Geoff Rowe, the founder of Leicester Comedy Festival, is to receive a top civic award to recognise his achievement of developing the festival over 30 years.

The City Of Leicester Award provides an opportunity for individuals to be honoured for outstanding achievements which have a positive and wide-reaching impact on the city. It recognises people who have both inspired the city's residents and positively impacted on Leicester by delivering clear and demonstrable benefits to the educational, cultural, civic or economic life of the city.

Rowe helped set up the city's comedy festival in 1994 and led the development on it until he stepped down in March 2023.

Leicester City Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby recommend Geoff's nomination at last night's council meeting (23rd November), and the recommendation was unanimously passed.

Previous recipients of the award include the owners of Leicester City Football Club and the University of Leicester academic team who led the discovery of King Richard III.

Over the years, Leicester Comedy Festival has hosted over 250,000 minutes of comedy, watched by a million audience members. Its contribution to the local economy has been calculated as being in excess of £45million. In addition to this, the community projects led by Big Difference, the charity the festival is run though, have had a massive impact on local people. These have included health promotion projects, those aimed at improving mental health & wellbeing, projects in hospices and care homes and public events including the Special Olympics Social Programme and the final event marking the reinternment of King Richard III.

Geoff Rowe says: "This is an incredible honour and I'm so proud to have been nominated for this award. My initial thought was that there had been some terrible mistake and I needed to correct Leicester City Council as quickly as possible. However, it turns out it's not a mistake and people wanted to recognise the contribution I, and the festival, have made to Leicester."

He added: "Leading the development of Leicester Comedy Festival over such a long time was such a privilege and I'm thrilled the impact is being acknowledged. I'd like to pay tribute to all those who have worked on the event over the years, and the team who now lead the festival and charity now I've stepped down. It's great to see things moving on, and I'm absolutely confident both are in very safe hands."

Leicester Comedy Festival, together with The UK Kids' Comedy Festival, will take place again from 7-25 February 2024.