Edinburgh Comedy Awards endangered by lack of sponsor

The future of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards is at risk following the end of a two-year title sponsorship deal with UKTV channel Dave.

The awards have failed to secure a new sponsor for 2023 and will not run this year without last-minute support from sponsors.

The awards were established in 1981 by West End producer Nica Burns. She continues to oversee them and funded them herself in 2009 and 2018, in the absence of an official sponsor.

The awards are now being moved into ownership of a charitable trust and will seek funding from several smaller sponsorship deals in future years, British Comedy Guide reported.

The awards cost more than £200,000 a year to run, including events, prize funds, administrative costs and judging and scouting teams.

“As everyone across the arts knows, post-Covid the commercial landscape has changed significantly: marketing and sponsorship budgets are under huge pressure and the pool of ethically appropriate sponsors diminished,” organisers said.

"It has become clear that we need to change the funding model, to think beyond one large title sponsor, to raise money from a mix of sources.”

They called for "potential heroes” to offer support that might allow the awards to be distributed at this year’s edition of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

“As the comedy section [of the Fringe Society's annual programme] has expanded to become such a significant genre of the Fringe, so have the costs of running the awards,” Burns said.

“Having stepped in and personally sponsored them twice over the years, I will be the first to put money on the table for 2023, but post-Covid I can no longer do it on my own. 

“I am therefore inviting the comedy industry and all potential partners to get in touch immediately to help make the awards happen this year."