The Live Comedy Association has opened a new round of its hardship fund for comedians and others who lost money from the collapse of the company behind the Leicester Comedy Festival.

It comes as new paperwork filed with Companies House reveals that that company, Big Difference, owed £184,510 to unsecured creditors when it fell into liquidation earlier this year, many of them comedians, promoters and venues.

According to Chortle, a report prepared by the liquidators states there were additional debts of £47,433 in unpaid wages and £3280 due in tax payments. But the company basically has no assets.

It first emerged that Big Difference was facing financial problems back in April when it became clear hundreds of comedians who performed at the 2026 edition of the Leicester Comedy Festival in February had not received their ticket income. Directors of Big Difference then confirmed that the company had ceased trading last month.

According to Chortle, the company’s biggest debt is owed to local promoter Triple Fee Pee, which programmed a number of venues at the festival and is owed over £48,000. Fellow promoter Just The Tonic is owed just over £12,500.

LCA previously allocated £5000 of the money it had already raised for its Stand Up And Give Fund to provide support to some of those owed money by Big Difference. It then launched a crowd-funding campaign to raise further money to offer additional support to those still out of pocket from the Leicester festival’s collapse.

The trade group announced yesterday on social media that “we’ve opened a new round of our LCF Hardship Fund for comedians and others left out of pocket by Big Difference Company’s non-payments at Leicester Comedy Festival 2026. Applying won’t affect your right to pursue what you’re still owed”.

LCA has also made public the answers it received to some of the questions it raised at a meeting of Big Difference creditors earlier this month, which were addressed to former trustees of the now defunct company. Where answers were provided these have now been published on the LCA website.