25 things to do in Bristol this week, February 26-March 3 2024

Monday: Escher music connection #56, Strange Brew
The night that started in the synth shop/broom cupboard of Elevator Sound on Stokes Croft before graduating to the wide open spaces (and big boy sound system) of Strange Brew’s back room returns, offering bedroom producers the chance to hear their music played on a club system, whilst meeting other artists at the same level.

Escher Music Connection poster – photo: Elevator Sound/Escher

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Monday-Thursday: Perfect Days, Watershed
Wim Wenders’ beguiling drama is a poignant, warm-hearted portrait of a Tokyo toilet cleaner, played by Cannes Best Actor prize-winner Koji Yakusho.

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Monday-March 9: Dear Young Monster, Bristol Old Vic
Struggling at the beginning of his medical transition, a young trans man catches a midnight screening of Frankenstein. Pete MacHale’s (Doctor Who) debut solo show pulls apart fear, otherness, and what it means to embrace being the monster that the world keeps telling you that you are.

Dear Young Monster – photo: Bristol Old Vic

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Tuesday-Saturday: Beautiful Evil Things, Tobacco Factory Theatres
A fierce, funny, bloody take on some of the oldest stories known to woman. From a killer gorgon. What if there was another take on the Trojan War, an untold breathtaking adventure you’d never heard before? Enter Medusa. She was there.

Beautiful Evil Things – photo: Tobacco Factory Theatres

Tuesday: Culture is not an industry launch, Bookhaus
25 years ago, the UK government attempted to qualify the country’s vibrant arts and culture as its own industry, branding it the “creative industries”. A quarter of a century on, Australian academic Justin O’Connor examines the effect this branding has had on British creativity, when combined with the throws of funding and red tape.

Culture is not an industry – photo: Justin O’Connor

Wednesday: Access Creative College takeover, Rough Trade
Access Creative College is quite well hidden, being just across the road from the record store/cafe/venue space. Bustling with creative minds of all stripes, they’ve curated an evening of their finest rock vocalists and instrumentalists to take over Rough Trade’s intimate side room.

When it opened on Nelson Street in 2017, Rough Trade became the UK’s fourth Rough Trade shop after two in London and one in Nottingham – photo: Martin Booth

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Thursday: FEVER RAY, Bristol Beacon
Fever Ray, the experimental synthpop moniker of Karin Dreijer, has released their first new album in five-plus years – ‘Radical Romantics’. Devastating, tender and peaceful, the album features collaborations with Nine Inch Nails members Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who co-produced and performed on the songs ‘Even It Out’ and ‘North’, and presents an all-encompassing visual world. Limited availability remains to catch this spectacle in Beacon Hall this week.

Fever Ray – photo: Bristol Beacon

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Until Thursday: The Taste of Things, Watershed
Directed by TrâÌn Anh HuÌng, The Taste of Things is a feast for the eyes and ears, marrying the themes of food and love into one romantic pot-au-feu.

Thursday: Speed dating, The Cider Box
If you’re still reeling from that dodgy Valentine’s date, or perhaps you’re in the mood for another stab at love, how about paying a visit to a tunnel by the railway? It might not sound romantic, but it’s the location of Bristol’s favourite indie cider taproom, and they’re running a friendly speed dating session, with plenty of the golden nectar to lubricate the conversation.

The Cider Box Tap Room – photo: The Cider Box

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Thursday-March 30: Starter for Ten, Bristol Old Vic
Adapted from the hilarious novel by David Nicholls and the subsequent film, Starter for Ten is a bright, big-hearted new musical. Featuring an irresistible ’80s-inspired original score, this coming-of-age comedy is about love, belonging and the all-important difference between knowledge and wisdom.

Starter for Ten – photo: Bristol Old Vic

Friday: Motion presents: Marlon Hoffstadt, Motion
Forget Tiesto, there’s a new king of trance in town. Following on from an absolutely monolithic 2023, Marlon Hoffstadt aka DJ Daddy Trance touches down in Bristol to a no doubt packed to the rafters Motion, delivering the new skool power trance anthems sorely needed to turn that frown upside down.

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March 1: Radio 2 Sounds of the 80s: The live tour, O2 Academy
Legendary DJ Gary Davies brings the UK’s most popular 80s radio show live on stage! Party along to specially curated Mastermixes, dance to your favourite 80s anthems and watch as our brilliant Sounds of the 80s dancers recreate classic scenes from 80s films and videos.

Sounds of the 80s – photo: BBC Radio 2/O2 Academy

Friday: An Evening of Illusion & Table Magic, John Wesley’s New Room
If you’re after more of a quiet, but arguably equally as exciting evening, look no further than the newly renovated museum/cafe space on The Horsefair in the centre. They’re hosting a family friendly evening of illusions to raise money for a new mural on the side of the museum, celebrating the building’s namesake.

John Wesley’s New Room – photo: Betty Woolerton

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Saturday: Ultramagnetic MC’s, Bristol Beacon
Ultramagnetic MC’s are an American hip hop group based in the Bronx, New York. Originally founded by Kool Keith in 1984, the group currently consists of Keith, Ced Gee, TR Love and Moe Love. The group’s work was associated with unorthodox sampling, polysyllabic rhymes, and bizarre lyrical imagery. Don’t miss the hip-hop pioneers in Lantern Hall this weekend.

Ultramagnetic MC’s – photo: Bristol Beacon

Saturday: Stewart Lee, Bristol Beacon
Dubbed “the world’s greatest living stand up comedian” by The Times, Stewart Lee continues his Basic Lee tour at the freshly renovated Bristol Beacon. Whilst Lee’s tours previous have been extravagant, loud and prop heavy, Basic Lee looks to be more subdued, and focuses purely on Lee’s exquisite writing and tight delivery.

Sunday: Homemade Exhibition (final day), Bristol Old Vic
The final opportunity to catch the eye opening free exhibition lining the halls of the theatre’s Pit Corridor, examining people’s link to food, and how it keeps them tied to their heritage. Combining artefacts from the Bristol Archives and audio recordings providing context and stories to the items on display, it’s a multi sensory exploration of the city’s relationship with global food.

The Homemade Exhibition ends this week – photo: Bristol Old Vic

And coming soon…

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March 9-16: Old Vic Theatre School: Tiger Country, Tobacco Factory Theatres
Take a glimpse inside a hospital at Christmastime: Exhausted A&E staff power through gruelling shifts, caring for patients and navigating relationships whilst management cracks the whip. Tiger Country spotlights the hectic days of NHS heroes as a witty and moving portrait of embattled frontline workers soldiering on whatever the season.

Tiger Country – photo: BOVTS

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March 9: Spot’s Birthday Party, Redgrave Theatre
Spot is having a very special party and you’re invited! With party hats, songs, dancing and lots of interactive party games, this is going to be the best birthday party ever! Join Steve the Monkey, Tom the Crocodile and Helen the Hippo to say a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY SPOT!

Spot’s Birthday Party – photo: Redgrave Theatre

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March 14: MISHIMA, Arnolfini
An hour of contemporary music for string quartet, exploring timescales in human memory and the natural environment.

String Quartet No.3 by Philip Glass forms the core of the programme, with the mesmerising cross rhythms and hypnotic quality for which the composer is so well known. Based on music Glass wrote for a film based on the life of Japanese author Yukio Mishima, this short quartet references moments in the writer’s life.

Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s work is deeply inspired by the elemental landscapes of her native country. Her work for strings explores primordial textures, combining emotional intensity with glacial stasis.

A pioneer of interdisciplinary art, for over five decades, Meredith Monk has worked across composition, performance, choreography and direction. She has developed a unique style which links the archaic with the experimental. Stringsongs was written for the Kronos Quartet in 2005, and has been described by critic Tom Service as having a ‘mysterious mythic power’.

MISHIMA – photo: Bristol Ensemble

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March 23: Ritual Union, multiple venues
With a variety of top-notch live acts, on Saturday 23rd March music fans will be able discover the next wave of upcoming talent, alongside performances from some old favourites and international guests, across multiple venues in one of the UK’s most vital musical cities.

Ritual Union lineup poster – photo: Crosstown Concerts

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March 20-21: Self-Raising, Tobacco Factory Theatres
Award-winning Artistic Director, Jenny Sealey, has spent a lifetime championing stories by Deaf and disabled artists. Now she takes to the stage to tell her own. Unravelling the past and facing the future, Self-Raising is a blisteringly honest, laugh-out-loud one-woman show about growing up deaf in a family with secrets.

Self-Raising – photo: Tobacco Factory Theatres

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March 27: Goreckis Symphony no. 3 by candlelight, St. George’s
Symphony No 3, Symphony of Sorrowful Songs owes its mass appeal to the powerfully evocative second movement – the setting of an eighteen year old girl’s prayer scratched on the wall of a Gestapo prison in 1944. It is an extraordinary piece of music which completely envelops you in the atmosphere it creates and depth of feelings it engenders. An experience not to be missed.

The 1992 recording by the London Sinfonietta captured the public imagination, sold millions of copies worldwide and was top of the Classic FM charts for months.

Symphony by candlelight – photo: Bristol Ensemble

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March 29: Hans Rey – Mishaps and Mayhem, Redgrave Theatre
Mountain Bike pioneer, adventurer, former Trials World Champion, Hans ‘No Way’ Rey. Hans will reveal the crazy and whacky that accompanied him on some of his adventures. Behind the scenes stories of his greatest stunts and adventures and how it felt to be lost, haunted, stalked and rescued. You know what they say, an adventure isn’t an adventure until things go wrong.

Hans Rey – photo: Redgrave Theatre

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May 11: Blown Away, Trinity Henleaze URC
A great programme of music for wind instruments performed by players from the Bristol Ensemble:

• Mozart Serenade for Wind in C minor K.388
• Dvořák Serenade for Winds in D minor Op.44

We’ll hear the powerful and characterful C minor serenade by Mozart, a four movement work full of ingenuity, twists and turns. And also, Dvořák’s Serenade for Winds in D minor, unmistakably Czech, an homage to music-making in Czech palaces and stately homes.

Blown Away – photo: Henleaze Concert Society

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June 8: Summer Serenade, Trinity Henleaze URC
For this last concert of our season, the Bristol Ensemble will perform Schubert’s Trout Quintet and other pieces of light classical music.

Schubert’s enduringly popular Trout Quintet was written by the young composer at just 22 years of age.  It has a freshness and serenity that has engaged players and audiences for nearly 200 years.  Together with other pieces of light classical music, this will be a perfect programme for a Summer’s evening.

Summer Serenade – photo: Henleaze Concert Society

Main photo: Watershed

Read next:

• 17 Midland Road to exhibit Ashley Loxton and bill daggs
• Circomedia to celebrate 30th anniversary with extra special gala
• Fingers on buzzers: Bristol Old Vic prepares for world premiere of ‘Starter for Ten’

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