Volunteers sought

The Leicester Comedy Festival is seeking volunteers to help catalogue and preserve images stored in its archive.  

Organisers have collected hundreds of photos and images since the annual event began in 1994 but they are not currently catalogued in any formal order. 

A heritage group led by festival founder Geoff Rowe, aims to work their way through the files before donating them to the festival archive held at De Montfort University.

Rowe, pictured, said ‘I’ve occasionally looked through the festival archive and there are some real gems in there!  Pictures of comedians looking really young, at the start of their careers and before they became famous.  

‘There is no way one person can catalogue the entire collection of images saved since 1994.  There are simply too many photos and it would take forever. 

We’re hoping people will come forward and volunteer a few hours a month to help.  The idea is we’ll all meet up together and share stories and memories as well as go through each file.  Perhaps once we have completed the Leicester Comedy Festival archive we can offer our voluntary services to other festivals and comedy promoters and build up a national library of live comedy over the last 30 years.’​

Would-be volunteers – who should have a knowledge of live comedy since 1994 – should email info@bigdifferencecompany.co.uk,

Published: 15 May 2024