The Glasgow Comedy Festival 2018, running between the 8th and 25th March, will feature over 500 comedy performances.

54 venues across the Scottish city will be staging shows during the festival, and with 103,000 tickets on sale now, it's set to be the biggest ever year for the 16 year-old festival.

Stars set to appear across the 18 days include Tommy Tiernan, Rob Delaney, Katherine Ryan, Ed Byrne, Bridget Christie, Limmy, David Baddiel, Jerry Sadowitz, Alexei Sayle, Jonathan Pie, Elaine C Smith, Mark Steel, Shappi Khorsandi, Tom Allen, Richard Herring, Foil Arms & Hogg, Phill Jupitus, Robin Ince, Mae Martin, Brendon Burns, Rose Matafeo, Michael Redmond and Craig Campbell.

The city-wide 'comedy takeover' in March also includes the first two recordings of The Comedians at The King's, the new stand-up format aimed at TV where all the acts are aged 50 or over. Creator John Moloney is set to be joined by Fred MacAulay, Gary Little plus 21 other comics across two nights of filming.

The festival will also see Alan Bissett performing his award-winning Moira shows in a double bill for the first time at the Citizen's Theatre; local favourite Darren Connell debuting his new show; a special exhibition curated by Artpistol featuring artwork celebrating Scottish comedy and art produced by comedians; political humour from Ayesha Hazarika playing her home town for the first time; Mark Thomas' new show about starting a comedy night in Palestine, featuring two aspiring comedians from the Jenin refugee camp; and the return of Stand Up Against MND, the benefit night which sees "a galaxy of comedy stars come together to raise thousands of pounds for a good cause."

The festival, sponsored by Whyte & Mackay, will also feature solo shows from local heroes Des Clarke, Iain Connell, Fern Brady, Craig Hill, Janey Godley, Richard Gadd, Larry Dean, Mark Nelson, Chris Forbes, Iain Stirling, Phil Differ, Susie McCabe, Jim Smith, Julia Sutherland and anarchic comedy collective CHUNKS.

The festival points out: "As well as stand-up performances in some of the city's biggest venues and intimate gigs in pubs, the Whyte & Mackay Glasgow International Comedy Festival features plays, sketches, improv, film and comedy for kids. There will be magicians, rappers and interactive comedy games, and shows inspired by everything from zombies to rescue dogs, Elvis to Star Trek."

Unique shows to look out for include the Comedy Crawl, which takes the audience to see four comedians in four West End bars, and Round The Clock Comedy Roadshow which takes place over twelve hours with a different performance each hour.

Festival director Sarah Watson says: "It's always exciting to announce the line-up and this year is no exception. As the festival grows we are proud to showcase diverse voices, styles and art forms - it's great to have two exhibitions in the programme and we're hugely pleased to welcome eight new venues to the festival including Tramway, Glasgow School of Art Student's Association and the Science Centre. We're thrilled to have Whyte & Mackay on board as our headline sponsor this year - a great Glaswegian brand with a track record of supporting comedy talent. They have brilliant things planned and are helping us to make the festival bigger and better than ever. There are shows to suit every budget and taste and I hope people will take a chance on someone new - you might just discover the next big thing."

For more information on the festival and to view the full programme visit glasgowcomedyfestival.com