The laughs took centre stage at this year’s Aberdeen International Comedy Festival when established comedy stars such as Milton Jones and Daniel Sloss graciously shared the stage and showcased the next generation of rising stars on the comedy circuit.
Returning to the city after an unplanned three-year interval, organisers, Aberdeen Inspired have hailed the festivals return a huge success and claim the festival provided a welcome “landslide of laughter” to audiences who travelled from far and wide to have a laugh.
Over the course of 11 days audiences were treated to 43 shows by over 60 comedians, with 15 sell out shows, three more than in 2019.
Headline acts included popular and well-loved TV comics such as Jack Dee, Harry Hill, David O’Doherty and Milton Jones alongside many fresh faces on the comedy circuit including Stuart McPherson, Krystal Evans and Daniel Petrie and Liam Farrelly.
Commenting on the festival’s success, Shona Byrne festival manager said “It was great to see so many people back out in the city centre enjoying a laugh. We attracted audiences for far and wide with visitors seeking out comedy from Singapore together with folk from the city and wider region.
“This year’s festival was another step on the road to recovery for the city centre and we are delighted that the comedy festival continues to grow and mature into a pivotal and popular event on the city’s cultural calendar.”
Attracting just over 7000 people to the city over the course of its 11-day run, audience numbers for the core festival period had dropped slightly but mirrored the downward trend reported by others such as the world-renowned Edinburgh Fringe. However, when the audience numbers for headliners Katherine Ryan and Jon Richardson, who had to reschedule their dates outwith the core festival period, are taken into account attendance is set to top the 10,000 mark and bypass that achieved three years ago.
Adrian Watson, chief executive at Aberdeen Inspired say they were “encouraged by the healthy attendance and that it demonstrates the support and affection the festival has established with its growing audience base.”
He added “Aberdeen has so much to offer to both visitors and locals and re-establishing iconic festivals like the Aberdeen International Comedy Festival are key to cementing the city as one which offers a wide and appealing cultural mix of art, music and entertainment for people to enjoy.
“There are so many examples of cities all over the world where the creation of a thriving active and energized cultural district has been pivotal to their renaissance and regeneration. With the venues, galleries, museums and businesses we have in the heart of our city there is every reason to be encouraged by what has already been achieved and why it’s imperative that we continue to drive forward a collective approach to the regeneration and reimagining of our city centre.”
The festival which opened on October 6, closed on Sunday with two sold out shows.
Milton Jones brought his extraordinary show Milton: Impossible to the Tivoli delivering witty one liners about his life as a spy. Cleverly crafted and well written it was an absolute triumph with the 500 strong Tivoli audience. Whilst earlier that afternoon Scots lad Stuart McPherson delivered his award-winning Fringe show The Peesh to an audience of 35 people at Siberia on Belmont Street. Recounting his hilarious and heart-warming personal tale of love loss, hair loss and weight loss intertwined with a friends stagger in Newcastle the audience laughed and (almost) cried at the comedian's personal plight.
A trio of ladies from Peterhead made the trip to Aberdeen to see his show and told us “I saw him at the Fringe and thought that his show was fabulous, so much so that when I saw he was coming to the festival I told my two friends that I’d booked tickets and we were heading to the city for a day out. I’m so glad we did because he was even better second time round!”
Comedians from Netflix sensation Daniel Sloss to Geordie and now adopted Scot Kai Humphries, encouraged audiences to “keep coming back and to tell others about how great it is to have a comedy festival in Aberdeen” as it would only get bigger and better with their support.
Set to return from 30 September 2023 for 10 days organisers Aberdeen Inspired are poised to make top flight headline act announcements very soon.