Well, the number of festivals in Bristol is definitely mounting up!…read more This year on July 17th, at Bristol Zoo, you can be part of the extravagance that is Boogie for Bristol. A jolly mix of music, theatre, circus acts and cabaret performers it certainly promises to be a busy day. What's quite nice is most of the entertainment in Bristol based, and there's a fantastic atmosphere (dependent on the weather!). Advance Tickets are £11.50 per adult or £7.50 for little ones, but that does include general entry into the zoo. Ticket proceeds go towards funding a special frog breeding zone!

This is a lovely day out. I've been twice and both years been blessed with fantastic weather. The…read morefirst time I came I actually spend most of the festival looking at the animals, it was lovely to come back and have a picnic and a drink on the lawn. The bands in the evening were excellent. During the day the festival is definitely geared towards the little ones, its a great day out for the family, with cabaret performances and acts for the kids as well as some good bands. If you haven't been to Bristol Zoo before, this is a great day to do it as the ticket entry pays for your entry to the festival and the zoo itself.

I literally can't wait for this years' Harbour Festival, I only managed to catch bits and pieces of…read moreit last year as I had only just moved to Bristol. This year, 2010, it'll be going down 30th July - 01st August, and do you want to know the best thing about it? It's freeeeeeeee! Amazingly, it's been going for 39 years, and while I wouldn't want to bore you with trivial statistics and facts, what it means is, this weekend has been running for enough years for them to have worked out what works and what doesn't! There will be not one, not two, not three, but eight, yes eight stages with a variety of music for all tastes. It's generally a great weekend, don't miss it!

This much-loved summer festival sees literally hundreds of thousands of visitors flock to Bristol…read morefor a weekend of eating, drinking and wishing we owned a boat. Many of my friends come down specifically for this weekend, usually around the end of July, beginning of August. All the boats in the harbour tart themselves up with bunting and the like and there are plenty of food stalls where you can buy everything from candy floss to wheels of cheese! There are plenty of market type stalls if shopping is your thing and all the bars and pubs around the waterfront are jam-packed with people making the most of drinks promotions and the outside seating. A fantastic weekend of entertainment, and it's all for free! Last year I spent it drinking cider and watching VV Brown play on the main stage in a packed Lloyds Amphitheatre and can't wait to do the same this year.

Fantastic event, the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta is by far the best day out of the year in…read moreBristol (One of my top 5 events in the world) They have night glows on the Thursday and Saturday witch is superb. I highly recommend that this be on your to do list.

The Bristol Balloon Fiesta is one the major world events in the ballooning calendar. Each summer…read morethe skies of Bristol are dotted with balloons as people come to celebrate being able to float around without any motor propelling you. A little commercialised, this event is not quite as quaint as one would imagine. It is magical to watch the ballons getting heated up (I'm sure that's not the technical term) and into the air, though. Go there in the evening when the 'Night Glows' will be taking place for the best experience. It's a pretty big event and this year the roads were jammed around Ashton Court, where it's held. I recommend trying to park in nearby Clifton and walking over the Suspension bridge if you must drive at all (check that the bridge is open). Don't worry too much if you can't make at all, the sight of balloons sailing through the sky can be seen from all over Bristol and is an event enough itself.

These zuperb zider zessions are held every three or four months or so in the huge shed down by…read moreTemple Meads. I went to the last one and it was extremely busy; indeed, I recommend getting a ticket in advance as it was sold out. Basically, you pay around £7 which gets you entry, then you have to buy tokens which you can exchange for halves of cider. It's not incredibly cheap (around £2 a half), but then again some of the more 'agricultural' choices are well over 7%! There's a also a hog roast which went down well with the 'apple sauce' we were enjoying. It's all very laidback; there's little seating but most people just sat in groups on the floor, and you're given a card to score each of your choices which led to much banter with other punters at the bars. If this sounds like your idea of heaven, check their website as they also hold an identical event in Bath.

2015's Cider & sausages festival had over 40 varieties of ciders & perrys as well as 10+ meat…read moresausages, and 3 veg sausages. Trinity Centre is a really laid-back and intimate environment, you can sit around the round tables with your friends and enjoy the music or go outside into the community garden for a complete different experience. Its 3p per token, one token per pint (or half token per half pint) or hot dog. The drinks are def more worth it than the sausages I must say, the sausages werent even the length of the bread. The music ranged from folk to line dancing to classic rock. It really got too loud by late afternoon and we had to shout to just talk. Overall a great community event!

The Bristol Eco Veggie Fayre is the largest of its kind in Europe. Each year they expand in ever…read morediversifying directions, making it a centrally located, multi-faceted event that has something for everyone, especially families. It's essentially an inner city festival, that spans a weekend. These days The Bristol Eco Veggie Fayre concentrates a lot of its efforts in keeping people entertained as well as educated and informed of the new developments in all things green and edible. The entrance fee is justified for the bands alone, especially considering that 3 Daft Monkeys are putting in an appearance this year. It also features an eco cinema and eco art exhibition this year too. Always well attended, this event is a lot of fun, always buzzing, always refreshing. With more stalls this year than ever before, there will be plenty of delicious food to sample and innovative gadgets and devices to see. Let's hope the weather will be kind to them again this year.

Never a dull moment in Bristol, particularly in the summer months, there seems to be almost…read moresomething going on every weekend. This year, on 29th-30th May is the Bristol Eco Veggie Fayre, which as the name suggests is geared towards all things green. You will be hard pushed to find much meat around, but you will find over 140 stalls with some tasty vegeterian options. There are lots of things going on; cookery classes, veggie awards, live music, presentations... all of which are expected to be seen by around 8000 people over the weekend! A great day out for all the family, here's hoping the weather will be nice. If you've been wanting to become a bit more eco friendly then this is the perfect place to pick up some hints and tips about what you can practically do to make a difference.

Literally the best thing to happen in Bristol for years. Nelson Street used to be such a horrible…read morelooking road! The graffiti work has transformed it, my favourite piece is either Xenz waterfall design or Mysterious Al's green man! Pictures dont do it justice, you really need to get down and see it for yourself! Deffo reccommend 5* art.

BLOP is Bristol's Live Open Platform for contemporary art held at The Arnolfini…read more A fantastic showcase of live art from new and already established artists. What was great about this event was that it allowed artists to show 'work in progress' a valuable chance to share material before it gets shaped into some sort of final form. The audiences were supportive, though largely made up of other artists, and there was a huge variety of all sorts of work. The event was just £12 for the whole weekend which is pretty good value if your up for spending a few hours there (not so much if you're only going to see a specific piece). There were some upcoming local artists performing, such as Openbatch Theatre, with a glimpse of their new work... Unfortunately, you've just missed the March 2010 event but keep an eye out for next year's dates.

This is a slightly belated review - the shitstorm surrounding ATP's Jabberwocky is currently going…read moredown which makes me even more impressed with how Temples handled everything, given they're a brand new festival catering to a pretty small market. Temples is a 3-day festival in May with a bill full of sludge, doom, death, and black metallers as well as a healthy infusion of hardcore and crust punk - similar in scope to Leeds' Damnation Festival. A happy lineup then. 2014 saw the festival headlined by Electric Wizard, Neurosis, and Clutch - I went for the first two days which contained a near-ideal lineup of bands I like. Firstly, where do you put a bunch of metalheads? The simple answer to that is in a skate park in the industrial area of the city where no-one really goes at the weekend. I can tell that Motion is probably a pretty filthy, Skins-esque club. Just a inkling. Pros: - actually a pretty good venue all-in-all. Decent sized, big sound system. - incredible lineup - 1 hour of Amenra + 2 hours of Neurosis was pretty much the ultimate cathartic experience. - awesome artwork - one of the main pieces was worked on in the main foyer throughout the weekend. - very responsive organisation: some logistical things were tried, failed, and promptly removed. Other concerns were addressed quickly. - helpful on-site staff (one of them told my friend how they were initially expecting trouble from the crowd but were shocked by how nice they are...especially compared to the raves which take place at the venue). Cons: - problems with food vendors who didn't show up so the queues for very mediocre chips was huuuge. - not great beer. Beer geeks and music geeks are often one and the same. Red Stripe and Guinness doesn't quite cut it with this crowd. - The venue is a bit awkward in that the only way to the second stage is via the main stage. Stage times were generally alternated between the two stages, so you got a bit of a logjam in the adjoining area which was not ideal. For a first time event, I was really impressed. Teething problems were on the whole addressed pretty swiftly and you can tell the management are passionate about what they're doing. Next year (2015) has acts such as Converge, Pig Destroyer, Nails, and Celeste. The lineup's looking rather more uptempo than this year, sounds like it'll be a great one. They're expecting you...