Once again, this February we took a deep breath, charged our batteries, wiped our memory cards and ensured we had a stock of tea twice our body weights before delving head first into the absolute chaos of Leicester Comedy Festival 2017.
For 2017, we had agreed with Big Difference Company (the charity behind the Comedy Festival), that we would provide a comprehensive digital media content service, designed to cover the festival in a way that would engage a wider audience across their existing social media channels. As well as providing our usual video production services, we also provided photo content and managed all of the festival’s social media networks.
It was an absolute mammoth task and one that we couldn’t wait to get our teeth into. With De Montfort University being one of the main sponsors of this year’s festival, it made sense to make use of their pool of talent. We took on two interns who had recently graduated from the university’s media production course as well as a social media volunteer who is currently working towards an MsC in cultural events management.
Having the extra hands on board gave us the flexibility to cover more events than ever before over the 19 day long event and deliver an incredibly successful social media campaign across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Youtube.
Some of this year’s biggest events included a Q&A with Romesh Ranganathan, UK Pun Day (creating nearly 30 million impressions worldwide on Twitter), The UK Pun Championships and the Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year competition.
Over the course of the festival, we produced a total of 47 videos ranging from very short interviews with acts backstage (edited on site and uploaded instantly) through to full event highlights videos which were edited overnight ready for release the following morning.
Personal highlights included Johnny Vegas flipping pancakes, Bob Slayer getting into a taxi and driving away with our microphone still attached, making Stewart Lee laugh and of course the copious amounts of pizza from Peter Pizzeria (thank you!).
We thoroughly enjoyed this year’s festival and are overwhelmed to have been nominated for 2017’s ‘Contribution to Leicester Comedy Festival’ award. Thanks to everyone who helped out throughout the festival, all of the acts for putting up with our ridiculous requests and of course Big Difference Company for coming back to us for a second year.
