Comedian Mark Watson Launches Second Year of ACCESS FESTIVAL

Following its hugely successful inaugural year in 2023, comedian and winner of Chortle’s Legend of Lockdown award Mark Watson has teamed up with worldwide streaming platform NextUp for the second year running to curate Access Festival, running until 28 January 2024.

The fully accessible festival’s line-up features some of the most innovative comedians across 14 live shows, launching with Mark Watson’s variety show ‘Live From The Monkey Barrel in Edinburgh’, which will be performed for fans online, as well as to an in-person audience. The festival also includes solo shows from Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee Colin Hoult, winner of Britain’s Got Talent (ITV) Lost Voice Guy, Leicester Square New Comedian of the Year 2022 Will Owen, as well as critically-acclaimed comedians Angela Barnes, Sarah Keyworth, David O’Doherty, Will Rowland, Eddie Hare, Stuart Laws, Daliso Chaponda, Thanyia Moore, Lily Philips, Joe Wells, and a blend of comedy and magic from Pete Heat. 

The shows will be streamed on the NextUp digital platform,  with the ability for members to join a virtual room and be part of the show and interact with the performers, without having to leave the sofa.  Additionally this year, all of the streams will be live-captioned as a result of an Innovate UK Accessibility project NextUp are working on.

Mark Watson, curator of Access Festival, says: “We began Access last year for a couple of reasons. One was to bring live comedy into the homes of people who might have a hard time getting to venues. Another was to celebrate online comedy as a genre in itself, one of the few positive legacies of the lockdown years. I was very proud of the response and it’s great to be involved again in a spectacular week of entertainment, presented at an extremely low cost and in your living room (NB you are free to watch it in other rooms also).”

Tom Brandt, Head of content at NextUp, says: “Since NextUp first began hosting online shows and experimenting with what this new ‘online’ thing could be, the variety and sheer level of creativity has blown us away. Last year we were excited and enthused by the reaction to the first Access fest, with more than 600,000 minutes watched by comedy lovers who couldn’t get to as many gigs as they’d have liked to. We believe we’re witnessing the emergence of a new form of comedy that can only supplement, promote and enhance the art form as a whole. Access Festival is the perfect vehicle to connect all of that with audiences across the UK (and the world!), and we’re excited to be working with Mark and Impatient to make this a reality.”

NextUp annual memberships are available to buy now for £35 to secure access to the entire festival. Access Festival is also partnering with Below The Line, a ticket-sharing charity of which Mark Watson is a trustee, to support those who would love to watch but cannot afford it. Free tickets can be arranged via @AccessComedyBTL and people are also welcome to donate towards this cause and buy someone a ticket. NextUp will match each donation. 

For more information please visit https://shop.nextupcomedy.com/access/.

ACCESS FESTIVAL 2024 LINE-UP
Date/Time	Act
Thurs 25th Jan, 7pm	Daliso Chaponda
Thurs 25th Jan, 9pm	Thanyia Moore
Fri 26th Jan, 7pm	Lily Phillips
Fri 26th Jan, 9pm	Angela Barnes
Sat 27th Jan, 7pm	Will Owen
Sun 28th Jan, 5pm	Joe Wells
Sun 28th Jan, 7pm	Pete Heat
Sun 28th Jan, 9pm	Mark Watson

 

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