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
house
techno
electro
breakbeat
minimal techno
— The Island
workshops & classes
festival
— The Island
techno
140
electro
dubstep
breakbeat
— The Island
pop
classical
salsa
bhangra
breakbeat
Get a feel for The Island
Our recent recommendations for The Island
Oblig is a bona fide legend of London’s grime, dubstep and garage scene. Strap in for peak-time, heavyweight riddims, paired with AliA’s new-school dubstep and two rifling b2b sets loaded with pummelling soundsystem grooves. Think Riz La Teef, Neffa T, Grandmixxer & Manga Saint Hilare… huge!
Seasoning: Oblig, AliA, Axle b2b Dyslecta, Ostad b2b Sask at The Island.
Come toast a decade of Timedance, Batu’s ever-morphing imprint for dancefloor abstractions and off-kilter brilliance. Inside: Willikens dives deep into melted-acid odysseys, the perfect foil to Metrist’s corkscrewing club chaos, and Northfield’s Mackenzie seals the night with riffling techno slammers. Unmissable.
Timedance 10 Years - Bristol at The Island.
Are mushrooms the best communicators on Earth? House of Boussé daddy Gender Criminal presents a new work exploring mycelium networks as modes of belonging, unearthing learnings from the undergrowth of fungal connectivity to help strengthen our communities via immersive drag, choreography and sonic storytelling.
OURCYLIUM at The Island.
Step into the day-dreamer techno and breakbeat continuum. Bristol’s notorious party starters Stretch Collective join forces with psych-dub innovators Cirrina Sessions for a night of deep, hypnotic minimalism, with residents out in full force. A hot tip for fans of Vlada, CCL, Roza Terenzi, Christian AB and Beatrice M.
Stretch Collective x Cirrina Sessions at The Island.
Sell out warning! The enigmatic club tricksters' surreal digi-fuelled whirlwind of hyperactive hyperpop, glitchy trance and hardcore bass swag meets a 300 cap venue... enough said.
Two Shell at The Island.