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Free Gigs in Bristol

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Bristol's Free Gigs Scene

Where to find free music in Bristol Free music's pretty easy to find in Bristol. Whilst most gigs outside of the big venues are usually only a few quid, it's always nice to see some bands for free or a couple of pounds in a bucket (if they're good!) For guaranteed free music with your pint, go to a venue which has a free entry policy.

The Old Duke, The Canteen and The Golden Lion (except fridays) should probably be your first port-of-call to check out Coronation Tap are also very reliable and popular for free gigs. Luckily free gigs can happen anywhere, this means you can keep things interesting and not get bored of rotating the same Bristol venues. Free live music can crop up anywhere from the Grain Barge and Lousianna to Colston Hall and even St Georges.

The economy of free gigs. Can it survive Covid?

Good news: gigs in Bristol are more likely to be free than anywhere else! General ticket prices seem to be more common between free and £5; the £20+ bracket is a rare one compared to the capital’s high-end arts and theatre gigs. Bristol’s pandemic response has opened up some extra local music funding. Will free gigs disappear with the added financial pressures of covid? Indoor gigs may soon be possible, but how many of them will remain free and accessible?

Free outdoor gigs and festivals in Bristol

From mid June to the beginning of September Bristol Council and independent organisations put on some great free music events. Best of all there's something different almost every weekend and they don't cost any money! Significant large events include St Werbergh's Fair, The Harbourside Festival and St Pauls Carnival. In addition there are some great smaller, open air gigs with free entry to be found in places like Queens Square, Stokes Croft and Castle Park.

Buy tickets for free gigs events in Bristol

Our recent free gigs recommendations

Free entry / PWYC! The gong rings on for denim-donning, seven-headed heavy psych-prog beast Doom Gong. A mighty whirlwind of dizzying genre shifts, tasty time signature trickery and left-field melodic earworm magic, spinning in all the way from Kentucky… we can’t wait to get swept up in the swarm. Frenetic fuzz FFO: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Cardiacs, Wooze. DOOM GONG at The Lanes.

Free entry / PWYC! Introspective poetic grit from Shell Company affiliate Older Brother atop Georg-i’s giddy, shapeshifting productions. We’ve been rinsing Warm Skin since this pair of avant-club mavericks dropped it last year! Expect a live’n’direct sucker-punch of staggering warped bass, brooding reflections and murky electronics with a healthy nod to Massive Attack-imbued emotive trip-hop tension. Big tip! GEORG-I X OLDER BROTHER + LIFEISFEEDBACK at The Lanes.

Supernormal withdrawal? QWAK’s got a cure for what ails ye. Their grab-bag of cross-country experimental sonics brings together freeform dub-drone collapses from Erosion Control, Wind In The Willows-gone-wrong avant-folk-noise from The Sprig, and post-computer concrète mangling from Thomas Carroll. Wash that down with Cube fave RRS + some late-night bar/garden mischief… Erosion Control + The Sprigs + Thomas Carroll + RRS at The Cube.

After a spell of East meets West cosmic jazz collabs with BEJE, Bethlehem’s bağlama master Zaid Hilal revives his set of original Palestinian folk-pop and traditional protest music in the gorgeous Cotham Parish Church. Zaid’s soaring voice carries the weight of ancestral memory, animated by contemporary resistance in a thrilling evening of education, storytelling and spontaneous dabkeh. THE ZAID HILAL BAND at Cotham Parish Church, Cotham Road ( top of St Michael's Hill ), Cotham, Bristol, BS6 6DR.