This year, the Freerange Comedy Festival is set to take a radical new direction focusing on more bespoke, Fringe-style comedy events including workshops, late-night cabaret and comedy clubs as well as more traditional stand up performances.

The festival will run from 18th – 20th May and for it’s new Fringe-style revamp The Brewery is collaborating on the festival with Julie Tait, the woman behind The Lakes International Comic Art Festival and the now defunct Mintfest street art festival, who is using her contacts and experience to introduce a different dimension to this year’s event.

Julie Tait said: “I love festivals and I love comedy so I couldn’t resist the chance to work with my favourite venue to come up with a twist on Freerange and offer an even better range of comedy experiences”

Brewery head of programming Mike Jones said: ““I’m delighted to be working with Julie Tait from the Lakes International Comic Arts Festival on Freerange 2018. Her enthusiasm, excellent contacts and instinctive funny bones have helped us give the event a different spin this year”

The festival line-up includes a great variety of performances:

• Top comedian Arthur Smith will be in the town performing a brand new show entitled ‘In the Footsteps of Coleridge and Princess Meghan’, the show, which takes place the day after the actual Royal Wedding, will see Arthur lead a fun-filled historical stroll around Kendal telling the incredible story of the new Princess and her “connection with the town” ending up at the Factory Tap pub for a special stand-up performance.
• Tony Allen, often referred to as the Godfather of Alternative Comedy, will be leading a special weekend-long series crash course in stand-up comedy designed to equip participants with enough technique, know-how and self-confidence to devise and perform an original five minute act to a live audience.
• Barney Farmer, the creator of the darkly hilarious Drunken Bakers cartoon, will be doing a special comedy performance entitled ‘Barney Farmer Buys Everyone a Small Drink’ on Saturday 19th May.
• Madcap comedy performer John Robertson will present a surreal show ‘Dark Room’. An interactive YouTube ‘Crystal Maze-style’ game which went viral and attracted more than 4 million views.
• A risque cabaret show from JoJo Bellini on Saturday 19th May
• There’s entertainment for the kids with Jay Foreman’s musical comedy show ‘Disgusting Songs for Revolting Children’ on Saturday 19th May and ‘A Comedy Club for Kids’ on Sunday 20th May.
• Of course the festival also includes more traditional stand up acts from the likes of Mark Steel on Friday 18th May and Nick Revell premiering a new piece written for BBC Radio 4 on Saturday 19th May.

Times and dates for many of the shows are yet to be confirmed. For full details of all the Freerange Comedy Festival shows visit the website www.breweryarts.co.uk or call box office on 01539 725133.