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Montreal, July 26: What a great second year for Zoofest! The last 14 days were filled with 35 shows, 136 representations and 113 local and international artists. From the July 12 until the 25th, all those events were held in 8 different venues in the heart of Montreal’s Quartier des Spectacles.

People’s Choice Award

The competition was tight, but this year people’s choice award goes to Noel Fielding!

International Quality

The international talent that came to Zoofest was brutal. Noel Fielding, Jim Jefferies, Bill Burr and Bo Burnham had sold out runs. Furthermore, Jim Jefferies went double encore at Katacombes and Donald Glover was a crowd’s favourite.

The excitement created by these international comedy talents proved that Zoofest targeted the proper market: Montrealers - part of the 18-35 age group - in quest of new and exciting groundbreaking comedy.

Hate it or love it, Kim Noble will Die was one of the biggest buzz show at Zoofest. Word of mouth even brought Francophone medias at La Chapelle. International industry professionals and artists alike, such as Jimmy Carr, also dropped in Montreal for his very special performance.

At the box office

Last year, 13 000 comedy fans attended Zoofest. This year, it was double the trouble with 30 000 spectators attending Zoofest performances. Lesson learned ? There’s a huge niche market for out of the box provocative shows in Montreal's busy festival season.

Zoofest used an innovative approach to promote its shows: a blog was used to publish all important information and news, original content was created and published on YouTube and Flickr, Facebook and Twitter were used to reach out and connect with fans and artists.

35 000 visitors landed on zoofest.com as a result of this campaign during the event.

Zoofest also offered an incredible tool to the Iphone community. On July 8, the Zoofest Iphone application, featuring full schedule, geo-targeting of venues and artist profiles was launched. The application was downloaded by Montrealer's, tourist ans artists alike to further facilitate their Zoofest experience.

On the first day of the festival, the web numbers went bezerk! Thanks to every single media who helped shape the buzz. Big up to the Twitter addicts and independent bloggers for giving us a push and for your support.

We want to sincerely thank everyone who attended Zoofest, joined the Facebook page, tweeted about an artist, recommended a show to a friend or work colleague and downloaded the Iphone application. But most and foremost, thanks for buying tickets, thus making this event possible.

Finally, a very special word of appreciation to Tourism Québec for making Zoofest possible.