About Leith Comedy Festival

Comedy for good. Laughter for all.

It’s finally happening! Leith Comedy Festival was supposed to launch in October 2020, and after a tumultuous few years, it is at last taking place this October, three years later than planned.

Leith Comedy Festival exists to inspire and create opportunities for the people of Leith by joining forces with local companies and charities to unleash the power of laughter for good.

There are three strands:

1. Leith Comedy Festival is an annual event in October, with multiple comedy events in all its forms over a weekend, for example, stand-up, family shows and workshops.

2. Leith Comedy Festival Presents… are individual comedy gigs throughout the year, showcasing the funniest comedians around, particularly standups based in Scotland.

3. Leith Comedy Festival Community events are individual events throughout the year in partnership with local charities and social enterprises, for example, comedy performance workshops with Citadel Youth Centre.

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Rosalind Romer came up with the idea for a new model of comedy festival after years of working in comedy. Leith Comedy Festival celebrates a broader realisation of comedy. When people hear the word “comedy” they picture something very specific: a stand up on a stage with a mic, but there are so many more ways to enjoy it. Leith Comedy Festival gives life to the full range of comedy.

The plan was to create a weekend festival in October, and in time, to add one-off comedy gigs and community events throughout the year. The weekend festival was all set to go in October 2020. Then the pandemic hit, making that weekend and any other planning impossible.

Rosalind says: “Everything shut down. There was no Fringe that year. But I was determined to keep going no matter what. I was forced to create one event at a time. Each show required navigating ever-changing restrictions and a massive dose of creative thinking to make the most of any opportunity that was there.”

The pandemic meant that normal rules didn’t apply, and it was necessary to reinvent the plan to get people laughing, at a time when people needed it most. Hence an online beer yoga class with Projekt 42 when people were staying indoors, and a comedy tour of Leith with Invisible Cities when we started to venture outside.

Once indoor events were legal again, Leith Comedy Festival finally got to put standup comedians on stage, which would usually be the starting point for a new comedy festival. “Leith Comedy Festival Presents” was born and has been headlined by Christopher Macarthur-Boyd, Josie Long, Larry Dean and MC Hammersmith.