Running from Friday 3rd to Sunday 12th October 2025, this year’s festival consists of over 90 performances.

Among the big names attending are the Inside No.9 crew (Tuesday 7th-Saturday 11th October, The Alexandra plus new dates in December), Babatunde Aléshé (Saturday 4th October, The Alexandra), Kiwi’s Aunty Donna (Thursday 2nd and Friday 3rd October, The Alexandra), Kane Brown (Sunday 5th October, Town Hall), Henning Wehn (Saturday 11th October, Town Hall), Emmanuel Sonubi (Thursday 9th October, The Glee Club) and Don Joly, who’s celebrating 25 years of Trigger Happy TV on Tuesday 7th October at the Town Hall.

There’s also dozens of free entry/ pay-what-you-want shows too, including appearances from Jaz Mattu, Emma Davies, Nate Kinch and Sean Morley, as well as the return of the always popular Birmingham Comedy Festival free Half-Dayers (Sunday 5th and 12th October, Cherry Reds & The Victoria) which feature 8x one-hour shows at two venues from 1pm.

Taking place in nearly-neighbouring city centre venues in John Bright Street, free Half-Dayer guests include Eric Rushton, Jamie D’Souza and Finlay Christie, Tal Davies, Tom Little, Hasan Al-Habib, 2Muslim 2Furious, The Glitter Sisters, Andy Robinson and James Cook, and more.

Also on the festival bill elsewhere are Laurel & Hardy films (Thursday 9th October, WMP Museum), and family shows featuring Jonny Awsum (Sun 5th October, The Glee Club) and Marcel Lucont (Saturday 11th October, The Glee Club), as well as podcasts, improv, stage productions, and sketch shows.

The festival officially kicks off with the Birmingham Comedy Festival Breaking Talent Award (Friday 3rd October, The Glee Club) which brings together five of the very best emerging comedy acts from the region – BAB, Abbie Edwards, Abbie Hale, Harry Jenkins and Ryan S Lewis – as well as featuring a special set from Josh Pugh (who won the award in 2015 and is currently working on his first sitcom, for Channel 4).