Battleaxe the Festival
BattleAxe Fest is a brand new, indie, (mostly) comedy festival celebrating women+ from all over right here in Cbus, OH! Created + curated by Tara DeFrancisco (@taradefrancisco, touring performer, 4x annual festival planner) plus a giant team of friends + contemporaries are joining to make yet another fun, punky, beautiful, and communal project in our city.
Thursday October 22 evening, Friday October 23, and all day & night October 24th, we will be reveling in the comedy + arts shared by our lineups from 15+ cities sharing their talents! We'll be featuring as many types of comedy arts as we can - standups galore, improvising solo/duos/teams, storytellers, and experimental works - as well as workshops, panels, jams, and ways to collab across the board.
-Tickets for events go on sale Friday, September 25th throughout the day for most programming - 13 shows, and even more events! Grab them individually, get a night pass, get ready to have a great weekend in Cbus, Ohio!-
The missions & goals of BattleAxe Fest™
All materials/intellectual property of BattleAxe Fest 2026™
*OPEN Any comic, artist, storyteller, improviser, writer from ANYWHERE, as long as they are compliant with our missions, performer protections, and CoE. No application fee.
*INCLUSION This fest will include any and all women (no matter assigned gender at birth, and also including trans/nb/genderqueer folks empowered in primarily female spaces).
*ALL TOGETHER This would be one weekend of holding as many women as we could, anywhere in our spaces (two stages for this weekend + classroom, greenrooms, lobby areas, plus an auxiliary space each year). Each night would ONLY be in one building, so we can celebrate each other.
*COMMUNITY CROSSOVER As a third space and community space maker, a BattleAxe/Nest goal was to make sure all displines are under one roof and could enjoy each other with celebration and community at the core.
*WOMEN+ IN CHARGE - The feeling is collaborative, homegrown, and still professional, figureheads in charge for safety, but room for inspiration and ideas. At our spaces, we often practice something called lateral movement & direction through committee where possible.
*EVERY ARTIST POTENTIAL FOR PAY Artists get what they put in - Every single show made will be a 50/50 door split after space fees are covered, remainder reinvested in continuing the next year like a not-for-profit model.
*GOOD F*CKING TAPES Artists will be able to record themselves in warm, happy, imtimate, perfect-sized joyful rooms. Additionally, we'll have a few professional recordings to be shared and shopped out of Ohio.
*GRASSROOT AND DIGITAL PROMOTION We'll be going digital AND analog because we're sick of being chronically online for joyful things.
*FULLY STAFFED AT FEST COST Artists do nothing but promote and do their art - there will be professional tech, house management, ticketing, greenroom staff on site for weekend shows. No busking or "papering the house" like fringe shows.
*ACCESS FOR ARTISTS Any artist gets into any non-sold out show for free, in order of arrival. This ensures a great room for any performing artist.
*DREAM BIG, START MEDIUM TD's founder-tactic that has been very effective; Sell out the thing you love and made with care first, take care of everyone, grow next.
*ETHICAL SPONSORSHIP Aligned small businesses and altruistic spaces, not corporate overlords: Art is a form of resistance and celebration. This is for us, without limitations on speech or control thereof within CoE, like all our practices.
*WEIRD AND WILD WELCOME - This fest will run a few specialty events as well; Comedy forever, plus fun dumb-wonderfuls.
Mission of BattleAxe Fest 2026™ / The Nest Theatre + Comedy Arts Center ©