For both performers and fans of live comedy, the month of August is always reserved for just one thing.

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival has been running since 1947 and remains a rite of passage for any budding or established comedian.

However, over the last 20 years, comedy festivals have been slowly popping up all over Britain, becoming vital stepping stones for many aspiring performers.

For over a decade, Ventnor Fringe Festival has been a creative showcase of imagination, innovation and originality all crammed into a small hillside town situated on the south side of the Island.

Ventnor isn’t the obvious destination for a highly respected comedy fringe festival but thanks to the vibrant vision of Jack Whitewood and Mhairi Macaulay, Ventnor is now a significant pin on the comedy map.

This year, one of the acts was the evergreen alternative comedy podcast pioneer Richard Herring.

Making his name during the second wave of the alternative comedy revolution of the early '90s, Herring contributed material to the influential radio comedy series On The Hour before appearing alongside his comedy counterpart Stewart Lee for the cult BBC2 comedy series This Morning With Richard Not Judy.

His fringe Work in Progress show centred around the comedian’s recent triumphant battle with cancer, which doesn’t seem like the perfect grounding for a comedy routine.

Yet with Herring’s surreal, sarcastic analysis of people and situations, the packed out audience found themselves laughing at what would otherwise be a very serious subject. To me, this is the mark of a comedy great.

Also on the bill was writer, comedian and Taskmaster winner Sophie Duker.

A strong advocate of the contemporary woke culture of 2023, most of Duker’s material is heavily influenced by social empowerment and diversity.

I couldn’t entirely decide whether all of her social observations hit the mark for the Ventnor audience. However, both her stage presence and ardent self confidence gives Duker the ability to sell any show and by the end, the crowd were in the palm of her hand.

It would be fascinating to know if some of this audience will be present at Medina Theatre on September 8 when the controversial comedian Jim Davidson takes to the stage.

With other shows with the legendary writer, author and Isle of Wight resident Hunter Davies, the writer and comedian Vittorio Angelone and magician Angus Baskerville, this year’s festival was a smorgasbord of entertainment for all.

As a wheelchair user, the festival was the perfect place for me to access everything with all the tents having big entrances and wide pathways which were all easily navigable.

Not even the shockingly awful autumnal weather conditions could spoil the positive, uplifting experience of this feast of vibrant fun.

This was my first time at the Ventnor Fringe but I’ll definitely be back!