The latest Summer festival to be announced for 2021 is Jericho Comedy’s Oxford Castle Comedy Festival.
The line-up includes Angela Barnes (pictured), Mark Watson (pictured), Rosie Jones, Marcus Brigstocke, Laura Lexx, Ivo Graham, Helen Bauer, Ahir Shah, Olga Koch and Charlie Baker with more names to be announced. The festival spans from bank holiday Monday 31st May until Sunday 6th June with fourteen shows planned across the week. Every evening has an early show and a late show starting at 7pm and 9pm respectively.
Tickets for the festival are sold individually but seats will be socially distanced in the outdoor castle courtyard. As well as being seated in the open air there will be plenty of space between groups, toilet facilities on site and plenty of hand sanitizer to ensure shows can go ahead safely and according to restrictions.
The Oxford castle is a historic location for a comedy festival, built in 1073 It was at one point used to lock up misbehaving clerical University students in the 13th century. Still surrounded by those same prison walls, the thousand-year-old building is now home to a multitude of restaurants, bars, a boutique hotel, smart residential apartments, an education centre and lots of green space. Jericho Comedy’s Harry Househam says “I studied Archaeology at Oxford, so I feel right at home putting on shows in such a historic location, just so long as I don’t have to excavate the venue at any point”
Jericho Comedy’s Alex Farrow can’t wait to bring back their shows “This year has been incredibly challenging for comedy clubs, but things are starting to look more positive in 2021, and we’re delighted to be bringing such an amazing line up to the Castle. The Pandemic has forced us to form new partnerships and to work with new venues across the city, mainly to cope with social distancing, but we’re glad it has pushed us to try new formats and to work with new venues, whether it’s gigs performing to audience in cars, on boats, or in the courtyard of a medieval castle”
During the pandemic Jericho Comedy has performed drive-in shows, shows floating on punts on the river Cherwell for a ‘live-stream’ as well as having made and sold their own Christmas crackers. Farrow has even been gigging to small crowds of 5 this March and April with his bat themed comedy safari ‘Bat Chat’, one of the first live performances allowed in 2021.
The Castle Comedy Festival shows are Jericho Comedy’s first shows back in 2021. Their final digital show of the year is this month via Next Up Comedy on April 24th with a line up that includes Stephen Fry, Rosie Jones, Nish Kumar, Ivo Graham, Janine Harouni, Helen Bauer, and Huge Davies all raising money for local mental health charity Oxfordshire Mind.
Jericho Comedy is Oxford's independent comedy club. Winners of the 2019 & 2020 Chortle Award for being the best comedy night in the region, as recommended by the Sunday Times, and as heard on BBC Radio 4. Recommended as the iPapers top socially distanced night outs, **** 'Very funny' The Telegraph 2020 'Top 4 most memorable shows of 2020' Chortle. Nominated for 2021 spirit of the Leicester Comedy Festival.
Tickets are available from www.jerichocomedy.com and vary between £8-12 with additional ticketing fees .
