Comedy lovers have a reason to smile again as the Kigali International Comedy Festival (KICF) returns for its second run.
The festival debuted in November last year, and is organised by the Comedy Knights — credited for pioneering the standup comedy genre in the country. It attracted a slew of local and regional comedians who put up three days of performances in Kinyarwanda, English, and French.
This year, the festival is stretching over a one week period, from July 22 to 29. However, the main performances will take place on Saturday July 28 and 29 at Camp Kigali.
The first day of the festival will be dedicated to English performances, and will be headlined by Britain’s Got Talent 2017 finalist Daliso Chaponda.
Day two, dedicated to French performances, will be headlined by the comedy duo Siriki and Souke from Burkina Faso.
In all, performances will come from Rwanda, Japan, the UK, South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Guinea, Cameroon, the DRC, Burkina Faso, and Burundi.
This year, the festival consists of a school tour, bar tour, and two stage shows.
According to organisers, the festival kicked off on June 15, at Kagarama High School in Kicukiro, where the Kigali International Comedy Festival was launched as a school tour.
The school and bar tour were scheduled from June 15 to July 26, with all shows in Kinyarwanda and, free of charge. Performers in this segment were all products of The Com Factory, a project of the Comedy Knights that seeks to identify and nurture upcoming local comedy talent.
It was initiated last year in the run up to the first edition of the comedy festival. Since then, The Com Factory has produced over 10 budding comedy talents, and two have since been signed by the Comedy Knights.
Tickets for the two stage shows are Rwf5, 000 (ordinary, early bird), and 10,000 (at the gate), Rwf2, 000 (for the first 200 students), while early bird tickets for a weekend pass (Day 1 and 2) go for Rwf10, 000.
A VIP table for eight goes for Rwf200, 000 (one day) and Rwf350, 000 (weekend pass for two days). Tickets are on sale at various locations including Ogopogo Bar and Restaurant, Spider Man Game Centre Masaka, UTC, and Jumia Food. All shows kick off at 5:30 pm.