Comedy superstars and Fringe smashers are preparing to take on Manchester's Castlefield Bowl this week for five days of live comedy. Laughterama - a brand new comedy festival - will feature some of the biggest names in comedy as well as some of the city's best food and drink operators.
The open-air comedy festival will feature stars including James Acaster, The Last Leg's Rosie Jones and British Comedy Award winner Aisling Bea, performing alongside many of the acts that delighted critics at Edinburgh Fringe including Amy Gledhill, Tim Key and Lou Saunders.
The festival has been launched by the team behind a series of successful comedy festivals running annually across London and the south of England. Each show will present of compilation of the biggest names in stand-up comedy alongside emerging talent, plus some standout food and drink courtesy of Manchester's very street food traders.
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Below, you'll find all the information for the inaugural event, from the lineup and last-minute tickets, to the food and drink options and whether to pack a brolly.
Who's on the lineup?
The five-night festival will feature Netflix star James Acaster, British Comedy Award winner Aisling Bea, the much-loved Dylan Moran and Taskmaster's Phil Wang. They'll be joined by Josh Widdicombe and and Rosie Jones plus Edinburgh Fringe star Rose Matafeo. one-liner king Milton Jones, David O' Doherty, Nish Kumar, Rhys James and Manchester's very on Stephen Bailey and Josh Jones.
Stage times
Wednesday, September 21
Doors: 6pm
Start time: 7.30pm
David O'Doherty
Rose Matafeo
Lou Sanders
Josh Jones
Daniel Kitson
Thursday, September 22
Doors: 6.30pm
Start time: 7.30pm
Nish Kumar
Simon Amstell
Amy Gledhill
Mike Wozniak
Catherine Bohart
Friday, September 23
Doors: 6.30pm
Start Time: 7.30pm
Milton Jones
Reginald D Hunter
Hannah Platt
Stephen Bailey
Kiri Pritchard
McLean
Saturday, September 24 - two showings
Doors: 2pm
Start Time: 3pm
Phil Wang
Aisling Bea
Fatiha El Ghorri
Rhys James
Ian Smith
Doors: 6.00pm
Start time: 7.30pm
Josh Widdicombe
Ivo Graham
Tadiwa Mahlunge
Esther Manito
John Robins
Sunday, September 25 - two showings
Doors: 2pm
Start Time: 3pm
Dylan Moran
Tim Key
Fern Brady
Huge Davies
Maisie Adam
Doors: 6.00pm
Start time: 7.30pm
James Acaster
Josh Pugh
Celya AB
Rosie Jones
John Robins
Are tickets still available?
As expected to to the huge lineup of talent on the bill, some of the shows have sold out. However, there are still tickets available for showings tonight (Wednesday, 21 September), Friday and Sunday.
Tickets are priced at £25, and you can purchase tickets via the Laughterama website. If you do snag a last-minute ticket, organisers are asking you to only bring one medium-sized bag per person to help with security checks.
How to get to Castlefield Bowl
Castlefield Bowl is located on Rice Street in Castlefield, postcode M3 4JR, and is just on the edge of the city centre off Deansgate.
There are two entrances for ticket holders - via Duke Street/Castle Street which is also the disabled access entrance, or via Liverpool Road where you access the site down quite a few steps.
By public transport
It's about a five minute walk from Castlefield Bowl to the main line train station at Deansgate. At present, there hasn’t been any further rail strikes announced that may disrupt services.
Here you can also access the Deansgate-Castlefield tram station where there are trams every 12 minutes connecting to all of the main tram routes in the Greater Manchester area.
By car
If you're driving, a number of NCP’s Great Northern car parks are just a short walk away. There are 1,240 spaces in total and prices start from around £3.95 per hour. Use the postcode M3 4EE if using a sat nav.
The NCP Manchester Central next to Bridgewater Hall car park is also nearby, with 643 spaces. For sat navs the postcode is M15 4PS.
The next nearest NCP is on Spinningfields on Quay Street with 680 spaces, where night parking after 5pm is priced at £8.95. For sat navs the postcode is M3 3BE.
Food and Drink
As with most gigs and festivals held at Castlefield Bowl, there's always a number of street food stalls and beer tents to make sure everyone is watered and fed. They'll be serving up a range of craft beers, delicious wines and a tastemaker's choice of cocktails and lost more.
For those unfamiliar with the area, there are also a host of restaurants, bars and pubs along Liverpool Road on the way into Castlefield, as well as the popular bars and restaurants on and around Castle Street in the heart of Castlefield.
The weather forecast
Many will be crossing their fingers hoping the rain does not pour down over the open-air theatre this week. Fortunately, the weather forecast looks fairly dry over all, but there are a couple of showers expected.
On Wednesday, cloud and sunny spells are expected and a maximum temperature of 20 degrees - not too shabby for late September. On Thursday there will be some heavy and persistent rain in places and wind is also expected, so make sure to pack your sturdiest brolly.
The outlook for Friday to Sunday is a positive one, with sunny spells and only a few showers on Friday and Saturday. There will be a dry start to Sunday, but it will become windier and outbreaks of rain will arrive later in the day.
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