Saturday 20^th September until Sunday 21^st September 2008 @ The Amphitheatre, Bristol

Awaking Saturday morning on the day of the first ever Bristol Festival and glorious sunshine was streaming through the cracks in my curtains! Through a summer of torment and sunshine depression, this smiling beacon in the sky meant it was going to be a good festival no matter what! Straight down to Bristol city centre and the whole area is alive with people sporting their best flip-flops and smiles. Saturday 20^th September saw Bristol Festival, Streets Alive 2008 and a new Interesting Games Festival – or Igfest – all taking place on the streets of BS1 and it meant for a fab atmosphere; this is what we had been missing all summer!

As I walked through Millennium and Anchor Square there’s quite a lot going on for free; a small acoustic stage and stalls to entertain and draw people in to the amphitheatre, the base of the paying day event - Brizzolfest. Also, parked next to the giants’ mirrorball is an army style vehicle that transforms into a DJ platform with boomin’ speakers – the ultimate mobile disco.

A slow moving queue to get a daily wristband for 7 quid and then on to the site! First thing I notice is the original graffiti artworks by Bristol’s top writers including Inkie, Cheba, TCF crew, Lokey and Kato decorating the fences all around to give an urban, inner-city but colourful feel to this concrete event.

The amphitheatre is divided into two stage areas and early afternoon RSVP‘s bhangra delight got the crowd dancing in a Bollywood frenzy on the Mr. Wolfs Stage, helped by the sun still shining brighter than it had all summer. Kev da Poet and crew on the Pyramid Stage kept pace by mashing up rhymes and beatz to the delight of the crowd. This up n comin’ urban poet is like Linton Kwesi Johnson for a new generation and an SY favourite. Shade was briefly provided by an army tent with a digital graffiti screen where anyone could throw up a piece and have it emailed back to them.

A platform was also given to the ‘Peoples’ Republic of Stokes Croft’ (the arts collective responsible for the socio- political art pieces around Turbo Island) and in typically colourful and eye-catching style they were decorating boards and selling PRSC t-shirts, sticks of Stokes Croft rock and postcards all to raise money to help highlight decades of neglect to this economically challenged area.

The sun starting to set now but the party carries on regardless. Mississippi Witch’s kick ass rock’n’roll took the music up a notch and The Glitzy Baghags finished Saturday night a storm in ‘The Pub’. From Shangri-la @ Glastonbury, this stage with its own leafy, intimate pub garden and comfy seating had a great sound and line-up and made it a favourite hangout all day.

With the evening came the start of Rave-on-Avon where your wristband granted you access to nine clubs across the city where you could throw shapes till dawn. There was a little queuing involved on the doors on each club but generally the idea worked out swell and a rave-tastic time was had by all.

Bristol Festival rose like a phoenix from the ashes of the bankrupt community festival Ashton Court and although that’s where the association ends, comparisons are inevitable. Baring in mind that this was Bristol Festival’s first year and these things always take a few years to fully develop and bed down, I was really impressed. Bristol loved Ashton Court simply because of the atmosphere; it wasn’t overran by kiddie and families like the Harbour Festival and wasn’t realm of the adolescent like many other festivals of this ilk but was a perfect gathering of the 18-30s of the city. The sun obviously helped a lot but Bristol Festival did a fantastic job in replicating this fun, open, friendly yet mature atmosphere and so a big pat on the back to all the volunteers who were raising money and working hard throughout the year so we could have this most enjoyable event! Bring on Bristol Festival 2009!

www.thebristolfestival.org

Tommy Popcorn & Matthew Whittle www.matthewwhittleblog.blogspot.com