The Wells Comedy Festival in association with Brothers Cider has announced its initial line-up for this year's festival.
Over the bank holiday weekend of May 26-28 England’s smallest city plays host to a ‘weekend-long stand-up jamboree’ (The Guardian), with over 35 comedy shows taking place at four venues in Wells.
Comics performing at the third three-day event include Bafta-winning BBC star Stewart Lee, ‘Mock the Week’s surreal one-liner merchant Milton Jones, TV regular Joe Lycett, Edinburgh Comedy Award-winners Bridget Christie, John Kearns and Adam Riches, stand-up and author Sara Pascoe, and five-time Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee James Acaster performing his ‘Trelogy’ of shows: ‘Recognise’, ‘Represent’ and ‘Reset’.
Also announced are shows from ‘Have I Got News For You’ star Nish Kumar, absurdist maestro Paul Foot, ‘Live at the Apollo’ stars Hal Cruttenden, Ellie Taylor and Jamali Maddix, ‘Mock the Week’ regular Ed Gamble, double Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee Kieran Hodgson, Radio 4 star Sarah Kendall, avant garde comedy hero Simon Munnery and Brian Gittins.
Also performing are Edinburgh Comedy Award Best Newcomer nominee Jayde Adams, award-winning Aussie Bec Hill, hard-hitting stand-ups Fin Taylor, Sean McLoughlin and Alfie Brown,
the boundary-pushing Jordan Brookes and family-friendly loon Sam Fletcher. For a second year running, the Comedians Cinema Club will close out the festival with their live reinterpretation of the Wells-shot comedy ‘Hot Fuzz’.
Ben Williams, founder and producer of the festival, said: ‘This is a huge year for the Wells Comedy Festival in association with Brothers Cider. Not only do we welcome proper Somerset cider makers Brothers as our headline sponsor, the festival is nearly doubling in size compared to 2016, with more than 4500 tickets on sale, and I couldn’t be happier with the line-up. Here’s to another successful year!’
Tim Lethaby, editor of the Wells Journal – the festival’s official media partner – said: ‘I am delighted that the Wells Journal will again be the official media partner of the Wells Comedy Festival in association with Brothers Cider. Last year’s line-up was great, but the comedians coming this year will take the event to another level. There really is comedy for everyone, even people with a terrible sense of humour, like me. At the Wells Journal, we look forward to supporting the festival and helping it raise the profile of the city.’
Tickets for most Wells Comedy Festival in association with Brothers Cider shows are on sale now here.
Tickets for Stewart Lee, Milton Jones, Joe Lycett, Bridget Christie and the Opening Gala go on sale at 10am on Friday, February 3 here where you can also see the full schedule.
