Festival Awards

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!

See 2026 Nominees & Winners

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.

Certificate with a yellow duck illustration and a duck-themed award ribbon, on a blue background.

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.

Yellow duck inside a blue heart with a clicking cursor.

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.

Two blue location pins with yellow hearts inside, one sparkling.

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.

Yellow duck wearing a light blue graduation cap.

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.

Blue megaphone with a yellow duck and stars, making an announcement.

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.

Torch with a duck-shaped flame, sparkling. Blue handle and gold fire.

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.

Hands forming heart around yellow duck, blue heart above.

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.

Two hands shaking, star above, blue and yellow cuffs.

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.

Yellow duck with star, blue leaves, and sparkle elements.

Contribution to Leicester Comedy Festival 2026

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.

2026 Nominees & Winners

The 2026 Leicester Comedy Festival & The UK Kids’ Comedy Festival Awards WERE ANNOUNCED ON WEDNESDAY 11th MARCH 2026.

Gold medal with duck, laurel, and stars, hanging from yellow ribbon on stage with blue curtains.

Lifetime Contribution

Charlotte Laidet

best small venue

FIREBUG (WINNER)

Duffy’s

Kayal

The Black Horse

The Big Difference

Best Large Venue

De Montfort Hall (winner)

Curve Theatre

Wycliffe Rooms

Leicester Cathedral

The Y Theatre

Best New Venue

SOFT TOUCH ARTS (winner)

Hive & Honey

The Kneaded Pint

Everards Beer Hall

Leicester Indoor Bowls Club

Yellow duck wearing party hat on stage holding balloon and star wand.

Best Kids’ Show

The Rubbish Shakespeare Company: Romeo & Juliet (winner)

Jude Simpson: A Noise Annoys

Spencer Jones Kids Show

Story Time with Mama G

SHELF: The Kids' Show 2 - The Power of Two

Duck on unicycle, performing on stage; wearing bow tie, holding wand and microphone.

best variety show

Lady Bolognese: Class War (winner)

Bad Clowns: Long Live The King!

Giddy Aunt Improv

Peter Fleming's Dismally Ill-Prepared TV Pub Quiz

Playing God with Benjamin Alborough (WIP)

Plastic Jeezus: Second Debut Show (WIP)

Sam Eley is Basil Cumbwick: Soul Sewage

A yellow duckling singing into a microphone from a cracked egg onstage, with curtains and a star award.

Best New Show

Luke Rollason: The Poolboy (WIP) (winner)

Alexandra Haddow: Work In Progress

Andrew White: What a Life (WIP)

Caitrona Dowden: Sesh Head (WIP)

Max Fulham: Work In Progress

Russell Hicks: A Work that is Forever in Progress (WIP)

Toussaint Douglass: Purple Drizzle

Yellow duck in a graduation cap and bow tie sings into a microphone on stage with spotlight.

Best debut show

James Ellis: Craig (WIP) (winner)

Celine Kuklowsky: Bed Boy (WIP)

Jessica Barton: Dirty Work

Michelle Ahern: Are We There Yet? (WIP)

Saaniya Abbas: Hellarious

Richard Dadd: Not The Guy From Baby Reindeer

Blue trophy with a duck on it under a star, behind blue curtains.

Best Show

Joz Norris Is Hugh Jackman Is The Phantom of the opera (winner)

Aidan Jones: Chopin's Nocturne

Alex Kealy: Work-in-progress

Brennan Reece: Live

Jacob Hawley: Work In Progress

Ruby Carr: Bite Me

Best poster

Lucy Pearman: Lunartic (Designed by Will Andrews, Photography by Dylan Woodley) (winner)

Katie Pritchard is: Sir Elton Scone (Designed by Katie Pritchard)

Richard Todd: Pencil Case (Designed by Richard Todd)

Olaf Falafel: I used to work in a helium balloon factory until they let me go. (Designed by Olaf Falafel)

Rob Kemp: Pivot (Designed by Paul Banks)

liberty award

Wrestling with the Champ (winner)

The Festival Hub

DMU Special Collections

Real Ale Classroom

Firebug

Liebenspiel