The nominations for the Leicester Comedy Festival Awards 2023 have been revealed.

Best Debut Show

Alexandra Haddow: Not My Finest Hour (WIP)
Big Zeus Energy (Ollie West, Christiaan Hendriksen, Andrew Turowski)
Charlie George: Grace (WIP)
Fatiha El-Ghorri: Work in Progress
Louise Young: Far Out (WIP)
Stanley Brooks: I Can Make Me Rich

Best New Show

Adele Cliff Does Her Best and Tries New Things Out (WIP)
Bethany Black: Always Bet on Beth
Eric Rushton: Not That Deep
Stephen Bailey: Untitled & Unwritten (WIP)
Tadiwa Mahlunge: 25
Thanyia Moore: August (WIP)

Best Show

Ali Woods: Work in Progress
Chloe Petts: Transience
Kuan-wen Huang: Ilha Formosa (WIP)
Mad Ron: Crime School
Milo Edwards: Voicemail
Stuart Goldsmith: Spoilers (WIP)

Best Music or Improv Show

Any Suggestions Doctor? The Improvised Doctor Who Parody
CSI: Crime Scene Improvisation
Conversation Garden: 10 Year Anniversary Show
Mitch Benn: It's About Time
Paul Richards: My Functioning Band Hell
Russell Hicks: Next Level

Best Kids Show

Mr Sleepy Bum
Olaf Falafel's Super Stupid Show
Shelf: The Kids' Show
Tell Tale Twit... A Storytelling Show by Gav Cross
The Return of the Mighty Kids Beatbox Comedy Show

Contribution to LCF 2023

Rob Gee
Crosscut Media
Peril Design
Demon FM
Harborough District Council
DMU archive team

Tracey Miller Community Award (presented by Pete Miller)

Menphy's
Focus
Jason Neale
Stand up for Turkey/Syria
Mayflower Primary School
Leicester Libraries

Liberty Award

Firebug
PETER Pizzeria
Kate & Lucas for Laugh Academy
Sam Grubb
Leicester Community Radio
Black Horse

Business contribution (presented by Pete Miller)

Belmont Hotel
Brooklyn
Gresham Aparthotel
Sturgess
Howes Percival
Jerroms Miller Specialist Tax

Student of the Year

Chantelle Small
Charlotte Chapman
Hannah Fitzgerald
Tilly Maynard
Cezara Buburuzanu
Larno Vasiliauskas

Best Promoter

Laughter Loft/The Black Horse
TripleCeePee
Jokes on Us
DoorStep Comedy
Monster Comedy
Furthest From The Sea

Best Small Venue

The Black Horse
Firebug
Duffy's Bar
Knight & Garter
Menphy's Hub

Best Large Venue

The Y Theatre
De Montfort Hall
Curve Theatre
Sue Townsend Theatre
The Little Theatre
Just The Tonic at Hansom Hall

Best New Venue

200 Degrees Coffee Shop
45 West
Birch Tree
King Richard III pub
La Maison
Sommar Leicester

The Leicester Comedy Festival this year featured 870 comedians performing at 630 events. In positive news, the festival has reported that ticket sales were up 23% from 2022.

Geoff Rowe, who founded the festival, says: "We are incredibly proud and delighted with the response to Leicester Comedy Festival & The UK Kids' Comedy Festival 2023. We saw amazing growth in terms of attendance and ticket sales, and the number of people who continue to visit the festivals from across the UK. A massive thanks to all those who performed on stages and those who attended events. Our festivals remain not for profit and the continued support from the comedy industry, fans, promoters, venue staff, funders & sponsors, volunteers and all members of the festivals community means we can remain the largest comedy festival in Europe.

"We are thrilled to announce the nominees in our annual awards. The lists for all the categories help demonstrate the incredible range and diversity of acts who perform at our festivals, and I think help show that British comedy is back after so many years of disruption. We're looking forward to opening the gold envelopes at the awards ceremony later this month and announcing the winners."

The results will be announced at a ceremony in Leicester on Monday 27th March.