WHATS ON / Bristol Club Nights

Bristol Clubs & Nightlife

— All Bristol's electronic & dance music listings.

The best place to buy tickets for dance music events in Bristol.

DJs playing at Bristol's nightlife hot spot.

Bristol’s best club nights

Dance music dominates Bristol’s musical landscape with the city’s electronic music producers and DJs considered some of Bristol’s finest exports. Outsiders and bloggers frequently fail to understand Bristol’s dance music, using resorting to sweeping statements about dubstep, disco or house music or cringe-inducing references to the ‘Bristol Sound’. The truth is that Bristol’s musical integrity is a direct result of sheer variety and the passion of individuals working in the music scene today.

Like Manchester’s Warehouse Project, Motion is the first nightclub many visitors to Bristol will be introduced to. While Headfirst is generally focused around the city’s smaller nights and events, the value Motion adds to Bristol’s musical culture in undeniable. The ability to book DJ’s like Ricardo Villalobos and Laurent Garnier or live acts like Moderat, inspires the next generation of promoters that will bring their own talent to venues like dare2, Lost Horizon and Lakota.

Bristol Club Listings

Buy club tickets

Since 2016 clubbers have been able to buy tickets for events at venues like Coroner’s Court, Lakota and The Small Horse here on Headfirst. We work directly with the club promoters providing an ethical and independent place to buy your club tickets. Headfirst provides barcode-based club night tickets which are scanned by staff outside nightclubs and venues in Bristol on a nightly basis.

DJ Culture & Nightlife

Stokes Croft’s Idle Hands record shop has earned international recognition from both international and Bristol DJs and is frequently listed alongside Rush Hour Records and Public Possession as one of Europe’s best sources of electronic music. The rise of house music (and with it disco) has seen the club focus begin to shift from headline producers to experienced djs and record collectors. Where true DJ bookings were once the domain of small niche nightclubs like Cosies and Take 5 Cafe, recently promoters like Simple Things and PTS have brought international dance music purveyors to larger venues like Propyard and The Island’s prison cells. Clubbers rush to buy Dropout Disco tickets before the full line-up is announced while Dirty Talk and Alfresco Disco’s innovative approach to the typical ‘nightclub venue’ sells out on the promoter’s reputation alone.

Bristol's lesser-spotted unicorn DJs at our favourite nightclub. Club night at the Thekla in Bristol.

Sell out warning - buy tickets while you can!

Opening the Easter bank holiday in an unruly manner, Flat 7’s next sonic adventure of nail-biting techno and no-nonsense wall-to-wall slammers seeps into The Island’s subterranean abode. Top-tier residents Alexisitry and Dani Whylie bring the energy and beguiling, dark, heady groovers from start to finish… Flat 7 at The Island.

Celebrating Good Friday as the Goddess intended by breaking a sweat to pumping house and trippy techno in the Brew backroom til 4am……Maricas resident Roza Terenzi comes through with her energetic and psychedelic blend of spacey techno, atmospheric breakbeat, euphoric house and acid electronica. Off-Kilter w/ Roza Terenzi + Daisy Moon at Strange Brew.

Witness the joyful energy of NTS’ OK Williams slinging unbearably hype UKF/140/electro tunes one second and then switching to tear-jearking soulful house the next. BPM police get in the bin, OK Williams is hardwired to the invisible pulse of the club. Ok Williams + Øphanim at The Love Inn.

Sell out warning! The return of the unbeatable sub-heavy power trio! Massive Attack’s Daddy G and OG vinyl heads Mr Benn and Queen Bee come to rock you gently with lovers, dancehall, rare groove (and not-so-gently with a dash of junglism). One for the heads who remember! Bristol Hi-Fi Easter Special at The Jam Jar.

Tickets Available

Sun 25th May
THE AFTERS RAVE PART 2* at Lakota
Sat 24th May
THE AFTERS RAVE PART 1* at Lakota
Sat 3rd May
Coast2Coast  + Shonky at Lakota
Sat 5th April
Mella Dee 'All Night Long' at Lakota

Electronic music in Bristol

Experimental dance music and boundary-pushing techno will always be found in Bristol’s smaller club venues. The Island’s cells space for example, continues to provide opportunities for new promoters that have vision beyond simply booking a DJ and running a publicity campaign. With no permanent sound system or DJ equipment, the old prison cells is blank canvas club - at it’s very best when an innovative event organiser puts in the time to transform the whole dancefloor space.

Club audience bought their tickets on Headfirst Bristol.

Editor's club recommendations

Our editor's top live music recommendation

Blistering otherworldly-industrial-bass sorcery from AKA HEX (Aïsha Devi + Slikback) meets Iglooghost’s dizzying and glitchy electronic mythmaking meets gyrofield’s dreamy and hevvvy dnb. Completed by a mega cast of local allstars; long live PTS! PTS 12 ϟ Iglooghost, AKA Hex, gyrofield at Loco Klub.

High-octane silly ravers rejoice, get your happy hardcore feels and redonkulous pop edits from Sheff’s Off Me Nut Allstar Spongebob Squarewave and crustaceous hardbass royalty Lobsta B. Mischievous stank faces and Bangface tees at the ready, it’s gonna get weeeeeeird. Donk Stop Believing:Spongebob Sqaurewave /Bubble07 at Loco Klub.

Sell out warning! He’d hate us for this, but Vlad is this generation’s definitive DJ’s-DJ (RIP Andrew Weatherall). Conjuring dark, hypnotic and psychedelic journeys of pan-genre eclecticism with two decks and a mixer... you just gotta witness this master at work… Vladimir Ivkovic + Ellie Stokes B2B Ido Plumes at The Love Inn.

Drag Race UK diva Scaredy Kat comes to town with her hyperpop-glamour-punk for Bristol’s most dazzlingly ghoulish drag crew’s 4/20 birthday bash. Plus plenty more gloriously cursed and chaotic performance high-jinks from the likes of Roach, Jessica Jungle and Sneeze for Slaughterhaus’ celebrations. Slaughterhaus: Birthday Cake feat. Scaredy Kat at Strange Brew.

Alternative Spaces and New Club Venues

One of the main strengths to Bristol's club scene is it's relentless dynamism, every year enthusiastic new promoters bring new experiences to the table. Unlike raves of the previous decades, new events shirk the crusty, rebellious connotations of free party culture in favour of organised, party-centric events in interesting locations.