What's On / Bristol Gigs

St Pauls Carnival Map and Set Times.

— Things get pretty disorientating at Carnival, don't get lost.

When is St Pauls Carnival?

This years carnival occurs on Saturday 1st July 2025.

Once the carnival has started it becomes a lot harder to work out which sound systems are where! Stages and sound systems are scattered throughout the streets of St Pauls. Closer to the time this page will include a Google map with each scheduled stage. These include the infamous PA systems and speaker stacks which the evening part of St Pauls Carnival is known for.

Our editor's top live music recommendation

Unmissable UK debut from the Malian vocalist and balafon star! PCHA takes the traditional West African instrument and blends it with melodic afrobeats, rap and pop; catch him performing alongside virtuosic percussionist Seydou Kienou plus plenty of amapiano, percussive club, baile funk and bass heat from Inda Flo, Sio and more. Twende & Wildtune present; PCHA at Lost Horizon.

Halloween party for the femmes and thems! Femme Fatale takes over Exchange with a fierce and fabulous carnival feat all-night pumping tunes – with Promiscuous Piggy’s sexy hyperpop and booty-bass, playful tech-house, nu-disco and UK funky from Coren, Mother Markos on the percussive house + Tully serving trance, garage and techno. Enter Femme Fatale’s, Carnival of Chaos. A Halloween themed club night exclusively for women and non-binary! For femme & butch people. Expect empowering performances, and djs spinning music that'll ignite your soul.

LIFTED returns with a top-tier celebration of contemporary African dance music, led by Sweetny-Ivy’s infectious grooves alongside ROA Archive and Jonesy Wales, whose deep, percussive selections span amapiano, Afro house, soca, and UK garage. Contemporary African Dance Music

The praise heaped on the unstoppable Cimarons is long overdue. Their legacy is now secured as the first reggae band in the UK, the original exporters of roots to Africa and Japan, Bob Marely’s go-to backing band and the muscle behind countless (uncredited) studio sessions with every major Trojan artist. Seeing Cimarons live is your chance to dance with history, seize it! Cimarons - Pioneers of UK Reggae est. 1967, plus Talisman - The defining band of Bristol's golden era of roots rock Reggae.

Sell out warning! Fiery reggaeton riddims, low-slung afrobeats and non-stop clurb mayhem: get ready to give the summer a proper send off with Yusef Suave and J Rus, butt-2-butt all night long! Essential FFO: Jamz Supernova, Mina, Salute. After their Winter Whine & Valentine's Whine outings J Rus & Yusuf Suave are back at Brew with their party mix of Dancehall, Soca, Ragga, RnB, Afrobeat, UK Funky, UK Garage & Carnival anthems

Have your say in the future of St Paul’s Carnival! A free entry community gathering featuring open discussions about the road ahead, volunteering opportunities and plenty of grassroots energy... This meeting is an opportunity to engage with the community, partners, and stakeholders to listen and shape the next phase of St Pauls Carnival for future generations.

Stage organisers can use this page to announce set times for the djs and mcs for the music stages and sound systems at Bristol’s 2025 carnival. While the main stages focus on Caribbean music, it’s foolish to consider St Pauls carnival as predominantly dub and reggae event. Programmed by sound system owners and local promoters, the lineups for the stages each bring different musical styles and artists to the 2025 event. From established drum & bass and dubstep djs to the cutting edge electronica and house producers that Bristol is becoming known for, St Pauls carnival by night is a celebration of Bristol’s diverse music scene.

When the sound systems switch off around midnight, the party moves indoors with almost every venue in Bristol boasting some form of St Pauls carnival after party. After parties range from big club events in venues like Lakota, Basement 45, The Black Swan and Blue Mountain, to free-entry all-nighters in the pubs and bars around St Pauls and Stokes Croft. The event listings below outline all of the free and paid after parties for this years carnival.

This year's carnival after parties

“The project began in the quiet and solitude of lockdown, before coming alive in a creatively explosive residency at the newly opened Cornish Bank in 2022 – a vibrant not-for-profit community arts space in the centre of Falmouth which has become the heart of a thriving underground Cornish scene of which Blind Yeo are very much a part. The band has since grown into a psychedelic carnival of sound best experienced live.”
From: Blind Yeo + Pictish Trail

“Where the original was raw terror, the sequel is a grotesque carnival; louder, gorier, and funnier than anyone expected. Leatherface, Chop-Top, and the Sawyer clan are back, this time trading the dusty backroads of Texas for radio stations, underground lairs, and chainsaw duels the size of opera.”
From: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

“On Wednesday 29th October, Be Kind Rewind Bristol + Bristol Queer Cinema Club** invite you to step back into the carnival of cinema’s strangest showman with William Castle’s cult shocker The Tingler - screening in the basement at The Ill Repute as we count down to Halloween night.”
From: The Tingler

“On Friday 24th October, we transform Exchange into a a carnival of chaos filled with eerie delights and thrilling surprises. Dive into a vibrant atmosphere infused with Halloween's eerie charm where chaos meets celebration and fierce meets fabulous. Expect djs spinning music that'll ignite your soul. A night to unleash your inner rebel, express yourself freely, and connect with a community that celebrates you.”
From: Femme Fatale's Carnival of Chaos

“Miles Arms brings the sunshine this autumn with a special Reggae takeover! Expect the very best in reggae, dancehall, soca, and carnival sounds — powered by heavy basslines, uplifting riddims, and pure Caribbean flavour all night long.”
From: REGGAE NIGHT - MILES ARMS