Crowdfunding for its Circuit Breakers scheme

Organisers of the annual Leicester Comedy Festival have launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise £3,000 to help support new comedians.  

The money will help comedians who are just starting out perform at next year’s festival, including travel, accommodation marketing and mentoring support.

Festival director Geoff Rowe said: ‘I’m really proud that over the years the festival has become a really supportive place for comedians to learn and develop what they do. 

‘Feedback from our audience has shown that a significant number also value this part of the festival and we are responding to this by launching our Circuit Breakers 2020 crowdfunding campaign. In past years we received pledges from members of the public, as well as established comedians who wanted to give something back and support emerging talent.’ 

This will be the third year organisers Big Difference Company have run the Circuit Breakers scheme. The comedians who took part in 2019 were Joe Hobbs, Hannah Platt, Chris Copestake, Carla Pol, George Edgeller, Nena Edwards.

Liam Bannigan, who previously took part, said ‘Circuit Breakers gave me a fantastic taster of what a career in comedy will be like. It gave me more confidence in my material, and myself as a comedian. Since Circuit Breakers, I have been able to push myself comedy-wise as well as networking, which has led to me MC'ing for the first time, and performing at Edinburgh Fringe.’

Applications from comedians who want to apply for Circuit Breakers 2020 support will open later this year.

Leicester Comedy Festival will run from February 5 to 23  and the full programme will be announced at the end of October

Published: 27 Aug 2019