TIME FOR A LAUGH
2014 VODAFONE COMEDY FESTIVAL LINE-UP ANNOUNCED
Dublin 12th June, Vodafone Ireland and Aiken Promotions have announced another stellar line-up for this year’s Vodafone Comedy Festival which takes place from Thursday 24th to Sunday 27th July. Dara O Briain, Russell Howard, Jason Byrne & Jason Manford feature as part of an astonishing line-up of 85 comedians who will perform in four fully seated, indoor theatres in the spectacular Iveagh Gardens, Dublin. Tickets for the festival go on sale this Monday June 16th with 20,000 people expected to attend over the four days.
2014’s line-up sees the largest contingent of international talent ever to come to the Iveagh Gardens including South African sensation Trevor Noah, New Zealand’s Rhys Darby, best known for playing the band manager character in Flight of the Choncords Canadian one-line specialist Stewart Francis and his compatriots Bobby Mair & Katherine Ryan and Denmark’s Sofie Hagen who won this year’s Chortle Best Newcomer Award.
We also have our biggest number of American acts including Chappelle’s Show co-creator Neal Brennan, best-selling author & Chelsea Lately panellist Jen Kirkman, the inimitable Pajama Men who’ve won awards all over the world and raunchy Vietnamese-Chinese-American actress and stand-up Ali Wong. The awesome black-hearted joke-slinger Anthony Jeselnik also returns along with Rory Scovel and the Bitter Buddha himself Mr Eddie Pepitone.
This year’s UK contingent includes TV stars Russell Howard, Jason Manford, Al Murray, Milton Jones and Gary Delaney as well as Scotland’s Daniel Sloss and the Xtra Factor’s Matt Richardson.
According to Festival Director Bren Berry, “The reputation of the Vodafone Comedy Festival has travelled around the world largely due to the word-of-mouth enthusiasm of the international comics who love performing here.Also, humour is ingrained in our national personality and I feel comedy is as essential to our culture as music or literature. With this event we can celebrate everyone from the latest generation of exciting newcomers to the established acts who have placed Irish comedy on the world map.”
Robert Hyland, Sponsorship Manager, Vodafone Ireland, said “We’re delighted to be back at The Iveagh Gardens for the fourth year of the Vodafone Comedy Festival. It’s become a real staple in the calendar and it’s wonderful to see such well-known and much-loved local comedians return year on year. With over 80 comedians taking to that stages the level of choice and sheer talent on offer cements the festival as one of Europe’s most loved events right here on our very own doorstep. ”
This year’s line-up features many of the giants of Irish comedy including Dara O’Briain, making his festival debut, David O’Doherty, Jason Byrne, Maeve Higgins (who makes a welcome return from her new home in New York), Ed Byrne and stars of Irish TV and radio such as PJ Gallagher, David McSavage, Barry Murphy, Eleanor Tiernan, Kevin McGahern, Fred Cooke and Bernard O’Shea.
Emerging Irish acts will include RTE New Comedy Award Winner Sean Nolan and So You Think You’re Funnyaward winner Aisling Bea who has just joined the cast of Sky1′s sitcom Trollied. Children’s Laureate Eoin Colfer also takes a break from selling gazillions of books to present his new musical comedy creation The Belle Bottoms. The hilarious comedy trio that is Foil Arms and Hog makes a welcome return to this year’s festival. The trio can be seen in action ahead of the festival on Vodafone’s interactive festival hub, Centre Stage where they will be sharing their inimitable takes on all things festival. They are one of a number of emerging young Irish acts who can be found onCentre Stage which offers daily bites of festival content, hand-picked interviews with guest acts as well as chances to win exclusive tickets to the Comedy Festival, bringing music and comedy festival fans closer to all the action from now until the end of the summer festival season.
The Iveagh Gardens is the perfect location for the Vodafone Comedy Festival, a beautiful hidden sanctuary in the heart of Dublin City. It’s a unique place to hang out, watch some great comedy, and enjoy food and drinks with friends while checking out the colourful array of side-shows, street performers and live music. Festival favourite Milton Jones describes the event as “An annual theme park of laughter in the middle of Dublin, and a rare opportunity to laugh loudly and drink in the park without someone calling the police!”
Tickets for the festival go on sale this Monday June 16th with 20,000 people expected to attend over the four days. Tickets are sold on a show-by-show basis and the festival is a strictly over 18s event.
About Vodafone
Vodafone is Ireland’s leading total communications provider with 2.4 million customers across mobile, fixed line and DSL. At 31st December 2013 Vodafone Ireland’s mobile telecoms base was 2.15 million
Vodafone Ireland is part of Vodafone Group, one of the world’s largest mobile communications companies by revenue with approximately 419 million customers in its controlled and jointly controlled markets as of 31 December 2013. Vodafone has equity interests in telecommunications operations in nearly 30 countries and around 50 partner networks worldwide. For more information, please visit: www.vodafone.com