Belly Laughs 2023

If you’ve not heard of it before, Belly Laughs is a comedy and food festival that brings smiles to faces, punters to independent venues, and money to local grassroots charities! Now in its fifth year in Bristol, the team (Alex, Emma and Mark) have recently announced that they’re adding Bath and Birmingham into the mix.

Since being founded in Bristol by comedian Mark Olver in 2018, Belly Laughs has raised over £100k for local and grassroots charities and put an estimated £120k into local hospitality. This year, with three cities under their belts, they’ll be running over 100 gigs and expecting to raise a bumper amount for their chosen charities.

This year in Bristol, they’ve partnered with the charity Caring in Bristol which supports homeless and vulnerable people across the city. As well as Caring in Bristol, they’ll be supporting other local charities including FareShare South West and Julian Trust. And, to make their events as inclusive as possible, Belly Laughs have dropped their ticket price this year from £10 to £5. That amount goes straight to the charities with the rest going to the venues.

What to expect?

Belly Laughs pop-up comedy gigs partner with independent food and drink venues during the traditionally quiet month of January in order to give the local economy a boost. As well as their well known Wapping Wharf extravaganza, they’re teaming up with both the Bedminster and Bristol City Centre BIDs to put on an extra series of special gigs in each location too.

Tickets start from £5 and include food and/or drink in the ticket price as well as a brilliant night of stand-up comedy in venues across Bristol. Tickets are on sale via their ticketing partner Yuup.

Founder Mark Oliver said “We’re really excited to have our January gigs running across three cities with an amazing range of comedians and know that this year will be fantastic and bigger than ever before! I’m slightly nervous but in the usual chaos of Belly Laughs I know we’ll pull it off.

I’m always blown away by people’s generosity at these events and am sure we can raise some money for these great causes whilst having a bit of a laugh at the same time”.

About their principal charity partner, Caring in Bristol:

‘Caring in Bristol’ is a registered charity working across Bristol to support and empower homeless and vulnerable people of all ages. Established by volunteers in 1987, they have developed from an annual project ‘Caring at Christmas’ into an organisation with a comprehensive range of services that support young people and adults 365 days-a-year.

Much of their work focuses on helping to provide early help and assistance to ensure people don't become homeless in the first place; and supporting marginalised young people, often in crisis, who fall between the gaps of other services.Bristol has an acute housing crisis, which when coupled with the cost-of-living crisis, means that more people than ever will be struggling to maintain their tenancy.’