Bristol's Festival Scene

Bristol festivals draw huge crowds year on year - from commercially run events like Tokyo World Festival in Eastville park to free (and community minded) events like Trinity Garden Party and St. Paul's carnival. There are a string of multi-venue festivals (in the style of Sonar in Barcelona) around the Stokes Croft area including Simple Things and Rave on Avon. Simple Things has expanded somewhat in the last few years and taken over the city's flagship venue, Colston Hall.

As well as music festivals, Bristol's deep historical connection to street art is celebrated in day events like Upfest. Centred around the recently created (and unofficial) street art district - North Street - you can spend the day watching apartment blocks getting a new lick of paint from head to toe. Truly a festival not to be missed!

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Our recent festival recommendations

Sell out warning! Bristol > Abergavenny summer getaway par excellence, Come Bye hosts a steaming pre-festival warmup with this Sauna + DJ session in Horfield Common’s community wellness retreat. Sweat out to residents spinning acid chug, bumpin’ garage and sunshine-filled house before taking the deep cold plunge. Come Bye & Sauna at Ardagh Community Sauna, BS6 7YL.

One of Bristol’s sharpest voices, few contemporary poets can match Samatar Elmi’s distinctive combination of technical dexterity and political bite. He launches new collection Agen Bien Fou at EBB, joined in literary provocation by experimental writer and researcher Nell Osbourne and Swansea’s foremost Dylan Thomas evangelist Jeff Towns. Samatar Elmi: Agen Bien Fou with Nell Osborne & Jeff Towns at East Bristol Books.

Sell out warning! A beautifully shot documentary following the seasonal rhythms of an off-grid nonagenarian deep in rural Canada. With her stubbornly analogue existence of land cultivation and self-sufficiency, Agatha’s a slow-living ecofeminist inspiration who’ll make you swear off tech forever. Reject modernity! Embrace tradition! Grow some vegetables and throw your phone into the sea! Agatha's Almanac - 8pm at The Cube.

Fresh Spike Island co-commission bringing Commaret’s non-linear short cinema experiments to the UK for the very first time. Mijitas offers two poetic yet political views of women navigating the gendered realities of cleaning and sex work, melding dashes of magical realism with improvised documentary intimacy in Commaret’s own inimitable style. Catch it until 6th September. Mijitas is the first exhibition in the UK by Franco-Chilean artist Tohé Commaret,featuring two new moving image commissions, Rosa and Can you hear me? (both 2026).