Leicester Comedy Festival Artist/Promoter Support

Aim

We're raising £30,000 to provide financial support to artists and other people affected by non-payment during the Leicester Comedy Festival.

We're reaching out to comedians, comedy fans and people working in the live comedy sector across the United Kingdom to support a really important cause. We are raising money to help those who have been affected by the non-payment of ticket money earned during the Leicester Comedy Festival.

Following Leicester Comedy Festival 2026, the producers of the festival (registered charity Big Difference Company) announced they were unable to pay comedians and promoters ticket money from shows.  The ticket money is obtained via the festival box office which sells the majority of tickets for festival shows.  To date, the majority of ticket monies have not been sent to acts or promoters and on July 21st Big Difference Company submitted a serious incident report to the Charity Commission over its ongoing financial issues .  More information about the situation can be found via this BBC News article. 

We understand that the total owed is in excess of £100,000 and our sector cannot stand this sort of loss. We are asking everyone to support the fund and raise as much as possible to distribute to those people who haven't been paid.  Our initial target is £30,000 which we want to raise by the end of this month.  This would enable us to award most of those affected 1/3 of the total amount they are owed.  If we raise more money, this percentage will obviously increase.

One of the issues is we don't know how many people are affected by the situation but we estimate it's potentially hundreds of comedians, and dozens of promoters and venues.  The vast majority are freelancers or sole traders who can't afford to just lose their money and not receive anything.

The Live Comedy Association (a Community Interest not for profit company and the only membership organisation for people working in grassroots live comedy) is spearheading this campaign, and we aim to provide crucial support to those who are facing hardship due to these circumstances. All the funds we raise will go directly towards assisting those individuals and promoters/venues and staff, helping to alleviate some of the financial burden they are currently experiencing.  We will verify all claims and will make payments within one month of the application deadline.

This fund builds on the initial Hardship Fund we established earlier this year; we distributed £5,000 to 19 people in July 2026 but we are now asking for support to raise more to help more people in financial hardship. There are no admin fees and the LCA won't take any money from this fund. 100% of the money raised will go to comedians and others affected by the situation.

Your contribution, no matter how big or small, will make a genuine difference. If you're able to, please consider donating, or share our Crowdfunder page with your friends and family to help us reach our £30,000 target.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 13th October 2026 at 6:53pm