A cavalcade of comedy is coming to Greenwich this week, with some of the biggest names in the industry set to perform in open-air shows at the National Maritime Museum.
Royalty such as Dara O'Brian, Tom Allen, Alan Davies, Nish Kumar and Milton Jones will perform at the Greenwich Comedy Festival in a pandemic-punching series of shows from September 15 to 19.
The annual comedy festival has been delivering in the borough since 2009 and is run by Greenwich-raised sibling team Will Briggs and Cass Randolph of 57 Festivals.
The event was traditionally held in a Big Top tent, but this year's al-fresco edition continues on from last year's socially-distanced event which saw thousands celebrate the return of live comedy.
This year’s star-studded shows will once more be presented on an outdoor stage under the stunning backdrop of the Queens House.
Audiences will be seated in an open-air theatre and tickets will be sold in multiples of two to ensure a smooth transition should social distancing need to to be introduced across the event.
The line-up is a mix of new and old stars of comedy, with the organisers boasting the "the riotous Tom Allen, virtuosic Alan Davies, British Comedy Award winning Nina Conti, dead-pan genius Rich Hall and comedy royalty Nish Kumar, Shappi Khorsandi, Ed Byrne and Reginald D Hunter."
The brightest stars of the moment are lining up including the BAFTA nominated Mae Martin, Netflix-specialer Phil Wang, Comedy Central star Sarah Keyworth, cult comic/poet Tim Key, Off Menu’s podcast prince Ed Gamble, Taskmaster champ Lou Saunders, the fast-rising Tadiwa Mahlunge and Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee Janine Harouni.
Not to mention firm festival favourites like Live At The Apollo star David O’Doherty, one-line slinger Milton Jones, stand-up machine Suzi Ruffell, Qi regular Maisie Adam plus many more acts.
The Greenwich festival will be full of pop-up bars and street-food stalls, and founder Cass said they were looking forward to getting back to their old stomping ground.
“Everything started for us in Greenwich.” says Cass.
“We launched this festival thirteen years ago and have since branched out to other locations across the UK, but Greenwich will always be our home.”
Will said: “Each bill features comedians at the top of their game, lauded TV stars alongside hotly-tipped talents, each show is going to be immense.”
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