We want a festival back at Ashton Court… so we’re going to do it!

But we need the people of Bristol to help by demonstrating how much they want it by buying their tickets in advance. Let’s take the community festival back to it’s spiritual home!

The Pledge: If 10,000 people (just a third of the people that previously attended Ashton Court festival) buy their advance ticket at just £30 for the whole weekend by 31st Dec 2011 we’ll bring the community festival to the Ashton Court estate in 2012!

If there’s isn’t enough tickets sold, or for whatever reason it doesn’t go ahead, we’ll refund everyone.

We’re aiming for a capacity of 20,000  so will hopefully be able to release more tickets nearer the event too. The date will be mid September 2012 and the festival will feature all the stages and entertainment of BrisFest with a lively mix of local and national acts plus some crowd pleasing big names. There will be kids areas, food stalls, dance lessons, workshops, and a massive variety of music from ska and electronic to rock and folk! Everything you’d expect from a family orientated action packed festival! We’re aiming to revive the spirit of the old Ashton Court Festival, its friendly atmosphere and volunteer-led enthusiasm, but with a little Brisfest thrown in.

The ethos: We believe Bristol deserves a big showcase festival! The Bristol Festival Community Group (registered charity 1124722), organisers of BrisFest (23rd-25th Sep 2011) and Stokes Croft Streetfest (May 21st 2011), came together in 2007 following the sad demise of Ashton Court Festival as we wanted to ensure the survival of a community festival for the city. We are a group of local volunteers (promoters, musicians, industry and members of the public) who felt it vital that the city retained a not for profit event, offering high profile exposure to local talent as well as an accessible, affordable festival for all that would be an asset to the city. We also felt it essential that the festival benefits local communities, both through performance and volunteering opportunities; aiming to bring together different cultural communities through the shared enjoyment of art, music, dance, and food. When it became apparent that we couldn’t help save the previous festival we decided we had to keep a community festival going and staged the first ‘Bristol Festival’ in 2008. Having to start with nothing and build up we had to start small and opted for the city center Amphitheatre as it was accessible and affordable, and a September date with good weather. We have now held 3 annual festivals in the harbourside, with the fourth coming up this September 23rd-25th 2011. We have grown a strong team and track record and offer work placements, professional qualifications and skills sharing, helping volunteers to develop their CVs, gain confidence and find employment in everything from fork lift truck driving to stage management. So we now feel it’s a good time to realise everyone’s dream of taking the community festival back up the beautiful park. 2012 will see lots of cut backs so hope we can hope we can bring a people-powered sparkle to the local calendar, highlighting Bristol’s bright future as a cultural hot-spot and thriving creative city.

It’ll be subject to license and cooperation with the authorities, but its now completely possible. We’re just now looking for the support of local people and businesses to demonstrate their commitment. As a publicly directed, volunteer led organisation all proceeds go back into the event and the community festival is where it belongs -in the hands of the people!

Why can’t it be free? Unfortunately it’s impossible to stage a large festival for free these days, even with everyone working and performing for free. Licensing and health and safety laws have developed so that we now have to provide a basic level of infrastructure such as plenty of toilets, safety barriers, security personnel, ambulances etc and these all cost a lot of money. Even the ‘free’ events that currently happen are paid for by council taxes. But it’s not all bad; events are a lot safer than they used to be with better access, less environmental damage (from pee-ing in the woods for example) and we have all come to expect safety and protection should anything bad happen.

The festival will cost around £600,000 to stage and as we don’t receive public funding we have to raise all of this ourselves through selling sponsorship, advertising, fundraising events, trade pitches, and tickets. But by keeping the profit in the festival and everyone volunteering we keep the ticket prices as low as possible.

So what happens now?

Brisfest 2011 is happening September 23rd – 25th 2011 in the Amphitheatre and tickets are available from £8 a day. By purchasing a ticket to this and coming along to see the acts you’re helping to support the cause.

BrisFest Ashton Court will happen in September 2012 (exact weekend TBC) if 10,000 people buy their weekend tickets for £30  before 31st December 2011.  If we don’t reach this number or for whatever reason the event does not go ahead we will refund everyone their money. If you later find you can’t make the date (its a long way off) or simply don’t fancy coming anymore you can email us and we’ll refund your money no quibbles!

BUY TICKETS HERE – Let’s do it!!