FEATURES

This September (22-23) Brisfest moves to Ashton Court, bringing a community music festival back to the estate for the first time since Ashton Court Festival ended in 2007. To celebrate the move, it’s collaborating with M Shed and…

There's lots of Shakespeare around this month and who better to ask about the playwright's enduring relevance than the renowned Bristol company who have made Will their life’s work? On the eve of Shakespeare at the Tobacco…

Theatre Royal Bath’s splendidly irreverent Shakespeare Unplugged festival returns this month, promising three weeks of off-kilter riffs on the Bard and his themes. Steve Wright rips up the text. At some point over the past five…

Death-defying helicopter rides, underwater killings and peeing in David Attenborough’s washbowl: Mike White talks to Vanessa Berlowitz, series producer of ‘Frozen Planet’. “Suddenly this ferocious blizzard came out of nowhere. It…

Starry-eyed newlywed Toby Sawday, MD of local travel experts and book publishing powerhouse, Sawday’s, picks 10 romantic retreats for the love-struck. I always love escaping the cloying madness of an urban Valentine’s. The…

Want to know what you’ll be talking about in the pub this year? Eugene Byrne lines up the big issues for Bristol in 2012. Here is your local news for Bristol in 2012: AAARGH! AAARGH!! WE'RE ALL DOOMED! WE ARE SOOOO SCREWED! IT'S…

  Patrick Somers Promotions manager, Thekla What does the new year hold in store for the Thekla? 2012 will see a bunch of great new shows here. Already confirmed are M83, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Totally Enormous Extinct…

Having scooped a shedload of gongs for ‘The King’s Speech’, Bristol-born producer Iain Canning’s next film’s all about the noticeably less regal world of sex addiction. Robin Askew is our man in the dirty raincoat. So you've…

Ahead of his new one-woman show ‘Henry VIII and The Royal Wedding Planner’, the top director talks local talent, the West Country and theatrical politics with Lucy Meek. Pic: Victoria Fulljames. 2011 started as a difficult year…

Robin Askew gets tied to a railway track just as this year’s Slapstick silent comedy festival comes thundering round the corner. It's a measure of the success of any festival that people keep coming back for more. In the middle…

Phil Walnuts on how to have a not unbearable January for not very much money at all. Maybe it’s a good thing the economy’s f*cked. Because, as we shall see, the thriftiest things are often good for the planet, or good for you, or…

High-speed thrills and handlebar nosedives: Mike White tries bike polo. The Hartcliffe end of Bedminster can be a forbidding place after dark. I pause to check my A-Z and a group of foul-mouthed tweenagers begins abusing me from…

Riots, the Jo Yeates murder, recession, unaffordable housing, savage government cuts… Wait! Come back! 2011 wasn’t all bad, you know. Eugene Byrne unearths some good bits from the ongoing sludge of economic depression. BRISTOL…

From heroes and villains, the best bands to thesps of the year, Team Venue select the highpoints of the year known as 2011. BEST OF 2011 HEROES 1 You, the People 2 BBC Natural History Unit 3 The Wow! Gorillas We gotta hand it to…

A full choir, live orchestra and a huge professional and non-professional ensemble cast drawn from the fertile talent reserves of the South West: Joe Spurgeon speaks to some of the creative team behind Bristol Old Vic/Colston…

From service station sandwiches to supporting Stephen Merchant, the Welsh funnyman tells Fiona Morrison about life in comedy’s fast lane. When I’m driving I sit side-saddle like I’m a riding a horse at a show-jumping event. The…

Mike White makes it an anniversary to remember at Thornbury Castle. “Oh, wow!” Sadie gasps. As we swing round the driveway, through an ancient stone archway and into the courtyard, my choice of anniversary-celebrating destination…

Sometimes, if you live in Bristol and Bath, great as they are, you might just fancy a wee slice of city life further afield. Joe Spurgeon cools his heels at the newly opened Jolyon’s at No.10 and gives a first-time tourist’s…

Aardman’s latest caper ‘Arthur Christmas’ hits cinema screens this month. Robin Askew is our man in a red cape and white bushy beard. It's an unusually balmy early October morning in central London. Outside, people are still…

How a roomful of pub junk became Bristol’s smallest performance space: Mike White talks to Wardrobe Theatre’s Chris Collier. The Wardrobe Theatre was born from a party. There are three main people behind it – me, a chap called…

The Big Issue has been helping homeless people for more than two decades now. Mike White goes out on the street to find out what it’s like being one of the magazine’s hardy vendors. People look at you differently when there’s a…

Bristol Old Vic welcomes back homegrown theatrical provocateurs Sound&Fury this month with a cosmological adventure bigger than you could possibly imagine. Joe Spurgeon meets co-director Mark Espiner and writer Hattie Naylor. Ask…

As Bath Film Festival comes of age, Robin Askew chooses the best of this year’s crop. With guests as diverse as Ken Loach, activist and broadcaster Darcus Howe, 'Wuthering Heights' screenwriter Olivia Hetreed and, er, former…

A flowering TV career, another top-selling tour, a bunch of Perrier nominations and THAT voice. Joe Spurgeon meets the coolest cat in comedy, Reginald D Hunter. “You have to learn how people communicate. In some areas of Britain,…

A growing population, spiralling house prices and a shortage of affordable accommodation add up to a market that can’t meet the demand for housing in the South West. Eugene Byrne reports. I was talking to an official from Bristol…

Some books translate to the big screen really well. Others turn from literary gold into cinematic dross. Robin Askew adapts himself to the situation. If there's one thing Hollywood dislikes, it's originality. Give 'em a TV show,…

Robin Askew talks religion, freakshows and, erm, Ronnie Corbett with venerable rockmeister Alice Cooper. The original shock-rocker, 63-year-old Alice Cooper (he changed his name legally, y'know) outraged public morals in the 70s,…

Bristol had over 50 cinemas just after World War II, and more still during cinema’s between-the-wars, pre-TV heyday. Images of these myriad lost picture palaces can be found all over the photographers’ site flickr.com: here’s a…

Diaries out! Autumn’s here and it’s bringing with it a huge healthy dollop of entertainment. From Bombay Bicycle Club to Kneehigh Theatre, a big-screen ‘Wuthering Heights’ to In:Motion, it’s all in here. Robin Askew, Adam…

Since being picked up by Bristol Old Vic’s Tom Morris for the National Theatre, ‘War Horse’ has galloped through the West End, cantered its way to awards glory on Broadway, and is now settling down in the stables of a certain Mr…

Melissa Blease and Stephen Dalton get stuck into the first week of the 62nd Cheltenham Literature Festival Deciding your itinerary for the opening weekend of the Cheltenham Literature Festival is a bit like playing that game…

The city celebrated in style over the weekend. Tiffany Daniels, Elfyn Griffith, Ella Pawlik, Leah Pritchard and Jamie Skey were there. Pics: Ellen Doherty It has been 20 minutes since BrisFest opened its gates, and it is…

It’s not just Cheltenham that’s going batso for books this month, novelist and event organiser Jari Moate gives us the lowdown on Unputdownable, which, he tells Alice Edwards, is Bristol’s first literature festival. Tell us about…

And so farewell to the Summer of 2011, dominated by national headline stuff like riots, phone-hacking, Libya, Japanese atomic meltdowns, financial collapses and the end of civilisation as we know it. So did that mean we missed…

Riot cops, optimism and superglue: Mike White talks to film-maker working behind the scenes with the brave outlaws of the environmental direct action movement. By necessity, the direct action movement is quite a secretive world.…

A new group portrait of Bristolians who put the city on the map is being unveiled at Arnos Vale cemetery. Eugene Byrne gets a sneak preview and reveals Venue’s own version of ‘Some Who Have Made Bristol Famous’.   Back in 1930,…

Going anywhere nice this summer? Anna Britten looks at this year’s biggest travel trends. So how’s that whole ‘staycation’ thing been working out these past two summers? The Boden catalogue idyll promised by the colour…

Crashed bomber planes, sunken ships and an elephant on the loose: Mike White listens in as BrisFest 2011 takes shape. “What’s happening with the elephant?” asks BrisFest organiser Poppy Stephenson. “It’s still in Coventry,”…

Alice Edwards saddles up for Bristol Cycle Festival. Speed-dating on bikes, a mounted egg and spoon race and the Shaky Hand Hangover Band – just three of the freewheeling events taking place during the eagerly awaited nine-day…

From the race tracks of small-town America to the mean streets of Bristol, roller derby has injected a hit of attitude into the city’s sports scene with, as Gina Dyer discovers, its own distinctive retro-punk style “Bruises” is,…

Comedian/actor Les Dennis is pitching up at the Tobacco Factory for the world premiere of ‘Jigsy’, a one-man show about a struggling Scouse entertainer. Steve Wright puts the questions. Depending on your age, you'll know Les…

... and eco-homes and caves and stuff. Yep, it that time of year again. The Day on which Doors Open. Eugene Byrne, our man who is himself a Grade II-listed monument, gets all excited, and does something silly with a map on the…

Stonings, arrests and way too much hummus: Mike White talks to the firebrand comic who hiked the entire length of the Israeli Separation Barrier. Additional research: Anna Behrmann. There’s something intrinsically subversive…

Former narrow boat dweller Jim Edmiston watches the world go by on the Kennet and Avon canal. Don’t get me wrong. I love narrowboats. I lived on one for a while. Skinny icons of the English landscape. Like Morris Minors of the…

Some of the world’s best graffiti artists are descending on Bristol this month to lively up a run-down corner of the city centre. Eugene Byrne reports. In what the organisers are billing as the biggest outdoor art festival in…

How far can or should you go in trying to make a chimpanzee behave like a human? ‘Project Nim’ is a compelling new documentary recounting an American experiment from the 1970s which attempted to answer this question. Robin Askew…

Bristol's Harbour Festival celebrated its 40th anniversary in style over the weekend. Julian Owen, Jess Bridgeman, Tiffany Daniels, Naomi Rainey, Hannah Chapman and Anna Behrmann were down the (water)front. Saturday Queen Sq,…

Sian Norris, one of the co-ordinators behind the new and expanding Bristol Feminist Network, talks about its origins and growth. Interview: Anna Behrmann. “The Bristol Feminist Network emerged in 2007, and it was a lot about…

Dirty crime and circular saws: Mike White talks to the writer behind ‘Luther’. I’m attracted by characters who’ve already got one foot over the edge. I suppose it’s a taste thing; when a character has nothing to lose, their…

Last month, as the Arnolfini hosted Bristol’s first ever ShortStoryVille – a mini-festival celebrating fiction of 3,000 words or less – one woman, Emily Bullock, won the 2011 Bristol Short Story Prize for her story ‘My Girl’.…

The sun’s threatening, the bass bins are throbbing and everyone’s getting drunk in a field. Best look your best then. Gina Dyer hits Bristol’s local boutiques to hunt down this year’s hottest festival styles. Festival season. The…

Lily Allen and Sarah Owen’s new label is hitting Harvey Nicks. Anna Britten zips up her retro jumpsuit. Last time Lily Allen rocked up in Bristol, we commented on how her signature sartorial style had inspired a ninja army of…

As this year’s biggest boat party sails over the horizon, midshipman Mike White checks the charts. That was then… Despite the corporate sponsorship and official blessing that Bristol Harbour Festival now enjoys, it all began as a…

July is comedy central here in Bristol, with one established comedyfest being joined by a big, spanking new arrival. But can a congested diary really help make our city a comedy mecca? Steve Wright quizzes the promoters.…

JUST IN - TO READ VENUE'S REVIEW SEE PERFORMANCE & COMEDY PAGE There’s piracy on the high seas this summer – well, on the cobbles of King Street anyway – as Bristol Old Vic takes to the open air for an all-new production of…

For day-by-day band reviews across the stages see here. The weather was mixed but who cares? Beyoncé got the biggest crowd ever seen at the Pyramid Stage, hip-hop showed the hoary guitar bands a thing or two  and Michael Eavis…

From Caitlin Rose to Coldplay and Chemical Brothers, Bombay Bicycle Club to Beyoncé and Bono – Adam Burrows, Ben Welch, Julian Owen, Mike White and Tony Benjamin deliver their verdicts. FRIDAY Metronomy (Pyramid, 12noon) Early…

After troubled times, Kelis is back with a new album and a change of direction – and she’s heading our way to top the bill at this year’s Bristol Pride. Julian Owen joins the boys in the yard. Chances are Kelis won’t opt to close…

More and more people in Bristol are seeking help and advice about rising levels of debt, according to Bristol's specialist debt advice charity. Eugene Byrne reports. The thing that strikes you is the banal, everyday things.…