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CHESTER COMEDY FESTIVAL
Over 2000 people bought tickets to see over 35 comedians in 12 different venues across the beautiful City of Chester .
The Chester Comedy Festival sponsored by Concept Mortgages , Heswall , in association with Chester BID and the Big Comedy UK produced the 12 day festival which used iconic venues within the historic city walls . Chester racecourse hosted TV stars such as Jason Manford , Gary Delaney , Ed Byrne , Hal Cruttenden and American comedy legend Rich Hall who closed the festival . Story House Theatre hosted Tez Ilyas , Rachael Fairburn and TV superstar Reginald D Hunter . This event has a truly wide appeal with family shows at the Chester Market and the Grosvenor shopping centre . Again the Chester Market was used to stage the first ever ' Chester New Comedian of the Year ' competition with young up and coming comedians travelling from all over the UK to compete for the title .
' The Chester Comedy Crawl ' was just as popular taking in smaller venues around the city and the beautiful Chester cathedral hosted a show in it ’ s fantastic refectory . There were also shows in restaurants with two of Chester ' s finest The Opera Grill and the newly opened Izakaya both hosting comedy nights with food included .
Brendan Riley of Big Comedy UK said “ The biggest challenge was how to run the festival in a safe manner but at the same time not ruin the feeling of a live gig atmosphere for the audience . Some of the small venues were not so difficult to sort out but our shows at Chester racecourse took months of planning . We worked with the fantastic staff and management at Horseradish catering who run the racecourse and without their help and guidance we would not of managed it . It was a real team effort to make it work . We are already talking to Chester BID about next year ’ s dates so watch this space ."
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