Machynlleth Comedy Festival plans a gig in a caravan this May
This year’s Machynlleth Comedy Festival in Mid Wales is exploring a new and unusual venue for comedians attending the event, providing a whole new meaning to the term ‘comedy tour’.
Comedians will perform gigs in front of a small group of 20 audience members in a caravan holiday home at the award-winning dealership Salop Leisure on Sunday evening, 3 May in Machynlleth.
The idea for a stand-up gig in a caravan was first conjured up during a conversation between Paul Argyle, manager Salop Leisure’s Machynlleth sales centre, and the comedy festival’s operations manager Steve Pickup.
The festival has always had quirky venues for their gigs including a local resident’s shed and a local sweet shop and Pickup is always on the lookout for new venues and is very happy to use a caravan, saying: “A caravan holiday home seems tailor-made for a gig. There will be 20 tickets available for the show and the audience will be perched around the lounge area. It will be great.
“I don’t know if a comedy show has ever been held in caravan before but it’s certainly a first for the festival,” he continued.
Salop Leisure is more than happy to provide a venue for a show. “When I heard that the festival was looking for unusual venues to stage shows, a caravan holiday home seemed an obvious choice to me,” said Argyle.
Argyle also sees the event as an opportunity to make caravanning even more popular. “It’s a great way of introducing people to caravans and hopefully the show will encourage members of the audience and perhaps the comedians to buy one. We’re really looking forward to the show and the festival.”
Thousands of stand-up comedy fans head to Machynlleth over the Bank Holiday weekend each year, and this year there are as many as 160 shows lined up. With the unique style of hosting gigs, its no wonder people keep coming back.
“We’re passionate about the thrill of seeing live comedy in intimate places and the glorious, picturesque and enchanting town of Machynlleth gave us a wealth of interesting and unique performance spaces in which to do this,” says Pickup.
