Festival Awards

Each year, we celebrate all the hard work that shows, venues, promoters and many other brilliant people do to make Leicester Comedy Festival and The UK Kids’ Comedy Festival happen with an awards ceremony. A lot of the awards categories are voted for an awards panel who see every eligible show, however there are also some winners chosen by you!

How our our award nominees & winners are chosen

All show awards (excluding Best Poster & Audience Choice)

All of our show awards nominees & winners are chosen by an independent Award Panel of around 30 volunteers, who work together to see as many eligible shows as possible during the festival. They meet three times during the festival, the first two to discuss their views on these shows and do due diligence research to ensure all nominees are definitely eligible. In their final meeting, the panel discuss at length (sometimes into the small hours of the next day!) until they have decided on a shortlist of 6 shows in each category. Following this, the panel then vote anonymously and in secret in each category, and this vote decides the winners.

Best Poster

Our Best Poster award is open to all shows, who submit their show poster to us through a form. We then send these posters to a panel of 8-10 judges. This panel is made up of professionals from the art, graphic design & comedy sectors. The panel choose their top 5 in preference order from all entries, and these scores are collated. An average score for each shortlisted entry is calculated and these averages are used to decide the winner.

Audience Choice

This award is decided by you! All shows that participate in the festival are eligible for this award. To vote for Audience Choice, members of the public need to log in to or create an account on our website, then find their favourite show’s listing page on our website and click the heart symbol on the listing. The show with the most votes cast is decided as the winner.

All venue awards

All of our venue awards nominees & winners are also decided by the public. The Best Small Venue category is for venues with a capacity under 200, whilst those eligible for the Best Large Venue category have a capacity of over 200. Venues who have not taken part in Leicester Comedy Festival before are eligible for our Best New Venue award.

Similarly to our Audience Choice award, all festival venues will have a heart symbol on their listing page, which needs to be clicked by someone logged into an account on our website for their vote to be registered. From all votes, the festival team then split venues into their respective categories and those with the most votes are deemed the winners.

Student of the Year

Leicester Comedy Festival works with a number of student who take on various roles within the festival, from volunteering at shows & events to photography and running venue Box Offices. The festival team are sent recommendations for shortlisting from the universities they’re studying at, as well as any businesses or partners they may have worked with during the festival. From this shortlist, the festival team discuss all nominees’ efforts and decide on a winner.

Best Promoter

Whilst all our promoters work incredibly hard in the lead up to and during the festival, there are some who go above & beyond in their efforts to make their part of LCF shine. The festival team discuss a shortlist of nominees and decide on a winner.

Liberty Award

This award is presented to individuals & organisations who really encapsulate the spirit of the festival – those who do special things that make Leicester Comedy Festival just that bit more festive! The LCF team discuss a shortlist of nominees and decide on a winner.

Tracey Miller Community Award

This is given to individuals or organisations doing great things with community groups throughout Leicester & Leicestershire during the festivals. The festival team discuss a shortlist of nominees and decide on a winner.

Business Contribution

Festival partners support our activities and without their substantial contributions the festival wouldn’t be half as good! This award is given to businesses who go the extra mile with their support. The festival team discuss a shortlist of nominees and decide on a winner.

Contribution to Leicester Comedy Festival 2025

We award this to highlight those who have made an exceptional contribution to the success of the current year’s festival, as their enthusiasm & commitment helped us bring laughter to the city and county! The festival team discuss a shortlist of nominees and decide on a winner.

2025 Nominees & Winners

The 2025 Leicester Comedy Festival & The UK Kids’ Comedy Festival Awards took place on Monday 31st March 2025.

Best Small Venue

Laughter Loft – The Black Horse (winner)
Duffy’s
Firebug
Phoenix
Real Ale Classroom
The Big Difference

Best Large Venue

Curve Studio
De Montfort Hall
Harborough Market Hall
Just The Tonic at Hansom Hall
Sue Townsend Theatre
The Y Theatre (winner)

Best New Venue

Inside No 9 (winner)
Leicester Cathedral
The International
The Old Plough
The Wheatsheaf Inn
Tønne

Best Kids’ Show

Benny Shakes: Slugageddon!
Christiaan Hendriksen: Treeeeee (for kids)
ComedySportz UK
Dr Jones Funny Bones
Mr Sleepybum’s Dream Machine by Jody Kamali (winner)
Robin Morgan: Cool Story Bro (A Family-Friendly Comedy Show)

Best Variety Show

Improv Comedy from Box of Frogs
Katie Pritchard: I Kiss The Music
Lucy Pearman Lunartic (WIP)
Pull My Goldfinger
Steffen Haanes and Greg Lass: The Ritual
The Great Divinator: Touched By The Spirits (winner)

Best New Show

Amy Annette: Work In Progress
Andy Barr The Rising Star’s Hotly-Anticipated 4th Debut Hour
Barry Ferns: My 7 Years as Lionel Richie
Bilal Zafar: New Show
Helen Bauer: Work In Progress (winner)
Jon Wagstaffe: Look at The Council Estate Of Him

Best Debut Show

Hasan Al-Habib: Death to the West Midlands
Kyrah Gray: Work in Progress (winner)
Max Fulham: Work In Progress
Mike Keenan : Impossible Dream
Omar Badawy: Culture Cuck
The Mayor and His Daughter: A Genuine Appreciation of Comedy

Best Show

Andrew White: Young, Gay and a Third Thing
Christian Dart: GUMSHOE!
Katie Norris: Farm Fatale (winner)
Michael Shafar: Well Worth the Chemo
Ray O’Leary: Your Laughter Is Just Making Me Stronger
Sam Nicoresti: Baby Doomer

Audience Choice

14/48 Takeover
A Very Serious Detective Play (winner)
Accident Avoidance Training for Cutlery Users: Advanced & Improvers
Laura Monmoth: Diary of A Wimpy’s Kid
Lucas Jefcoate: Will He Won’t He, Can’t He Auntie?
Olaf Falafel’s Stupidest Super Stupid Show So Far

Best Poster

Jake Donaldson: Spectacle
Katie Davison: 60 Minute Millionaire
Keep It Clean: Family Comedy Club (winner)
Sikisa: Lady Justice
Graeme Rayner: KrowdWerk

Liberty Award

BBC Radio Leicester
BID Leicester
The Worst Record Cover of the World Exhibition (winner)
Welly’s Work Place & Sunny Skies Community Café

Best Promoter

Den of Laughs
Foxy Comedy
Jokes on Us
Just the Tonic
TripleCeePee (winner)

Tracey Miller Community Award

Leicestershire Archeological & Historical Society
Menphys
Pedestrian
Soft Touch Arts
Warning Zone Life Skills Centre
Welly’s Work Place & Sunny Skies Community Café (winner)

Student of the Year

Abbie Bishop
Dillan Hawes
Lavinia Durea
Livy Mularczyk (winner)
Paige Billings
Zak Hayter

Business Contribution

Arriva
BID Leicester
Everards
Howes Percival LLP
The Rowleys Partnership
Versatile (winner)

Contribution to LCF25

Attenborough Arts Centre
Broom Ley’s Primary School
Cool As Leicester
Juice Creative Design (winner)

Lifetime Contribution

Jokes On Us

Legend of Comedy

The Comedy Store Players