upcoming gig

Bristol's Drag Scene

With a strong LGBTQ+ scene and love of theatre/the arts, Bristol is a hotbed for drag events and all kinda of gender fluid action. Most nights of the week you can see someone lipsync til they drop at the Queenshilling, Old Market Assembly or Zed Alley's own Punka drag show.

Expect and inclusive environment at most drag events, Bristol tends to be a very LGBTQ+ friendly environment with due care built up around its drag nights. Some of our favourite drag queens and drag kinds include: Ursula Major, Brizzle Boiz's Isaac Dix - veritable Ru Paul's of the West.

Buy tickets for drag events in Bristol

Our recent drag recommendations

Sell out warning! Fog rolls into Strange Brew for the return of Maria Somerville... her full-band set promises the spectral braid of folk, dream-gaze, and star-smeared pop she’s refined into a kind of sonic weather. These tickets will move fast; unmissable future icon FFO: Cocteau Twins, Broadcast, Mazzy Star, Julianna Barwick. One of the year's standout talents in the shoegaze-not-shoegaze revival returns to Strange Brew. Drawing on folk forms alongside post-punk, traditional Irish motifs, starry eyed pop and hypnotic drones to create wholly original music that is borne of her roots in Connemara. “One of Ireland’s most vital young voices.” – Bandcamp

Sell out warning! 40-cap barbershop insanity ft. Coffin Fodder’s folklore-flecked Cornish dungeon thrash, Throb’s sludge-soaked hardcore filth, and Byford Dolphin Incident’s blistering aquatic powerviolence. We’re assured all scissors will be put away, there’s no escaping the pit though. Mandatory mayhem FFO: Vampiric Coffin, Final Dose, Couch Slut, Plasmatics, Iron Lung. Another three-band assault hits Zero Barbershop as Coffin Fodder, Throb, and Byford Dolphin Incident bring an unrelenting night of dark underground heaviness.

Sell out warning! Huge headline visitation from the Vulture God! All kneel before your new local death deities, dialling in a hella technical, proggy take on utter metal desecration that’s hardwired to excite existing disciples of: Opeth, Be’lakor, Cynic, Gojira, Cult of Luna. Hometown headline show to celebrate the debut Vulture God EP

Feral local deathcore merchants Entropic Rot throw slam-inducing hammer-ons and pig squeals to The Croft pit, alongside fresh yet putrid sludge doom favs Życie. This shit’s heavier than the grave FFO: The Acacia Strain, Ingested, Malevolence, Dopethrone, Old Man Gloom. With Blunt Impact, Zycie, World//Error and Kintona

What our editors say

“They will be joined by a couple of equally incredible and witty support bands in SECOND WIFE and NERVOUS REX. As always at Punka we will have a drag queen host for the evening keeping you all in line and singing some bangers and for this gig it’s AFTER SHOCK!! ⚡ Don't miss this one!! xoxox”
From: TWAT UNION / SECOND WIFE / NERVOUS REX

“Molly No-Mates https://www.instagram.com/mollynomatesmorris Molly No-Mates are a queer, drag king Molly dancing team. Learn the ropes in an introductory Morris Dancing workshop or sit back and watch the hankies fly.”
From: Earth Ball, Commuted, Sullow, Rhizocorp + more

“Mercy is the first Armand Hammer album since 2023's We Buy Diabetic Test Strips, a project that The Observer (UK) described as "an exceptional record that deserves your time and headphones" and The Line Of Best Fit deemed "their headiest and most impressive work thus far." On 2021's Haram, their first with The Alchemist, the duo "drag postcolonial wounds onto the examination table" (Pitchfork). Beats Per Minute called it "a tremendous success."”
From: ARMAND HAMMER + GABE 'NANDEZ

“Bristol Sober Spaces and Sober Queers are teaming up to host a night of live music, DJs and drag from 6 - 9pm! Featuring our residents Slaggamuffin and Gender Criminal with guest performances from Juju and Kerensa. Dry but not Juiceless!”
From: Sober Queers presents Juju | Slaggamuffin | Kerensa | Gender Criminal

“Radstock duo Throb (T.H.R.O.B) drag the crowd into a swamp of sludge-soaked hardcore. With only guitar and drums, they unleash filthy, down-tuned riffs and punishing rhythmic weight. It’s abrasive, heavy as hell, and impossible not to feel in your ribcage — a perfect evening escalation.”
From: COFFIN FODDER // THROB // BYFORD DOLPHIN INCIDENT