A small city near Lake Erie is about to get very, very loud. 🎤
The Lucille Ball Comedy Festival returns to Jamestown, NY, from August 6 through 9, and this year’s lineup reads like a lineup you’d expect at a Madison Square Garden run, not a four-day festival in a town of under 30,000 people.
If you’re a comedy fan in New York City, you have to bookmark this event and grab your tickets now. Because it’s coming up fast, and it’s proving to be one of summer’s best Upstate getaways.
Here are the details.
A lineup that’s bigger than the town it’s in
The National Comedy Center, which presents the festival every year, confirmed Jerry Seinfeld, Bert Kreischer, and Seth Meyers as this year’s headliners, and each one gets their own night on the marquee at Jamestown’s Northwest Arena:
- Thursday, August 6: Jerry Seinfeld opens the festival at 7 pm
- Saturday, August 8: Bert Kreischer takes the stage twice, at 7 pm and again at 9:30 pm
- Sunday, August 9: Seth Meyers closes things out at 5 pm
That’s three of the biggest names in American comedy playing the same small-town festival within a single weekend, and it’s not even the whole show.
The festival includes more than 50 performances total across the four days, including stand-up showcases, late-night sets, and additional appearances from comedians touring in from across the country.
Why this festival keeps getting bigger every year
Jamestown isn’t just a random pick for a comedy festival, it’s where Lucille Ball was actually born and raised, and the town has leaned all the way into that legacy.
The National Comedy Center, the country’s official museum and archive dedicated to the art form of comedy, opened here in 2018 and now anchors the entire festival around its 37,000-square-foot home base.
What else is worth seeing while you’re there
Beyond the headliner shows, the National Comedy Center itself is worth building a trip around on its own.
The museum houses over 50 immersive and interactive exhibits spread across its space, walking visitors through the history and mechanics of comedy in a way that feels more like an experience than a traditional museum tour.
The museum is open Thursday through Monday from 10 am to 5 pm, with free parking available for guests, making it easy to pair a museum visit with festival shows on the same trip.
If you’re already making the trip out for the comedy lineup, it’s an easy add-on that fits right into the same afternoon.
How to get here from NYC
Jamestown sits out near the New York-Pennsylvania border, close to Lake Erie, which means this one’s a genuine road trip rather than a quick day trip.
The drive from Manhattan runs roughly 6 hours depending on traffic, or you can fly into Buffalo or Erie and drive the rest of the way in about an hour.
It’s a haul, but for a weekend that includes Jerry Seinfeld, Bert Kreischer, and Seth Meyers all on the same bill, plus a museum built entirely around the history of comedy, it’s shaping up to be one of the more unexpectedly great comedy weekends in the state this summer.