Comedy Festivals 2014

Tomorrow the  2014 comedy festival season kicks off, and while there are several gatherings around the country (and one up a mountain featuring British comics), the oldest and biggest starts in Leicester.

Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival

The UK's longest-running comedy festival was founded in 1994 and over 17 days there will be more than 600 events across the city. Most top UK comics now include an appearance at the festival on their tours and this year's highlights include Chris Ramsey (19 Feb), Miles Jupp (20 Feb), pictured right, and John Kearns (15 Feb), whose new offering is a follow-up to winning the best newcomer gong in the Edinburgh Comedy Awards. Josie Long (11 Feb), meanwhile, is among several comics doing work-in-progress shows. There's also an interesting discussion on 18 Feb, I Say, in which Alexei Sayle talks about the state of British comedy.

7 -23 February comedy-festival.com

Glasgow

The big hitter attracts star names in comedy, and in the line-up are Sarah Millican (3-4 April), pictured left, and Miranda Hart (17-18 March). Bridget Christie reprises her multi-award-winning show A Bic For Her (24 March), while Fred Macaulay does a “best of” (26 March). And, in the year of the Scottish independence vote, Rory Bremner and Friends (31 March) take the political temperature of the room  – one of a few shows at this year's festival to address the referendum.

14 March-5 April glasgowcomedyfestival.com

Bath Comedy Festival

It's the sixth outing for this low-key but interesting festival and the line-up this year is as eclectic as ever. It includes musical comedy from Hank Wangford and Brad Breath (28 March), homespun yarns from Edinburgh Comedy Awards nominee Mike Wozniak (2 April) and Andrew O'Neill (5 April) with his history of heavy metal. And for old-school jokes Barry Cryer and Ronnie Golden (29 March), pictured right, can't be bettered.

28 March-6 April bathcomedy.com

Altitude

More fun on the snow in the Austrian resort of Mayrhofen. John Bishop, pictured left,  headlines another strong bill, which includes Tommy Tiernan, Nina Conti and co-founder Andrew Maxwell, as well as stars in the making Luisa Omielan and Roisin Conaty. Co-founder Marcus Brigstocke will have a few tales to tell about another snowy event, Channel 4's The Jump, during which he sustained a painful injury while skiing. There's a unique flavour to this festival as the comics are clearly having a ball – skiing and snowboarding (very competitively with each other) during the day, and then telling gags at night. There are events up the mountain as well as in the town after the slopes are closed.

31 March-4 April altitudefestival.com

Other comedy festivals follow later in the year at Brighton, Stratford-upon Avon, Nottingham and Machynlleth