A two day festival of talks, workshops, art exhibitions and performances celebrating, honouring and inspiring decades of protest and creativity in Bristol. This contemporary festival focuses on how the arts are a vehicle for social change, drawing upon themes of reclaiming the body, the mind and the natural and built environment.

Resistance is never futile.

Day 1: Art, Roots, Revolution

From reclaiming nature, the landscape and the body to building alternative communities, Bristol’s many protest movements are linked by a common thread. They aim to bring us back to the roots of what makes us human and connected. Across this day we explore the many ways in which creativity is central to protest and reconnection.

Keynote speaker Mikaela Loach (who famously took the UK government to court in December)
Performances from Rider Shafique and Rita Lynch
Panel discussions featuring Tom Marshman, Rosina Al-Shateer (Black & Green Ambassador), Chris Chalkley (PRSC), Deasy Bamford (Aged Agitators)
Workshops led by Bristol City Poet Caleb Parkin, hip-hop artist Craft D, Ruth Ramsay, and more

Day 2: Call This Equality?

As International Women's Day nears, artists and activists will explore challenging questions around classism and sexism and celebrate female desire, the body, asking how far, if at all, women have made progress in reclaiming the body.

Panel discussions featuring art activists Lucy J Turner (Rife Magazine), Katie Grant and Rhiannon White (Commonwealth Theatre) and others
Fashion For Keeps upcycling workshop
Dry Season performance (tickets sold here)
Throughout the festival the iconic Bristol Bear, who once welcomed many to Bristol in its former home of the Bear Pit, will be displayed as part of an exhibition showcasing the history of creative activism in Bristol across the weekend.

Entry requirements: — Read more — Read less