Bridging the Gap

---

Leicester is a diverse city - it’s well known that people from all over the world have made it their home. That is why it’s important for a festival such as ours to take what steps we can to improve representation at our festival to help us welcome as many people as possible from across Leicester into our venues, helping them enjoy the benefits of live comedy.

This is a mission we share with our patron Eshaan Akbar, who, when asked to take on that role, immediately asked how we can support comedians from underrepresented groups to come and perform at the festivals.

To do this, Big Difference Company created a fund called Bridging the Gap which brought comedians from underrepresented groups, in particular comedians from working class backgrounds, to Leicester Comedy Festival. The fund covered costs such as transport, accommodation and festival fees. Earlier last year, we ran a fundraising campaign as part of the Big Give Arts for Impact to support the pilot version of this project.

We supported 6 comedians to come and perform at Leicester Comedy Festival 2025 with their solo show, and be part of a mixed bill. Each of them received for their own show:

• The festival participation fee waived for their show (value between £72 - £88 depending on their venue size)
• A hotel room (value approx. £80-£100). They were offered a room at one of the festival’s hotel partners in the city. 
• £150 to help cover their costs. We know travel is one of the most common barriers acts face when deciding to participate in a Festival. This fund could've covered their train fare for example. If travel wasn’t an issue for the participant, they could choose to use this fund for any other festival-related cost, such as marketing, or getting a baby-sitter or carer for the evening, etc. 
• Each of them was asked to perform in a showcase on the first Friday of the Festival, which was produced by us. 
• All acts got a fee for their set.
• The showcase was at the start of the festival, so they could use the opportunity to plug their own shows. 
• The show was on a low ticket price to make it affordable and accessible to the general public. 
• Any surplus from the show will be invested back in this project.

We hope the success of this first year will help us raise more funds next year to grow the project and allow us to support performers even more!

Information on future Bridging The Gap project initiatives will be updated here.

If you have any queries about the initiative, please email info@bigdifferencecompany.co.uk