More students than ever before enjoyed the laughs at Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival, which today announced that 2015 was its biggest and best show yet.
Producers confirmed that more than 100,000 people attended the 19-day festival, which featured the likes of Alan Davies (pictured below) Sarah Millican, Johnny Vegas, Milton Jones and Jimmy Carr.
Research on the festival carried out by De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) and Comedy Research UK showed the number of students attending the festival rose from three per cent to 10% - or around 10,000 people. In 2015, the audience spent an average of £130.82 and conversations about the festival on social media saw Twitter engagement rise by 600% and YouTube views grow by 83%.
Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival began life at DMU when festival director, Geoff Rowe, started it as a student project in 1994.
Today the links between the festival and DMU remain strong. Arts and Festivals Management students helped to stage comedy festival gigs, DMU Comedy Society performed themselves and Demon FM broadcast interviews and clips from shows.
Academics also got involved with Alistair Jones, of DMU’s Department of Politics and Public Policy, taking part in a packed debate on comedy and politics at The Criterion pub.
INVOLVED: Students Stuart and Grace, who put together events for the comedy festival as part of their degree
The 2015 festival was launched at a breakfast event at DMU, at which Sir Norman Wisdom’s comedy archive was presented to the university’s renowned Cinema and Television History Archive. Sir Norman was a patron of the festival and it was launched on what would have been his 100th birthday.
A special exhibition at De Montfort Hall of his life and work attracted hundreds of visitors.
Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival Director, Geoff Rowe, said: “We’re thrilled to report on another great year for Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival. We have always known the festival has local impact, but we now know we have a significant national profile which is really important to us.
“This is the fourth year we have worked with tv channel Dave as our title sponsor and the growth over that period has been incredible.
“The festival programme has more than doubled in size since 2012. If people want to get involved in 2016, they should get in touch as soon as possible and we look forward to launching our 2016 programme later this year.”
The partnership between TV channel Dave & Leicester Comedy Festival started in 2012 and is managed by Sparkle Productions.
Posted on Monday 1 June 2015