The 4th annual Comedy Poster Awards took place last night, Sunday 26th August, at the Gilded Balloon Wine Bar.

The ceremony was hosted by 2016 Panel Award winner Lou Sanders, with comedian Andrew McCelland DJing the exclusive after-party.

The event, and the awards, were sponsored by Beer52, a craft beer delivery service and local Edinburgh company; and Stannp, a direct mail platform that enables its customers to send out real postal campaigns to their customers, for less than the price of a first-class stamp per postcard.

Public voting took place over the previous 6 weeks, powered by British Comedy Guide. More than 300 posters were entered into the competition and thousands of members of the public cast votes to determine the winner of the Beer52 Audience Award.

The panel of judges, who voted on the posters independently for the Panel Award, this year consisted of Chris Curley from Comedy Central; Rupert Majendie - freelance comedy producer; Alice Jones, editor of i News; and Nerys Evans, head of comedy at Expectation Entertainment. 

The winners were announced at midnight and were both previous recipients of their respective categories.

Lou Sanders, the host of the awards, was judged the PANEL AWARD winner. The Beer52 Audience Award winner was announced as Olaf Falafel. They both took home £500. Lou previously won in 2016, and Olaf in 2015.

Mark Boosey of British Comedy Guide said the awards illustrated how some artists take “incredible pride in their poster design”. 

Gina Lyons, the founder and producer of the Comedy Poster Awards, said: “2018 was another great year for posters and I love both winning designs. I urge more comedians to go bolder next year to prevent Olaf and Lou from cleaning out our prize pot AGAIN!”