Comedy festival ready to bring laughs to region

The Katie Fitzgerald's Comedy Festival is set to take place at the pub in Stourbridge, with a host of top comedians set to take to the stage at the popular music and comedy venue over a five-week period.

The festival, which has run for four years, starts on Saturday, August 7 with a headline set from Ed Byrne, with support from Ben Briggs and Radu Isac.

Other shows will feature headlining sets from Hal Cruttenden, Rhys James, Shappi Khorsandi, Sean Walsh, Troy Hawke, Paul Sinha and Rich Hall, before Simon Evans closes the festival on Saturday, September 18.

Katie Fitzgerald's co-owner Eddy Morton said it was not a traditional festival, which would take place over a long weekend, due to Covid restrictions, but would be a series of events which had already proved popular.

He said: "We have about 100 seats for each show and we've sold out most of the shows, with the only shows with tickets left extra ones that we put on.

"It's not a full-on festival all linked together over a few days, but more of a series of events, with a different act each week."

Mr Morton said a lot of the promotion work had been done by Dudley Council communications and public affairs support officer Wayne Beese, himself an accomplished comedian who had organised the acts and would also be the compere for each show.

He said a lot of the comedians coming to the venue also said they enjoyed performing there because of the reaction they get from the audiences there and spoke about the evolution of the venue over the years.

He said: "We started out doing the comedy festival in a large marquee in the garden which we hired in and kept it all outside last year because of the pandemic and the rules around social distancing.

"Since we had to close down for lockdown, we've rebuilt our concert room to be able to hold 100 people indoors, so we have a proper venue to hold the festival.

"If we need to make changes due to restrictions not being lifted, we can do that by splitting it into two shows, with 50 people in each as well."

Mr Morton said he was looking forward to welcoming the acts and audience to the venue and spoke about what he was looking forward to seeing.

He said: "I've seen a lot of comedians that Wayne has put on in the past and I'm looking forward to seeing Troy Hawke as I like the show he puts on.

"Generally, I'm just looking forward to seeing people enjoying themselves and I'd encourage people to come down, enjoy the comedy and have a good time."

For a full listing of the shows, go to ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/stourbridge/katie-fitzgeralds