Leicester Comedy Festival

De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) has a unique partnership with Leicester Comedy Festival that goes back 25 years to the event’s inception.

The festival was created by Geoff Rowe as part his final year practical project as an Arts Management student at DMU.

That first festival was a huge success with 40 events over seven days and after graduating, Geoff decided to continue the festival and it’s taken place every February since 1994.

It is now the longest-running comedy festival in Europe and attracts an impressive line-up of arena-filling headliners, established acts, newcomers, and eclectic performers.

This year’s festival sees around 1,000 comedians putting on 847 events across 69 venues. It also attracts tens of thousands of people from across the UK and beyond and helps to define Leicester’s cultural identity.

In 2018, students on our Arts and Festival Management course are trusted to run some of the venues, taking care of acts and promoting the events.

Those involved in Demon Media are interviewing comedians and reviewing shows, and other students have been volunteering in the community at DMU Local comedy initiatives. Many of our graduates are also taking to the stage, making names for themselves as stand-ups.

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