FESTIVAL DIARY DAY 1 - and so the odyssey begins...

Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival Begins today - HOORAY!!!! After months of planning and preparation, the city explodes with comedic mayhem this evening, as the city plays host to over 500 shows over 17 days!

I've been down into the town today and there's banners everywhere, Festival Staff handing out brochures, comedians sitting around in venues drinking coffee and venue owners rushing around making last-minute preparations. I also clocked a mildly terrifying laughing sound, playing on a loop at the top of the High Street, and a life-size bear outside Chutney Ivy! It's all go...

And with the first day of the fest comes Day 1 of my Festival Diary, in which I will be letting you folks know what I'm seeing each night, what I saw the previous night, and any random happenings or news from the previous day. Obviously I haven't got anything to report from last night, because I was enjoying my last normal evening at home for 2 and a half weeks!!

But I can tell you what I'm up to tonight - it all begins with the official invitation-only Launch Reception at Chutney Ivy, hosted by City Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby - there'll be a speech or two and lots of hobnobbing I should think, but no comedy as such.

Perma-tanned cold-reading fun with Ian D Montfort tonight at Firebug

The actual shows I'll be seeing tonight are both at Firebug and both featuring an 'Ian'. Firstly it's Ian D. Montfort, the Sunderland psychic and comic creation of Tom Binns, then later on it's Mock the Weeker Ian Stone performing his show Stoney Baloney.

Apart from that I'll be wondering around seeing what I can see - there are absolutely loads of shows to choose from tonight as you might expect, from Milton Jones at DMH, to Gay Comedy Night at The Y, and the Cookie Jar plays host to Joel Dommett, Stella Graham and Andrew Ryan. There's also DMU's Comedy Crawl and the Secret Tour starting at 6pm and carrying on through the night; Ollie Smith's performance of '27' at Embrace Arts, five acts for a fiver at Just the Tonic, Gareth Richards and Benny Boot at The Belmont Hotel, Luke Benson at the Criterion, Shaggers at Kayal and if you're still standing, the Late Bar at Just the Toinic until 2.30am. And that is by no means all the shows happening tonight - so don't go home after work, get out there and find something funny! I'll be back with another festival diary post tomorrow...