics previewing their hour-long shows.

The Newport event was to be held in the lecture theatre at Adams' Grammar School.

Published: 3 Jul 2014