Bristol Rave Events

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Bristol's Rave Scene

Bristol has long been the South West's rave mecca with bus loads of ravers coming to hardcore nights from lesser endowed cities like Bournemouth and Bath since the nineties. At the heart of Bristol's hardcore and old skool scene has always been Lakota, the only venue (until recently) large enough for huge, multi-room raves. The venue's industrial warehouse feel and non-central location also made it popular with Bristol's free party crews who's multi-rig 'linkups' (most notably the Gener8r parties) have also made Bristol a national attraction for oldskool, mash-up and breakcore nights.

The Black Swan in Easton is Bristol's other key rave venue, attracting promoters like Mongrel (formerly at the Croft), Tiki and Avalaf. Keep an eye on Lab's listings for occasional Wrong Music events and even check Whats on at Bristol's Motion for the odd large rave event like Battlegrounds.

Bristol Rave in the time of Covid
Bristol is easily the rave capital of the west, it’s clear from just the name of Rave on Avon - a multi-day multi-venue rave event where the streets of Bristol open themselves to fans of the whole spectrum of rave: drum n bass, hardcore, trance, techno house. Bristol never descriminates! But the only raves hitting the news recently was an illegal rave - the first of its kind in Bristol to receive a £10,000. Obviously no-one would condone raving in Bristol at this time, no matter how much we want it. The question on everyone’s lips is: what will raves look like after covid? Facemasks on entry? Dwindling crowds checking track and trace apps on their phones. Let’s hope Bristol can get its rave on, in the way remember, as soon as possible.

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Our recent rave recommendations

Free entry! Demand more thrash, grind and death from your Thursday nights! Black City plants the Bristol Metal Quarter flagpole south of the river, marking the Dame as the new spot for the battle-jacket hordes in need of a late night headbang. Beats practicing your windmills in front of the mirror at home… Old School Thrash & Death Metal Club Night

The gayest garage night in town from Scotland / Bristol’s deadliest braindance wreckin’ crew! Headset’s gone all out with ice-cold soul queen & Hyperdub comrade Cooly G, serving percussive rhythms reminiscent of those pivotal FWD>> nights at London’s legendary Plastic People. Special guest Cooly G headlines Headset's Gay Garage

This is one for the low-end freax! Dreyan brings high-octane footwork and techno hybrids, colliding with Cromie’s warped percussion and UBABAXU’s razor-sharp UKG for a night of pure low-end pressure. Big look FFO: Neffa-T, Yemz, Jossy Mitsu, Bakey. Milan and Bristol DJs, musicians and MCs for a crazy night you don’t wanna miss

Sell out warning! Hordes of Machina Bristronica modular wizards descend on the Brew for a must-witness live hardware spectacular from Helena Hauff’s fav cult alien electro overlord: The Exaltics. Expect near-Drexicyan levels of mystic acid squelch alongside Delay Grounds’ spun-out live IDM and cosmic dance futurism. A fully stacked lineup of machine music, crunchy and funky in equal measure..

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What our editors say

“CELINE DIJON - Party starter and founder of Get On Festival, Celine Dijon brings high-energy, genre-spanning bangers to the dance floor. With a wicked Voices Radio show under his belt, expect acid house, disco, and everything in between.”
From: Blue Marbles

“Spice Ranger brings a variety of harder styles from 160-200bpm. Expect tek, drum and bass, hardstyle and donk remixes of 2000's pop tune bangers. Make sure you're ready to stomp your feet and sing along!”
From: Stoopid Events #001: For the Love of Donk

“Bit by the music bug at a tender age, South Londoner Jumpin Jack Frost hit the DJ circuit at 18, mixing funk, hip hop and original breakbeats and diving into the acid house circuit via the Carwash nights in the late 80s DJ’s were Grooverider, Bryan gee, Fabio, Frost and Pete Stewart. When the rave scene exploded Frost was at its forefront, enjoying the freedom of going with the flow and mixing drastically different styles of music to suit the mood of the moment.”
From: Dry Jan Rave | Jumpin' Jack Frost | Bristol Sober Spaces x Trinity

“Expect a healthy mixture of vinyl and digital, anthems and white-labels, and all the genre's you've come to expect from these nights. Starting off with acid house and oldskool rave, then breakbeat hardcore and jungle techno, and finally into hard house, happy hardcore, and maybe even some free tekno.”
From: Safe As F*ck: DJ Doubt b2b DJ Them

“If you have been to one of our Family events before you'll know we love to absolutely cram as many vibes in as possible and this time we have pushed that to the max with so many b2bs spanning across almost every hard rave genre! Expect ridiculous donks, banging bassline, melodic jungle, havin' it neurofunk, horrible hardstyle, stupid shenanigans and so much more!”
From: Wrong'uns Family Christmas for Palestine