Jason Manford, Paul Merton and more for Southport Comedy Festival

The full line-up has been revealed for the 2026 Southport Comedy Festival with stars including Jason Manford, Paul Merton, Laura Smyth, Jason Byrne and more.

Festival-goers are being encouraged to secure their tickets early with THREE of the 18 shows already sold out, and others close to capacity.

It follows the huge success of last year’s event which saw ten shows sold out with over 6,000 people enjoying the entertainment.

The 2026 Southport Comedy Festival will once again take place inside a luxury heated and seated marquee, provided by Elite Events, at Victoria Park in Southport from 2nd-18th October 2026.

Visitors can savour delicious Mexican street food provided by award-winning local eatery Tik Taco while the venue hosts an impressive bar and seating area courtesy of Elite Events.

Southport Comedy Festival Director Brendan Riley said:

“We have a superb line-up this year for the Southport Comedy Festival! We’re delighted to be able to confirm our full programme.

“Every year, we try our best to secure the best acts and put together the very best festival we can, but we never know what tours are taking place and who’s going to be available.

“But each year we seem to surpass ourselves and the festival keeps getting stronger and stronger.

“We love to be able to present a mixture of really big household names along with exciting new acts that some people may not have seen yet.

“We’re delighted to welcome some brand new names this year including Paul Merton and Suki Webster; Laura Smyth; Adam Kay; Mike Wozniak; and Scott Bennett.

“It’s brilliant to also see the return of some of our festival favourites, including Jason Byrne, Jimeoin, Paul Sinha and Gary Delaney.

“We are always eager to provide a platform for new and emerging talent through our Southport New Comedian Of The Year competition sponsored by Dragon Soop, and our highly popular Comedy Bingo event returns, this year it is going Back To The 90’s, so dig out your double denim for that one. This year’s chosen charity Bebe’s Hive will be holding a prize raffle at the Comedy Bingo event with all proceeds raised going directly to support the incredible work of this wonderful local charity as well as raising awareness.

“When programming the festival we always love listening to feedback from people who come to the event. We always listen to what they want.

“Last year for the first time we hosted a matinee show with Chris McCausland and it was so popular, this year we are hosting three matinee shows.

“It gives people the option to come and watch shows either during the day or in the evening.

“For real comedy fans, or people coming to visit Southport, you could even watch two shows in one day.

“Southport Comedy Festival keeps evolving, and one of the most positive changes we made was moving to Victoria Park five years ago.

“Now, we host all our shows inside a huge luxury heated and seated marquee from Elite Events, who keep improving the setting every year.

“There’s great food; a large bar area; free parking; and it’s close to Southport town centre for anyone coming who also wants to explore all the town has to offer.

“Tickets are selling extremely well. We have three shows sold out already which is incredible, and a couple of others getting very close.

“If there are acts you’re really keen to see, please get your tickets booked now before they’re gone, don’t leave it too late. We had ten sell-out shows last year, they’re really popular.

“Finally, we’d like to say a huge thank you to our headline sponsors, Halliwell Jones Kia Southport and to all our other sponsors who support our shows each year and keep Southport smiling.

“Southport Comedy Festival couldn’t happen without them.

“We’re also very grateful for the backing of the likes of Mark Dilley of Elite Events, Alan Adams of Victoria Park Events, and Mark Catherall and the Sefton Council Tourism Team.”