Nottingham Comedy Festival is an annual festival held in Nottingham, England. It started in 2009 with 50 acts in 10 venues over 9 days. It originally took place at the end of October but in 2010 it was moved to the end of September to fit in with the Nottingham Trent and Nottingham University Freshers Weeks. It was founded by Helen Stead and Rachel Greensmith in 2009. Rachel left a year later in July 2010. Helen continues to organise the festival and other NCF events along with assistants, Elliott Bower and Andy Stead
Contents
The festival aims to bring together a variety of comedy events and give both new and established comedians the chance to have a go at comedy. There are a variety of comedy events from stand-up and improvisation to films and poetry. Jongleurs, The Glee Club, Funhouse Comedy and the Royal Centre all join together with NCF to make the festival happen. The festival's main sponsor is the Castle Rock Brewery. In between the main festival NCF hold regular monthly shows under the name of NCF Comedy
2009
30 October - 7 November
Acts included Paul Kerensa, MissImp, James Cook, Patrick Monahan, Rhod Gilbert (in association with his management and the Nottingham Playhouse), Shazia Mirza, Spiky Mike, Rob Rouse, J.W Smith, Rob Gee and many more.
2010
24 September - 4 October
Acts included The Comedy Store Players, Armstrong and Miller (in association with their management and the Theatre Royal), Jason Manford (in association with their management and the Theatre Royal), Patrick Monahan, MissImp, Microwaving Ants, Stand-Up Shakespeare and HR'd Day's Night (a play by James 'Lloydie' Lloyd), Andrew Bird, Colin Manford, Matt Tiller, Ali Cook and many more.
2011
23 September - 1 October Acts included: Reginald D. Hunter, Tom Stade, Alfie Moore, Zoe Lyons, Howard Marks, Isy Suttie, Nathan Caton, Phil Nichol and many more... Venues include: Royal Centre, Nottingham Playhouse, Glee, Jongleurs, Canalhouse, The Maze, Bunkers Hill, Lord Roberts, The Grosvenor, Central Library, Nottingham University Park and The Greyhound.
2012
21 - 30 September. Acts included: Alan Davies, Marcus Brigstocke, The Boy With Tape On His Face, Ava Vidal, Sandi Toksvig, Al Murray, Patrick Monahan, Tom Stade, Rob Rouse and many more. For the first time ever the festival also expanded into Mansfield to the brand new Create Theatre.
2013
20 - 28 September
NCF Comedy
The Nottingham Comedy Festival is organised by NCF Comedy. After the 1st festival NCF went on to organise regular comedy nights around Nottinghamshire and the West Midlands. In October 2012 (just after the 4th Festival finished) NCF went on to start its own agency and is now looking after 2 Manchester based comedians - Tony Basnett and Adam Rushton.