Geoff Rowe, the founder of Leicester Comedy Festival, is being nominated for a top civic award to recognise his achievement of developing the festival over 30 years. The City of Leicester award provides an opportunity for individuals to be honoured for outstanding achievements which have a positive and wide-reaching impact on the City.
Geoff helped set up the Festival in 1994 and led the development until he stepped down in March 2023. Over the 3 decades, Leicester Comedy Festival became the largest event of its type in Europe and is the only national celebration of British live comedy. The charity that produces the festival, Big Difference, has also led on numerous community projects, working with groups across the city and county. Leicester City Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby will recommend Geoff’s nomination to the next full Council meeting on 23rd November 2023.
Previous recipients of the award include the owners of Leicester City Football Club & the University of Leicester academic team who led the discovery of King Richard III. The City of Leicester award recognises people who have both inspired the city‘s residents and positively impacted on the City of Leicester by delivering clear and demonstrable benefits to the educational, cultural, civic or economic life of the city.
Over the years, Leicester Comedy Festival has hosted over 5,000 performances, 250,000 minutes of comedy, a million audience members and the contribution to the local economy is in excess of £45million. In addition to this, the community projects led by Big Difference have had a massive impact on local people.
These have included health promotion projects, those aimed at improving mental health & wellbeing, projects in hospices and care homes and public events including the Special Olympics Social Programme and the final event marking the reinterment of King Richard III.
Geoff Rowe said " This is an incredible honour and I’m so proud to have been nominated for this award. My initial thought was that there had been some terrible mistake and I needed to correct Leicester City Council as quickly as possible. However, it turns out it’s not a mistake and people wanted to recognise the contribution I, and the festival, have made to Leicester. I’d like to thank the City Mayor and those who are nominating me.
Leading the development of Leicester Comedy Festival over such a long time was such a privilege and I’m thrilled the impact is being acknowledged. I’d like to pay tribute to all those who have worked on the event over the years, and the team who now lead the festival and charity now I’ve stepped down. It’s great to see things moving on, and I’m absolutely confident both are in very safe hands.”
Leicester Comedy Festival, together with The UK Kids’ Comedy Festival, will take place again from 7-25 February 2024.
