Review: Great Yorkshire Fringe

The result is the Great Yorkshire Fringe, which now takes over Parliament Street for two weeks, and thanks to Witts’ determination, contacts book, and sheer bloody mindedness he has successfully brought a little Edinburgh spirit to Yorkshire.

As ever, the programme is a mix of household names and upcoming stand-ups, but while comedy is definitely the focus, there are also various music, theatre and family events.

Witts knows his audience and on a Saturday afternoon the team from West End Magic was entertaining an almost full Teapot Tent. This wasn’t edge of your seat Dynamo-style magic, but but they knew how to work a crowd of youngsters and anyone who doesn’t enjoy a card trick is not to be trusted.

The main festival venue is the Spiegeltent where the stand-ups are forced to get up close to their audience and where Dan Nightingale proved his worth as compere with a crowd that wanted to be noticed.

Some of the acts use York to hone their Edinburgh show. Others like Stephen K Amos are just there to flex their comedic muscles and it all feels joyously informal.

On Saturday afternoon Richard Herring, who might just be Britain’s hardest working comedian, was trying out his new show Oh Frig, I’m Fifty! While a chunk of the material will be familiar to listeners of his podcast, his gags on the ageing process and the meaning of life have a searing honesty.

Henning Wehn was one of the big draws of this year’s festival. While the Barbican lacks the festival vibe of Parliament Street, which models itself on Edinburgh’s Pleasance, his new show Westphalia Is Not An Option on immigration, Brexit and what it means to be British is right on the money.

None of this can be cheap to stage, but it’s exactly the Great Yorkshire Festival is exactly the kind of festival York needs. So more power to you Mr Witts and hopefully we’ll see you all the same time next year.

To August 6, greatyorkshirefringe.com