Liverpool Comedy Festival kicks off at Blackstock Market: more than 70 performances over four days
Liverpool opened a new four-day chapter in its stand-up scene on September 3. Hot Water's Liverpool Comedy Festival runs until September 6, 2026, at the Blackstock Market complex, where the programme takes place across multiple stages and different performance spaces. According to official information from the organisers, more than 70 comedy programmes are planned over the four days, ranging from solo shows and mixed-bill evenings to live podcasts, performances by emerging acts and special one-off events. The festival was conceived, financed and organised by the Hot Water Comedy Club team, with the aim of bringing together a large part of the local and visiting comedy offering in a single location. In addition to stand-up, the venue offers live music, family entertainment, food and drinks during the festival, making the concept closer to a multi-day festival complex than a series of separate club nights.
The programme began on Thursday, September 3, and the first day already demonstrated the range of formats on which the organisers have built the festival. The official programme featured Jamie Hutchinson with his solo show "Can My Mate Come? He's Sound", Rachel Fairburn with "Best Of", Katie Tracey and Kay Nicholson, Dave Longley and Phil Chapman, as well as Tony Carroll with the evening "Tony Carroll and Friends". They were joined by "3 Minutes Of Fame", a format in which performers and new names take turns on stage. In this way, the organisers are trying to bring together recognisable comedians, performers who already have their own tours and those who are only beginning to build an audience. This type of schedule remains the foundation of the festival throughout the remaining three days.
From Rachel Fairburn and Jamie Hutchinson to Crissy Rock and Tony Carroll
Among the names appearing in the festival programme are Rachel Fairburn, Tony Carroll, Crissy Rock, Jamie Hutchinson, Danny McLoughlin, Karl Spain, Paul Smith, Mick Miller, Freddy Quinne, Andrew O'Neill, Jojo Sutherland and a number of other performers. The organiser does not present the festival as one large gala evening with a few headline stars, but as a packed schedule of parallel events taking place throughout the day and evening within the same complex. As a result, some visitors can come for a single show, while others can combine several performances and spend a larger part of the day at the venue. According to the official festival website, the programme also includes mixed-bill evenings, work-in-progress versions of new shows, comedy tours, improvisational and more experimental formats, as well as content that goes beyond the strictly defined framework of stand-up. In this way, Liverpool Comedy Festival positions itself as an overview of the different ways in which the contemporary British and Irish comedy scene reaches audiences.
On Friday, September 4, the schedule continues with a series of different formats. The official programme lists, among other things, Fiona O'Mahony's "Irish & Mental", "Lady Bits", a performance by Daniel O'Reilly, the Triple Headline Show with Phil Chapman, Karl Spain, Danny McLoughlin and Quincy, as well as a live edition of Hot Water's Green Room Podcast with Tony Carroll and Jamie Hutchinson. A work-in-progress show by Danny McLoughlin is also announced for a later slot, along with several smaller and free evening performances. The organisers emphasise on their websites that part of the programme offers free admission, while tickets must be purchased for other events, with prices varying depending on the show. Availability changes from one time slot to another, so the official schedule remains the most reliable place to check the current status of each performance.
Saturday, September 5, brings a further expansion of the programme. According to the published schedule, the line-up includes "Laughs At Lunch", the family-oriented "Little Laughs", "Whose Headline" with Paul Smith, Tony Carroll and Lewis Calvert, followed by several solo and mixed-bill shows and evening performances by acts from the wider British and Irish scene. These include Micky Bartlett and William Thompson in "Back, Sack and Craic", while Gbemi Oladipo and Andrew Mensah are announced for "We Saw That Live". The programme also includes Phil Chapman's "Just a Thought", Phil Green with his show "The Boy Who Nearly Grew Up", as well as several free performances. This combination of paid and free content allows audiences to experience part of the festival without buying a ticket for every individual slot, although the organiser warns that free programmes are still subject to venue capacity.
Sunday brings Crissy Rock, Mick Miller and the comedy roast tournament final
The final day, Sunday, September 6, according to the currently published programme, brings one of the most varied combinations of the festival. Crissy Rock has her own slot, while Ricky Tomlinson takes part in a conversation event with Asa Murphy. Charlie Lewis, Jojo Sutherland, Freddy Quinne, Mick Miller, Dawn Bailey, Andrew O'Neill and Tony Carroll are also on the schedule, with Carroll's show announced alongside Matt Richardson. For audiences following competitive formats, the final of "The Comedy Roast Tournament" is a particular highlight, while Hot Water is also organising the qualifying programme "Breakthrough Act Of The Year" on the same day. The finale therefore brings together established performers and new comedians, one of the themes repeated throughout the entire four-day schedule.
The festival is not limited to traditional stand-up shows. The official programme includes live podcasts, conversation events, family performances and formats in which comedy is mixed with other types of entertainment. The schedule also includes conversations with well-known names from football: on Friday, "An Audience with EFC Legends" is announced with former Everton players Peter Reid, Kevin Sheedy and Kevin Ratcliffe, while Sunday features "An Audience With LFC Legends" with Bruce Grobbelaar, Sammy Lee and Steve McMahon. These events are not stand-up in the narrow sense, but they show that the organisers use the idea of a comedy festival as a broader framework for stage entertainment and conversation formats. For visitors, this means that the offering over the four days ranges from short comedy sets to full-length solo performances and on-stage conversations in front of an audience.
Blackstock Market as one large festival complex
A key distinguishing feature of Liverpool Comedy Festival is its location. Blackstock Market on Blackstock Street in Liverpool is designed as a multifunctional complex that brings together Hot Water Comedy Club performance spaces, food and drink offerings, bars and other entertainment areas. According to Blackstock Market itself, the complex covers around 60,000 square feet, or approximately 5,600 square metres, and was created as a self-funded project by brothers Paul and Binty Blair, the founders of Hot Water Comedy Club. VisitLiverpool states that the venue includes three purpose-built theatre spaces of different capacities, alongside additional facilities and podcast studios. It is precisely this infrastructure that allows multiple performances to take place in parallel time slots, without the need to spread the festival across a larger number of distant locations.
Hot Water Comedy Club has operated in Liverpool since 2010 and over the years has also built a strong presence in the digital space, where clips from its performances are regularly shared on social media. VisitLiverpool describes it as one of the city's most prominent comedy venues, with a programme that normally includes regular club nights and visiting touring shows. The move to Blackstock Market gave the club a larger number of dedicated rooms and a broader range of supporting facilities, so the new festival relies on infrastructure used throughout the year. The organisers openly state that they want Liverpool Comedy Festival to grow from year to year while providing space for both established comedians and new performers. Although the festival's long-term reach will only be possible to assess after several editions, the first edition already shows an ambition to concentrate within a few days a programme that would otherwise be spread over a considerably longer period.
Family entertainment, music and food expand the event beyond the stand-up rooms
From the outset, the organisers have presented the festival as an all-day event rather than simply a series of evening shows. The festival description mentions live music, street food, bars, games, outdoor spaces and a family programme, while the weekend also brings activities intended for children and families. "Little Laughs" is part of Hot Water Comedy Club's regular family programme, and official information recommends it for children aged six and above, while noting that younger children are also permitted at these specially designated family performances. Different rules apply to standard comedy shows: according to the organiser's FAQ, people aged 16 and 17 may attend shows that finish before 10 PM when accompanied by an adult, while younger children are not permitted at regular stand-up performances unless the programme is explicitly marked as a children's or family event. These differences are important to check before booking because the rules may vary from one show to another.
Blackstock Market also states that several food and drink outlets operate within the venue and that food is served separately from the theatre rooms. According to Hot Water Comedy Club's rules, drinks may be taken into the performance spaces, while meals from the food hall remain in a separate part of the complex. The entire festival model therefore encourages audiences to stay longer between performances, something common at music and cultural festivals but less frequent at stand-up events, which are traditionally associated with a single venue and one evening time slot. In Liverpool, the opposite approach has been chosen here: multiple stages, a large number of shorter and longer programmes, and a shared space between performances. The organiser highlights precisely this "festival village" concept as one of the main features of the new event.
Practical information for visitors
Liverpool Comedy Festival takes place at Blackstock Market, 15 Blackstock Street, Liverpool L3 6ER, while some Hot Water Comedy Club shows are also listed in the schedule at 17 Blackstock Street within the same complex. According to the official festival FAQ, Moorfields, James Street and Liverpool Lime Street railway stations are approximately a 20-minute walk away, while bus routes 54 and 56 run near Vauxhall Road. Blackstock Market does not have its own car park, so the organiser recommends checking current local regulations and traffic information before arriving by car. Tickets are generally booked online, while they can only be purchased at the entrance if spaces remain available for a particular event. Entry uses an electronic ticket with a QR code, and according to official information, the venue operates cashlessly.
Because the programme runs for four days and finishes late in the evening, visitors travelling to Liverpool from other parts of the United Kingdom or from abroad may find it practical to plan several events during the same stay. For such visits, it can be useful to compare accommodation offers in Liverpool according to their distance from Blackstock Street and the city's railway stations. The organiser advises visitors to check the exact start time, age restrictions and ticket status for each selected event before arriving, as individual shows differ in their rules and capacity. Visitors who use wheelchairs can, according to official Hot Water Comedy Club information, book a standard ticket and then contact the organiser to arrange an appropriate place, subject to availability. Practical preparation for the festival therefore comes down to combining the schedule, the rules of individual rooms and transport to one central location.
Why the festival matters to Liverpool's comedy scene
Liverpool already has a strong comedy tradition and a number of venues that regularly host stand-up, while VisitLiverpool highlights comedy as an important part of the city's cultural offering. The new Hot Water Comedy Club festival adds to this a concentrated four-day programme in which performers from different generations and styles can be seen. At the same time, the organisers emphasise support for the wider creative community and the development of new talent, which can be seen in the competitive and showcase formats alongside established names. For comedians, such a model can provide an opportunity to test new material in front of a festival audience, while audiences can gain an overview of a broader scene in just a few days than they would at a typical individual evening. An important part of the event's identity is precisely this alternation between major touring shows, local comedians, short formats, podcasts and free programmes.
The first edition organised by Hot Water Comedy Club is therefore important not only because of the figure of more than 70 announced programmes, but also because of the attempt to place stand-up within the format of an all-day cultural and entertainment festival. Blackstock Market provides logistics for this that traditional comedy clubs generally do not have: multiple rooms, a shared audience area, food, music and additional entertainment. Whether this concept becomes a permanent September fixture in Liverpool's calendar will depend on audience response, performers and the organisers' plans after the end of this edition. For now, it has been confirmed that the festival runs until Sunday, September 6, and that the schedule remains packed with performances from daytime through to late-evening slots. The final two days will therefore also be crucial to the first complete impression of whether Hot Water can build a long-term city festival from its existing club model.
Sources:
- Hot Water Comedy Club - official Liverpool Comedy Festival page with dates, concept, performers and current schedule (link)
- Hot Water Comedy Club - official festival FAQ with information on tickets, age rules, transport, accessibility and venue rules (link)
- Hot Water Comedy Club - list of festival events and time slots by day (link)
- Blackstock Market - official information about the complex, its size, facilities and project development (link)
- VisitLiverpool - information about Hot Water Comedy Club and its performance spaces at Blackstock Market (link)