Foster's is no longer the sponsor of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards.
Awards producer Nica Burns has announced that the new sponsor will be travel and lifestyle brand and one of the UK’s largest ticketing agents, lastminute.com.
Confirming the change Nica Burns said, “I’m delighted to announce that lastminute.com are the Edinburgh Comedy Awards new sponsorship partner. We are excited by the opportunities that lastminute.com offers; it’s brand personality – spontaneous and inspiring – is a great fit for us in 2016. We hope it will help us to reach the occasional comedy booker and expand comedy audiences in London and across the UK, whether in the grass roots comedy clubs or the larger venues. I look forward to announcing the lastminute.com Edinburgh Comedy Award winner on Saturday 27th August 2016.”
Fabio Cannavale, CEO of lastminute.com group, said: “We are incredibly proud to announce that lastminute.com is the new sponsor of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards. We feel very privileged to be able to support, promote and discover the best of British comedy.
“lastminute.com is all about celebrating life and we want to inspire people to make the most of it - that’s one reason why we are so serious about comedy. Another reason being that our customers are increasingly interested in experiencing live comedy - by extending our offering we are providing access to the finest comedy talent at the greatest venues all over the UK.”
There will be no change to the voting procedure or the Awards, which are:
- Best Comedy Show with a cash prize of £10,000
- Best Newcomer with a cash prize of £5,000
- Panel Prize with a cash prize of £5,000
The panel for the 2016 awards will be announced shortly. Over 600 shows will be judged.
The shortlist for the lastminute.com Edinburgh Comedy Awards will be announced on Wednesday 24 August and the winners will be announced on Saturday 27 August.
