Multi-day and multi-stage festival write-ups, most recent first. Browse by festival or year below.
Browse by Festival
Forwards Festival 2022, Forwards Festival 2023, Forwards Festival 2025, Groove Village Festival 2025, Outer Town Festival 2024, Outer Town Festival 2025, Outer Town Festival 2026, Ritual Union Festival 2024, Ritual Union Festival 2025, Simple Things Festival 2025
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LIVE REVIEW: OUTERTOWN 2026 – A day of discovery, disorder and pure Bristol magic
⚠️ Venue: not auto-detected – needs manual entry Date: 2026-04-16T19:13:52+0100 I arrived at Outertown 2026 full of hope and armed with a fluid, ADHD‑friendly map, the only sensible way to navigate Bristol’s most meandering day festival. Now in its fifth year, Outertown has grown into something beautifully unruly: a takeover of Old Market that floods…
LIVE REVIEW: Simple Things Festival 2025: From harp-led bliss to sax-fuelled chaos
⚠️ Venue: not auto-detected – needs manual entry Date: 2025-11-12T20:33:51+0000 Bristol’s genre-hopping day festival SIMPLE THINGS returned with a bang, threading punk, jazz, electronica and spoken word through the city’s most beloved venues. From the Beacon’s grandeur to the Sportsmans’ sticky floors, Simple Things was a celebration of sonic contrast and community spirit. There’s something…
Live Review | Groove Village Festival
⚠️ Venue: not auto-detected – needs manual entry Date: 2025-10-03T13:36:04+00:00 Groove Village brings a day of wild live music to Weston Super Mare, including highlights from Meryl Streek, Bureau De Change and many more Grove Village became Groove Village as a collection of pubs were transformed into live venues and Weston Super Mare was transformed…
LIVE REVIEW: Forwards Festival 2025: A Bristol love letter in sound….
⚠️ Venue: not auto-detected – needs manual entry Date: 2025-08-28T08:42:44+0100 If Bristol were a song, Forwards Festival would be its chorus—bold, brilliant, and impossible not to sing along to. Since its debut in 2022, Forwards has become a fixture on the UK festival circuit, and rightly so. It’s a celebration of Bristol’s rich musical heritage,…
LIVE REVIEW: Outer Town Festival 2025: A riotous celebration of Bristol’s DIY spirit….
⚠️ Venue: not auto-detected – needs manual entry Date: 2025-04-15T18:33:04+0100 Bristol’s Old Market came alive on Saturday, April 12th, as the much-loved Outer Town Festival returned for another unforgettable edition. Known for its unique charm and fiercely independent ethos, this one-day multi-venue extravaganza once again proved why it’s a staple in the city’s music calendar.…
LIVE REVIEW: Bristol hosts RITUAL UNION FESTIVAL 2025 – What a day!
⚠️ Venue: not auto-detected – needs manual entry Date: 2025-04-03T12:12:50+0100 Yippee, it’s here again! A celebration of music hosted at a trio of Bristol independent venues (SWX, STRANGE BREW & SWX), I’m like a kid in a musical sweet shop. Let’s go! Obviously I got there right at the start. Why wouldn’t you? I was…
REVIEW: Bristol’s OUTER TOWN was a day of sonic bliss, read our live review…
⚠️ Venue: not auto-detected – needs manual entry Date: 2024-04-16T11:48:28+0100 Outer Town is Bristol’s DIY multi-venue extravaganza, promising ‘One Road, 8 Venues, 9 stage and over 50 acts’, you really had to be there to witness it in action. The day started in the Old Market Assembly with some unexpected sunshine, friends, pizza and a…
REVIEW: We attended multi venue Bristol festival RITUAL UNION and saw some amazing bands….
⚠️ Venue: not auto-detected – needs manual entry Date: 2024-03-28T11:14:52+0000 Ritual Union was back for the 3rd edition of Bristol’s best multi-venue festival. The festival sees over 50 acts playing in independent venues in close proximity to Bristol’s city centre and each other. SWX, Strange Brew, Rough Trade, and The Island played host to a…
‘Forwards Festival delivers again’ – 2023 two-day festival review
⚠️ Venue: not auto-detected – needs manual entry Date: 2023-09-05T15:01:39.000Z ⚠️ Artist: not auto-detected – needs review As the sun came down over a packed Forwards Festival on The Downs in Bristol, hundreds enjoyed the moment as Los Angeles-based DJ Bonobo dropped his hit Otomo – it was pure perfection. It was an incredible end…
Mud baths to fireworks, stunning views to great live music – the perfect summer festival near Bristol
⚠️ Venue: not auto-detected – needs manual entry Date: 2023-08-16T12:15:17.000Z ⚠️ Artist: not auto-detected – needs review The rain may have poured, but it did little to dampen the spirits at Valley Fest – the most instagrammable festival of the year with stunning views right across Chew Valley Lake near Bristol, plus some quite brilliant…