Geoff Rowe is one of the founders of what is now called Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival (one of the longest running comedy festivals in Europe don’tcha know) and is currently the CEO of the parent company The Big Difference Company. We managed to wrangle a few minutes of his time on the run up to the festival and got him to talk about what got him started in the biz.
So Mr. Rowe tell us a bit about yourself. What is your role at Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival and The Big Difference Company?
I am the Director of Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival and the CEO of Big Difference Company. My role is pretty diverse; I lead on strategic partnerships for both the festival and the overall work delivered by Big Difference Company. This involves working with a really diverse range of organisations, partners and clients which include Dave, UNISON, De Montfort University, Equity as well as health organisations, public sector agencies and private organisations.
As the legend goes you thought of the Leicester Comedy Festival as part of your final piece of work at uni, is this true? Tell us the tale.
We started the festival as a final year project when we were studying Arts Management at De Montfort University in 1994. As is typical with university projects, we got together in our group and had to decide what event we wanted to organise. At that time, comedy was huge and incredibly popular. Rob Newman and David Baddiel were on the front cover of NME, and that same magazine coined the phrase “comedy is the new rock & roll”, a reference to the fact that comedians were beginning to do massive gigs in arenas. We were a bunch of students and for many of us the NME was our “bible”; we wanted to organise an event which would get us excited so it didn’t take long for us to talk about starting a comedy festival. None of us had ever promoted comedy before but I knew a couple of people who worked in comedy so I went home, rang them up and said “tell me everything I need to know about running a comedy festival”.
Did you have a passion for comedy before starting the festival or did you see a niche and go for it?
If I’m honest I had always wanted to be a music promoter. I promoted my first gig when I was aged 13 and organised gigs in my local village hall throughout my teenage years. I then went to work for a band in London for a year before coming to Leicester for University. I had never particularly thought I’d get into promoting comedy however I had always wanted to be involved in promoting events and festivals which had energy and excitement about them. I hate festivals which are “just” a collection of shows in one venue, or full of touring shows – there is nothing special about those. I’ve tried to always move the comedy festival forwards and try things out; some of which don’t always work out but at least we give them a go and experiment.
What does your normal day involve?
There is no such thing really. Today I am meeting with our “official” hotel, then sorting out our city centre branding and then meeting a bunch of students who produce digital animation and chatting about possible projects for next years festival. Tomorrow I’ll be meeting with the festival team, and then catching up with our Finance Director and our network of promoters. It’s a diverse role and involves work on the festival, as well as the wider work of Big Difference Company. I often find I’m thinking about stuff we’ll be doing in 12 months time rather than the day to day work of the festival or company. I think if my job ever became predictable or mundane I would want to move onto something else. I enjoy the diversity of what we do as a company and want to retain that for as long as possible.
When you were growing up did you dream of running a festival or did you want to be an astronaut or fireman like a normal child?
Initially I wanted to be a vet but then quickly realised you had to be really clever and train for years to become one. For a short time I thought I might become a teacher but then I started to organise gigs and realised that I wanted to be a promoter. For many years I wanted to take over from Michael Eavis at Glastonbury – actually, in some ways I would still love to run Glastonbury!
What achievement with the festival are you most proud of?
There are so many specific things that I am proud of. Whether it’s bringing Roseanne Barr across from the US to perform her first ever stand up shows in Europe, or seeing Johnny Vegas win our new act competition way back in 1997 or producing our Comedy in the Dark show at Edinburgh Fringe. Most recently I guess the partnership with Dave has already impacted massively on the festival. I guess the thing I’m most proud of is producing what is probably one of the longest running independent arts festival in the UK every February since 1994.
What has been the hardest struggle?
Money. In the early years it was an enormous struggle to keep things going. We survived thanks to the commitment of various key individuals who supported what we did and never gave up. Looking back I’m kinda pleased that we had a long term view and focused on the vision of delivering a brilliant comedy festival every February. Without that it would have been easier to give up.
What would be your advice to someone wanting to start a festival?
Do it – but make sure it’s brilliant! Running a festival is such a great thing to do, if you can get all the various elements right and you engage with performers, venues, stakeholders, media and the public. It’s easy to run a rubbish festival where actually very few people care about it. Run a great festival and, if you’re passionate about what you’re doing, you’ll find it’s the best thing in the world.
What is next for Geoff Rowe?
I’ll probably put the kettle on and have a quick cup of tea before rushing off to that meeting with our official hotel…….. after that, who knows?
Dave’s Leicester comedy festival runs from the 3 – 19 February and includes an incredible mix of new and established talent. To find out more visit comedy-festival.co.uk.
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