All you need to know as Halifax Comedy Festival 2024 goes on the road around Calderdale – book tickets now
Venues across Calderdale – from Cricket clubs to cosy bars, cinemas to market halls – will become unique stages for comedy from a host of hand-picked stand-ups.
Add in some well-known comedic stage plays, a stand-up competition to see who is the best up-and-coming act or improvisation, there is even a comedy club for kids meaning there should be something for everyone in this festival of funniness.
Plus it’s a chance to be a tourist in your own hometown by visiting some places and venues you might not have been to before.
When:Halifax Comedy Festival runs from October 17-27, 2024
Where:Various venues including Victoria Theatre, Halifax Borough Market, NXT LVL, Dean Clough, The Workshop and Grayston Unity in Halifax; The Cove in Brighouse; Rex Cinema in Elland; The New Roxy in Sowerby Bridge; Ripponden Club (former Con Club) and Walsden Cricket and Bowling Club near Todmorden.
Booking: Booking in advance is advised – as some of the smaller venues are already sell-outs. Visit the website for full information and to book tickets
Comedy Festival listings
This year’s festival has been expanded across the district as part of Calderdale’s Year of Culture, and is a diverse mix of different styles of comedy.
The stand-up comedians performing and competing have been hand-picked, with the help of local comedy promoter Foot of the Barrel. At each venue there will be up to four different acts - check out the website for full details.
Stand up performances
To give you a flavour of the eclectic mix there’s award-winning Nina Gilligan (“A bolshier Mrs Merton”), long-standing comedian Rob Rouse (from Ben Elton’s TV Shakespeare-inspired hit comedy “Upstart Crow”); Marcel Lucont –easily the greatest French comedian in the UK, just ask him yourself. Tony Slattery, a favourite of Whose Line is it Anyway? and a regular on our TV screens, from Coronation Street to The Crying Game, gives a self-deprecating show about his life and, along with a handful of comedy friends, and will invite audience suggestions for some improvisation during the show, which is at Victoria Theatre, October 27.
Some will bring a bit of music, some a bit of politics but all should bring you laughs with their wit and wisecracks.
Comedy competition
The competition will bookend the festival. October 1 sees the first of the comedy heats, at Nxt Lvl Bar, Dean Clough, continuing there on the 8th, 15th and 22nd. Heat winners will go through to the competition final at the Victoria Theatre’s Green Room Bar on Saturday October 27. The final is a paid ticketed event but the heats are all free to attend events – but with limited numbers so get there early to be sure of your spot. (Nxt Lvl has a great food and drink menu so you can make it a brilliant night out!)
Plays
Turn back the comedy clock for the play (and hit film) Rita, Sue, and Bob Two which will be staged at the Victoria Theatre on October 18 and 19 and John Godber’s Bouncers (set in a 70s disco in Yorkshire), which will be performed on October 20-23 at The Workshop, Halifax, and Ripponden Club on the 25th.
Information and booking
Check out the website here for details of dates and acts appearing at each venue and to book tickets.