Spikefest is launched

The second annual Spike Milligan Comedy Festival, Spikefest 2004, has been officially launched by two of the headline comedians appearing during the festival.

The launch of the festival, themed "Permission to Laugh" took place on September 21 at Anderson Park in Woy Woy.

Comedians Julia Morris and Calvin De Grey appeared as part of the official launch at Spike's Soapbox, Anderson Park.

Spikefest is an annual comedy festival paying tribute Spike Milligan.

He is perhaps best known for his work on the Goon Show, yet he also produced satires, biographies, poetry and plays as well as many films and TV series.

Spike's comic satire on Woy Woy, where his mother and father retired, put Woy Woy in the spotlight internationally and made it a talking point in Australia.

The Spikefest Comedy festival was born out of a community desire to celebrate not only his humour by also his widespread involvement in the local community and his energetic campaigning for the mental health awareness and a variety of local environment issues.

One of the issues he was instrumental in was the saving of local landmark Riley's Island from housing development.

The core festivities of the event have been joined by events such as the Barefoot, Boardshorts and Bowls Day, the community Chest Comedy Gala black tie dinner as well as a wide variety of competitions, seminars and cultural tours.

A schedule of free workshops for kids has also been incorporated into the festival including theatre sports, comic writing, mask making, puppet making and cartooning.

For the big kids, there are the theatre sports launch, film making workshops and a creative parade workshop.

Many existing events have also become a part of Spikefest this year including Quickflicks with a special award for best comedy and the Orchid Spikefest with a new breed of orchid named after Spike Milligan.

There's also the Archibald Prize exhibition with a special comedy prize in the "Who - portraits of local identities" exhibition.

The festival culminates with its biggest event, the Walking Backward to Woy Woy parade that now also includes a jazz concert.

Press release, September 20 Laura Clyne, Gosford Council