The Island
Former police station turned creative playground
The Island is a vibrant multi-use venue in the heart of Bristol city centre. Once occupied by Bridewell Police Station, it’s been in the hands of community arts charity Artspace Lifespace since 2008.
Home to over 100 resident artists, The Island boasts a diverse mix of spaces and facilities including dance and circus training studios, a sewing room and an art gallery, while doubling up as a thriving events venue – covering live music, workshops and classes, immersive performance art, and more.
After dark the Edwardian cells come alive with experimental club nights, recent highlights including Timedance’s forward-thinking techno and bass nights, jungle, soul and Afrobeats from Nightspace, and late-night sessions from leftfield festival En Masse.
The 300-capacity venue is at basement level and is not wheelchair accessible. Free tickets are available for personal assistants. See https://artspace.uk/venue/the-island/ for details of the different event spaces within the building.
Home to over 100 resident artists, The Island boasts a diverse mix of spaces and facilities including dance and circus training studios, a sewing room and an art gallery, while doubling up as a thriving events venue – covering live music, workshops and classes, immersive performance art, and more.
After dark the Edwardian cells come alive with experimental club nights, recent highlights including Timedance’s forward-thinking techno and bass nights, jungle, soul and Afrobeats from Nightspace, and late-night sessions from leftfield festival En Masse.
The 300-capacity venue is at basement level and is not wheelchair accessible. Free tickets are available for personal assistants. See https://artspace.uk/venue/the-island/ for details of the different event spaces within the building.
What's On At The Island
— The Island
workshops & classes
theatre
sport & exercise
— The Island
minimal techno
experimental
140
techno
noise
— The Island
workshops & classes
theatre
sport & exercise
— The Island
electronic
experimental
techno
footwork
lgbtq+
— The Island
dub
dubstep
electro
techno
festival
— The Island
workshops & classes
theatre
sport & exercise
— The Island
experimental
workshops & classes
exhibition-opening
exhibition
— The Island
drum and bass
dubstep
electro
experimental
techno
— The Island
electronic
experimental
techno
noise
Get a feel for The Island
Our recent recommendations for The Island
Sell out warning! Still reeling from his 3 hour devastation of Strange Brew, Cirrina invites a titanic pillar of 21st century junglism to ditch his amen stripes and school us on cutting edge techno / 140 mutations. This is a new kinda Reaper, rocking the shit outta The Island with AM's dubby conquerer i-sha + Casino Flats & Fez the Kid's opening downtempo hypnotics.
Cirrina Sessions w/ Tim Reaper , i-sha & residents at The Island.
Free entry! Unmissable posthumous survey of the painted legacy of Bristol figurative trailblazer Frances Conway-Seymour; Quiet Interiors is a perspective-shifting dive into her large-scale explorations of 20th century political radicalism and the nuclear family across a 4 day run at the Island.
Quiet interiors, Loud realities - Exhibition Launch at The Island.
Sybil opens an Island wormhole to the deepest realms of techno, trance, breakbeat, ambient and deep froggy proggy. in a truly mind-bending club catharsis from one of the best in the game. A total no brainer if you dig: Konduku, Kia, Vlada, DJ Nobu.
Umbilical Chords, Waft Anon and Escalator To Nowhere return to the Wormhole with Sybil, Plantera and Stefan Brown for a night of deep, psychedelic and hypnotic sounds moving between light, dark and everything in between
Heavy b-funk ballistics raining down on the cells with an outrageous two-er of São Paulo club clank for the converted and soon-to-be-converted. Kontronatura unleashes break-neck dembow slammers and furious, groaning percussive machinery, while DJ Lorrany teeters along the scary/sexy axis with skuzzed, buzz-saw bruxaria and avant-ritmada choppage.
Baile do Futuro joins forces with London’s Baile Trama to bring you the last instalment of 2026.
PWYC entry! Yessss, it’s time for our monthly dose of Grama: Bristol heads serving up the best tunes in a proper community-style club night. October’s edition brings fka boursin’s deeper-than-deep house excursions, Rizla’s ominous techno and RS Tangent’s completely wonky tekno-dub-punk discombobulations. Long live Grama!
Grassroots clubnight celebrating the abundance of local bristol talent