Comedy Capers in Cathedral Quarter and St Peters Quarter

Venues and businesses in the Cathedral Quarter and St Peters Quarter Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) will be hosting a wide range of events as part of this year’s Derby Comedy Festival.

Both BIDs are supporting what will be the third Comedy Festival to be held in the city, which will take place between April 29 and May 7. There will be a wide range of comedy acts performing at venues around the Cathedral Quarter including at the Guildhall Theatre and Clubrooms, Bean Caffe in Friar Gate Studios on Ford Street, the Old Bell Hotel in Sadler Gate and the Blessington Carriage and Déda in Chapel Street.
The Cathedral Quarter, which was this year voted national BID of the year in the Association of Town and City Management ATCM Awards, has also teamed up with Trent Barton and Derby Comedy Festival to produce a promotions leaflet highlighting a wide range of offers at a variety of Cathedral Quarter businesses for the duration of Derby Comedy Festival. The leaflet is available on Trent Barton buses, at Comedy Festival venues and Cathedral Quarter businesses, and via the Cathedral Quarter Rangers.

Meanwhile, in St Peters Quarter, there will be events in Amber Deli and Restaurant in Green Lane and Café Lavanta in St Peters Churchyard.  St Peters Quarter Live –– will then celebrate the conclusion of Derby Comedy Festival on Saturday May 7 with a day of live music, dance and comedy at St Peter’s Cross  starting at 11.30am

The programme for the day is:
11.30am and 12.45pm:  8 to the Bar which is part of Ockbrook Big Band, fronted by lead trombonist Glenn Martin - playing music from Miller to Basie and Ella Fitzgerald to Cab Calloway
12.15pm and 2pm: Nottingham singer Joseph Knight (see editor’s notes)
1.40pm, 2.40pm and 3.20pm:  A belly dancing group from the Derby-based Diana Mehira School of Dance
3pm: Young dancers from Derby’s The Adele Francesca Performance Academy

Martin Langsdale, chair of the Cathedral Quarter Management Group and Stephen Jeffery, Board chair of St Peters Quarter – which is the core retail area between the Cathedral Quarter and Intu Derby shopping centre – both agreed that the Comedy Festival was set to be a huge success in the city centre. They said: “The Cathedral Quarter and St Peters Quarter BIDs are both supporting Derby Comedy Festival this year and we are delighted that so many venues in our areas of the city are hosting the majority of the 60 different performances across the Festival. “As well as organising our own free outdoor entertainment events under the CQ Saturdays and St Peters Quarter Live programmes, we recognise the importance of supporting major events in the city centre. “Now in its third year, Derby Comedy Festival continues to grow, bringing some of the finest comedic talents to Derby and working with local businesses and non-traditional performance spaces to showcase home-grown humour. “In previous years, Derby Comedy Festival has proved very popular with audiences from across the city and far beyond. “We look forward to welcoming visitors to our areas for the performances, who will then hopefully go on to experience the wonderful wider leisure, cultural and retail experiences that we have to offer.”

For more information about Derby Comedy Festival, please visit www.derbycomedyfestival.co.uk

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