Barnard Castle gets its own comedy festival

Pictured:The Witham arts centre in Barnard Castle.

Barnard Castle is to get its own comedy festival this summer, Giggle Beats can reveal.

The historic market town in County Durham will welcome some of the world’s top stand-ups for a jam-packed day of funnies at The Witham arts centre on Saturday 18 July 2015.

Six comedy shows will take place throughout the day in the venue’s main hall, with regular intervals so punters can take in the local amenities as well as The Witham’s food and drinks menu.

The full line-up for the festival, which runs between 12pm and 10.30pm, will be revealed in the coming weeks.

And organisers Funny Way To Be are promising a diverse programme for Teesdale’s first ever comedy festival, featuring Live At The Apollo stars, an Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee, a 2014 British Comedy Award winner and the rising stars of the North East comedy circuit.

There will also be a family comedy show to keep the young ones occupied.

Festival Director Peter Dixon said: “We’ve always tried to extend the boundaries of what we do in terms of producing top quality comedy shows in Barnard Castle.

“In the last five years we have been increasingly drawing in audience members from all over the North of England.

“To programme a full day of exceptional comedy so that locals and visitors can see a range of leading comics was, therefore, a natural progression.

“We are so excited about the line-up that we can hardly wait.”

Peter added: “Once we’ve announced our headliners tickets will fly out, so we’d recommend you buying tickets now while you can.”

Earlybird day tickets for the inaugural Barnard Castle Comedy Festival are on sale now, priced £45.

For more details on the festival, visit barnardcastlecomedy.com. You can also follow the festival on Facebook by searching ‘Barnard Castle Comedy Festival‘ or on Twitter @BarneyComedyFest.