Going Out West
Bristol ’ s thriving creative sector is working hand-in-hand with local events professionals to keep its many impressive indoor venues and beautiful outdoor spaces busy with shows year-around . Access investigates how the city is emerging from the pandemic
Words : Joe Gallop
It ’ s no secret that Bristol is a creative hub , rich in music , arts and culture . The city famed for Banksy murals and trip hop legends Massive Attack and Portishead has a thriving urban , underground culture with graffiti and bold street art scattered across its vibrant streets .
You ’ re never far from a venue in Bristol , and playing a big part in creating the city ’ s unique allure is its strong cohort of live event workers . Despite having strong links to Glastonbury , with the country ’ s largest festival located some 27 miles away in Somerset , there is no single standout event in the city and it instead boasts an array of diverse events .
The city has a close-knit community of events , strung
together by the supportive ecosystem of the Bristol Festivals Network ( BFN ), which had around 55 members pre-pandemic . The Network has run for several years but only became registered as a charity in 2013 , before it was forced to close its city centre hub last October .
BFN executive director Liz Harkman says , “ We ’ re not like other cities where there ’ s a big focus on one city festival , like Manchester or Edinburgh . The provision is much broader and more unique to Bristol ’ s urban creative voice .
“ Bristol has got a very eclectic and diverse festival scene . They ’ ve got a really wide reach . As a sector they reach about 1.5 million people each year .”
Local events are not the only reason why the city has such a strong network of event workers ; as well as Glastonbury , Bristol also has strong links to festivals elsewhere such as Northamptonshire ’ s Shambala ( cap . 15,000 ) and Hampshire ’ s Boomtown ( 66,000 ), with many of the events ’ workers being based in the city .
Harkman adds that the Network runs a workforce audit where it
“ There ’ s an ecology where anything goes and anybody can do anything and anything can happen .”
collects information from all the city ’ s festival workers : “ One of the things that we ’ re looking to develop is how we support that community and how we bring those individuals together to have a larger voice . Especially now freelancers , workers , and the ecology and the supply chain have been particularly left out of support that has come through central government .”
Creatively coping Despite the impact of the pandemic , Bristol ’ s creative talent has adapted wherever possible , says Bristol City Council senior events officer Melissa Inman . As an example she gives African Caribbean themed St Paul ’ s Carnival , which usually attracts more than one million people but showed “ great vision ” in delivering two online editions this year .
She says in 2019 the visitor economy in Bristol and South Gloucestershire was valued at £ 1.4bn , and accounted for more than 21,650 full-time jobs . At the time , total tourism supported business turnover was estimated at £ 1.85bn .
In 2019 the council hosted more than 150 festivals and events , both large and small , at multiple locations across the city that welcomed around one million visitors .
Kathryn Davis , director of tourism at Visit West , says events are
44