Have a #LaughInBath as Bath Comedy Festival returns for 2026

With more than 100 shows and featuring well over 300 performances, Bath Comedy Festival is back again to keep Bath roaring with laughter over four whole weeks this Spring.

Image: Paul Merton and Suki Webster

Highlights include some big name shows at Bath Forum including Dead Ringers, Paul Merton & Suki Webster, Harry Enfield and Troy Hawke.

The Festival brings a host of acts to its favourite intimate upstairs room, at the Ring O Bells in Widcombe – from relative newcomers and award-winning rising stars like Madeleine Brettingham and Kev Mud, to such well-established circuit heroes as Phil Nichol, Alistair Barrie, Rosie Holt and Alan Francis. The programme here kicks off on 1 April, with the fabulous Terry Alderton & Friends, which features as part of the newly formed Live Comedy Day, set up by the Live Comedy Association and supported by BBC Radio 4.

Alongside core venues Bath Forum and the Ring O Bells, heats of the esteemed New Act Competition run throughout the Festival at The Nowhere Tavern, culminating in the Grand Final at The Old Theatre Royal.

Regular venue partner the Rondo Theatre hosts a fine selection of shows including Jessica Fostekew and Hal Cruttenden; The Old Theatre Royal also hosts a variety of comedians including Hasan Al-Habib, and ‘Super Saturdays’ presented by The Fez Comedy Club, featuring John Hegley, Sooz Kempner and Phil Kay. New on the Bath scene The Jesters Comedy Club offers a constant underground comedy club backdrop with shows every day of the Festival! As always there are some affordable ‘pay what you feel’ gigs and open mic nights, and there’s comedy for everyone on offer.

The Festival wouldn’t be the same without the flagship bonkers bus tour The Wine Arts Trail (T.W.A.T.) – discovering new businesses and secret corners of Bath with a glass of wine and a ‘happening’ at each stop.

This year’s Festival starts Bath Comedy’s year-round programme off with a bang, and will be followed by more Bath Comedy Club shows and some exciting one-offs. Bookings are already being planned into next year... watch this space!

Festival Director Nick Steel says: "This year’s Festival line-up is an impressive mixture of well-known comedy stalwarts and rising stars, as well as continuing our esteemed New Act Competition and regular favourites and unique events like The Wine Arts Trail.

We encourage new partnerships and collaborations, both between arts organisations and with businesses. To this end we continue to devise more ways to work together on mutually beneficial ideas, to ensure Bath Comedy Festival’s future and to keep bringing laughter to Bath.

We're extremely grateful to our current supporters, venues and partners, and I look forward to welcoming new Sponsors and Business Partners – why not get in touch and see how being aligned with the Festival can help you, your company and your employees?

Individuals can join the Friends Of The Festival scheme to be a part of our exciting journey, gain tangible benefits and help sustain the Festival’s continuing evolution and development.

Bath Comedy Festival is widely recognised as a destination for comedy and a key date in the city’s annual cultural calendar. We can't do it without you, so join us as we welcome both Bath residents and visitors…and have a laugh!”

For more information please see: www.BathComedy.com or check out the What's on pages.