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
dub
140
dubstep
trap music
grime
— The Island
workshops & classes
theatre
— The Island
house
techno
tech house
breakbeat
grime
— The Island
exhibition
exhibition-opening
Get a feel for The Island
Our recent recommendations for The Island
Kerrie’s heavy machine-funk has ignited dancefloors from SELN’s intimate DIY gatherings at Ormside to the legendary techno stages of Tresor. Her raw, hardware-driven prowess and club gymnastics collide perfectly with Desireè’s shark-eyed electronics – channeling the unrelenting energy of Blawan and Surgeon. This'll be huge!
Tresor resident Kerrie and Desireè take us through to 5AM at The Island this December.
A vital reading by multi-award-winning Palestinian poet Batool Abu Akleen from her acclaimed debut collection 48kg. Akleen’s heart-rending body of work chronicles daily brutalities of life in occupied Gaza, shifting between the mundane and the surreal to find “a language for the unspeakable”.
A poetry reading in English and Arabic of 48kg, an astonishing debut work by Batool Abu Akleen. Part of the Bristol Palestine Film Festival 2025 fringe, in association with Tenement Press and East Bristol Books.
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!
Journey deep into the thrumming edges of bass, techno and beyond as Seasoning bring their off kilter antics back to 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 + Northfield’s Mackenzie seals the night with riffling techno slammers. Unmissable.
Timedance celebrates its 10th anniversary on home turf
PWYC! BPFF and Malu Halasa curate an essential collection of Palestinian resistance art and visual intifada, from post-Nakba icons like Sliman Mansour to the contemporary creative subvertising of Khaled El Haber.
An evocative exhibition showcasing the resurgence of Palestinian political posters as powerful works of art during the war on Gaza.