About London SketchFest

sketch comedy at the London Sketch Comedy Festival


The London Sketch Comedy Festival is the UK’s first ever festival dedicated to sketch comedy and has become a beacon for other alternative comedy forms also. An annual event showcasing and celebrating the best writer-performers in comedy, London SketchFest provides a platform for both emerging and established acts, staging the best new talent and awarding its brightest stars.

So what is Sketch Comedy?
Sketch comedy, which is different from improv and stand-up, usually consists of short written scenes, rehearsed beforehand and performed by a group of people or  ‘a troupe’. It’s imaginative, surprising and often a little wacky. In recent years the definition has also expanded to include the explosion of comedy groups creating short films and video sketches. Other alternative forms include character comedy, musical comedy and improv.

Each year the festival hosts a competition open to new and unsigned talent. Judged by a panel of industry professionals, the groups perform 20-minute sets, competing for the title of ‘Best New Act’. Alongside the competition, the festival’s Feature Series presents more established acts, often from TV and radio and it’s new Solo Series shines a spotlight on up-and-coming single-performer comedy acts. It also has a film competition Sketch Screen and for 2015 a newly established writer’s competition.

Combining aspects of comedy and theatre to create an original, fun and unique atmosphere, the festival stages the most up-and-coming sketch comedy shows alongside the best sketch comedy acts to provide an unparalleled comedy experience. Fast-paced, full of character and imagination with twists at every turn, it’s an alternative comedy experience that offers you way more than a man and a mic.

Part of an international circuit of sketch comedy festivals [SketchFests] stretching from the UK, across the USA and Canada, London SketchFest aims to discover Britain’s writer-performer talent, helping to seek out the future stars of comedy, whilst bringing some of the best sketch comedy in the world to London.