Bristol Sober Spaces, ProperJob Presents and Trinity are joining forces for a third Sober Hip Hop Night on Saturday 14 November 2026, bringing together some of the city's underground music talent for a night of live music and pure vibes, without alcohol or other drugs.

Bristol Sober Spaces, ProperJob Presents and Trinity are teaming up for our third Sober Hip Hop Night, Subculture, on Saturday 14 November 2026, bringing together some of the city’s underground music talent for a night of live music and pure vibes, without alcohol or other drugs.

With a lineup spanning hip hop, trip hop, grime, jazz and heavy bass, the event offers an alternative way to experience Bristol's nightlife, where the music and the people take centre stage.

Headlining the night are Split Prophets, the Bristol hip hop collective whose debut EP Scribbled Thoughts helped establish their reputation in the city's underground scene. Named Best Crew by Wordplay magazine in 2012, the group have supported hip hop legends including Wu-Tang Clan, KRS-One, MF DOOM, DJ Premier and Pete Rock.

They'll be joined by Croydon-born MC JMAN, whose sound brings together grime and hip hop, alongside AudioFlux, known for their dark, industrial, bass-heavy production and eerie vocals. ProperJob Collective complete the lineup, blending hip hop, jazz, neo-soul and lo-fi influences.

But beyond the music, Sober Hip Hop Night is about creating space for people to enjoy nightlife on their own terms.

Established in 2022, Bristol Sober Spaces organises alcohol- and drug-free music events across the city, welcoming everyone from people in recovery and those who abstain for religious reasons to anyone who simply wants to enjoy a night out without drinking.

The project has collaborated with venues including Rough Trade, Loco Klub, Jam Jar, Basement 45 and Bristol Beacon, bringing sober audiences everything from drum and bass and garage to punk, metal and house.

For those attending, the atmosphere is part of what makes these nights special.

"I found it's a really beautiful experience. You're surrounded by people that are present and engaged. It's just one of the best feelings being on the dancefloor without alcohol."  - Event participant

It's an experience shared by the artists themselves. Reflecting on a previous Bristol Sober Spaces event, legendary drum and bass DJ Roni Size said:

"It was incredible performing to all those people, some of whom were going through recovery. It was a totally different feeling to what I'm used to."

Sober Hip Hop Night welcomes music lovers of all backgrounds, whether they're sober, sober-curious or simply coming for the lineup. The message is simple: you don't need alcohol to enjoy great music, good company and a proper night out.

Over the next 18 months, LIFT: From Foundations to Transformation grant will help Trinity strengthen its creative programmes, develop its workforce and explore new approaches to community-led decision-making.

Trinity Community Arts is embarking on its next stage of development with support from Arts Council England, building on its established role in East Bristol while creating the foundations for its future.

Through LIFT: From Foundations to Transformation, Trinity will invest in its creative programmes, workforce development and digital infrastructure, alongside exploring new ways for communities to shape cultural activity and organisational priorities.

The 18-month project will support Trinity's core programmes across Creative Communities, Creative Health and Wellbeing, and Trinity Presents, its in-house programme of live music, performance and events. Together, these programmes create opportunities for people to take part in creative activity, support artists and connect culture with the needs and experiences of local communities.

A key part of LIFT will be developing and piloting a new Membership Panel, creating opportunities for community members to play a more active role in shaping Trinity's cultural offer and organisational priorities.

This builds on Trinity's involvement in Citizens for Culture, a programme exploring how people can have a greater say in the cultural decisions that affect them. Drawing on this learning, Trinity will explore how to move beyond consultation towards more meaningful shared decision-making.

Adam Gallacher, Deputy CEO at Trinity Community Arts, said:

“LIFT is about building on what we’ve learnt and creating the conditions for Trinity to keep developing. We want to strengthen the work we’re already doing with communities and artists, while making space to test new approaches and think differently about how decisions are made.

“Our involvement in Citizens for Culture has helped us explore what citizen-led cultural decision-making could look like. This project gives us the opportunity to build on that learning, work out what it means in practice for Trinity, and develop an approach that gives communities a more meaningful role in shaping our work.

“It’s about recognising the value of what we’ve built so far, while creating the foundations for what comes next.”

LIFT will also support Trinity's longer-term development as a multi-site cultural organisation, building on the experience and relationships established at Trinity Centre as work develops at Jacobs Wells Baths.

Alongside its creative programmes, investment in workforce development and digital infrastructure will strengthen Trinity's capacity to work across both sites, connect with audiences and communities, and build a sustainable future for its work across Bristol and the wider region.

For the first time, communities will have the opportunity to directly influence and choose the programmes that best meet their needs

Jamell Ackford, Director of Culture at Trinity Community Arts, adds:

"It’s exciting to have this opportunity to take our engagement with local communities a step further. Through our Membership Panel, we can listen directly to what matters most across our key priority areas and give communities a genuine voice in shaping the programmes and services we commission.

"We have worked in partnership with communities for many years, but decisions have often been based on what we believed people wanted. This initiative changes that. For the first time, communities will have the opportunity to directly influence and choose the programmes that best meet their needs.

"The Membership Panel is the next step in ensuring the right voices are around the table, helping us strengthen and elevate our programme through meaningful community-led decision-making"

Jake Mensah, Youth & Children Services Manager at Trinity Community Arts continues:

"For more than a decade, our children and young people’s programmes have provided a constant, trusted presence within the communities we serve. This new funding will help us build on that foundation, ensuring established programmes such as Next Gen Sounds, Speak Out, Girls Group and Hype Dance can continue to provide safe, inclusive and empowering creative spaces where young people can shape activity, develop their creativity and confidence, and build a sense of belonging. It will also allow us to strengthen existing programmes and partnerships, building on the trust, relationships and local knowledge developed over many years.

Working alongside partners including Bristol Horn Youth Concern, Bristol Youth Connect, Love Stapleton Road and local schools such as Easton CE Academy, St Nicholas of Tolentine Primary School, Hannah More Primary School, City Academy Bristol and Oasis Academy Temple Quarter, we will continue to create opportunities for children and young people to have their voices heard, develop their potential and play an active role in shaping the future of their communities through the creative arts."

This summer, Trinity and Coexist Community Kitchen came together once again to run our Gardening & Cooking programme in the Community Garden. Combining Coexist's culinary expertise with Trinity's gardening knowledge, participants spent six weeks cooking with seasonal produce, learning practical growing skills and taking part in nature-based arts activities. The programme was originally developed in response to increasing isolation experienced during the pandemic and continues to provide opportunities for people to connect, learn and spend time outdoors.

One of this year's participants was Karen, who attended the sessions alongside her husband, Matt.
Karen first became involved through Coexist Community Kitchen after being introduced through Diverse and attending other community meals and activities. Although she had heard of Trinity before, she had never visited the space and was surprised to discover the garden tucked away in the city.

"The garden is lovely," she says. "You can be outdoors, learn how to use the fire, cooking outside. I've never cooked outdoors before on the fire." Over six weeks, Karen enjoyed developing new skills, from growing and harvesting vegetables to outdoor cooking and creative activities. She particularly valued learning from the team and spending time in nature."Meeting you guys, doing the art has been amazing. I've really enjoyed that. Just being in nature. Being in the city but in nature."

For Karen, the programme offered more than practical learning. As a carer for Matt, finding spaces where they both feel comfortable can be difficult. She says being able to attend together, and knowing Matt felt safe in the environment, made a huge difference.

"He has come every single week. That's a testament to how safe he feels here."

The sessions also helped Karen build confidence socially."I think there's been a connection to nature, being outdoors, meeting new people. I am quite socially awkward, so to actually chat and to feel safe, because I mask a lot, it's been nice to meet new people."

Alongside new friendships and experiences, Karen has taken away practical knowledge she hopes to use at home, from understanding growing cycles to feeling inspired to make more use of her own garden. 
She would encourage others to get involved."You learn new skills, new things to cook, how to grow things and how to harvest things."

Karen and Matt are now looking forward to getting more involved with Trinity activities, including attending Trinity's AGM, while continuing their connection with Coexist Community Kitchen.
This year's programme concluded with a Harvest Feast, where participants came together with the Coexist and Trinity teams to share food, celebrate the season's harvest and mark the end of the course. The gathering offered a chance to reflect on new skills, friendships and experiences developed over the course, while enjoying a meal prepared as a group.

To find out more about Trinity's Gardening & Cooking programme and other community activities, chick here.

In a recent editorial, The Guardian argued that adult education is about more than qualifications. Reflecting on a new report from MPs, it highlighted how "acquiring new skills can be a first step on a longer journey – a way to begin to imagine different futures".

At Trinity, we're seeing that play out through our adult learning programme.

Working in partnership with SGS College and Bristol School of Art, we've recently welcomed the third cohort of learners onto our Employability Through Arts & Crafts: Skills for Life and Work course. The 15-week accredited programme was developed specifically for Trinity and uses creative activities to support learners to develop communication, teamwork and employability skills.

The programme builds on several years of work with local partners to create accessible adult learning opportunities in our community. Many participants are referred through organisations including Bristol Drugs Project, Horizons, inHope, Aidbox Community, The Junction Project and local health centres, helping people access learning in a familiar and supportive environment.

The course has already supported learners to progress on to further study through SGS College and Bristol School of Art. Others have gone on to volunteer with arts-based projects at Trinity and partner organisations including St Paul's Carnival.

This year's intake has also seen an increase in the number of participants. While the first two cohorts each welcomed around three learners, the current cohort began with 10 people enrolled and attending weekly sessions. The most recent learners have become some of the programme's strongest advocates. Several returned to support taster sessions, sharing their workbooks and experiences with prospective participants and encouraging others to sign up.

The Guardian editorial also notes that "learning can contribute to health and wellbeing" and highlights the importance of relationships in adult education. That resonates strongly with what participants tell us about the course, where shared learning and creativity have helped build connections between people from different backgrounds.

"This course provided a real sense of a community working together which has been so good for me."

At a time when adult education is receiving national attention, this programme demonstrates the value of local, community-based learning. Alongside qualifications and progression routes, it creates space for people to learn together, build meaningful relationships and take part in arts activity that supports their wider health and wellbeing.

Find out more about our community programme and explore upcoming events here.

In our first Your Trinity story, Dr. Edson Burton reflected on Trinity's role in giving Black artists, communities and emerging cultural movements space to gather, experiment and be heard. Read here.

That history isn't finished.

In this piece, Jamell Ackford reflects on what creating space for culture looks like at Trinity today, and why it still matters.

Answering the question: what excites you about the artists, sounds and ideas we’re platforming now, and why is creating space for this work still important?

Trinity's history is wrapped up in the birth of many beautiful genres, cradling heritage sounds from the rise of Soundsystem culture in the uk. Creating space for reggae and punk, which holds the space for emerging sounds such as Ska, Jungle, D&B.

What excites me most about the work we do, and the wider programming that happens across the building

What excites me most about the work we do, and the wider programming that happens across the building, is the possibility of creating those 'what the hell is this moment'. The experience of hearing something completely new that reshapes your understanding of music. Artists and sounds coming through Uganda's Nyege Nyege label are a great example of this. Seeing DJ Travella within our walls was an eye-opening moment, which doesn't happen too often.

For me, it's about keeping heritage at the forefront while creating space for the future to emerge in exciting and unexpected ways. Nights such as Teachings in Dub, Pangea (AnExperience), Accidental Meetings and Seedling Sessions, alongside artists like Grove, Batu and Omega Nebula and labels such as Deep Medi and Rupture, all play a vital role in keeping culture moving forward while remaining connected to its roots.

What Does That Look Like Today?

Seedling Sessions x Black Creatives

• Celebrating 50 years of music at Trinity and 10 years of Seedling Sessions with a special Black History Month edition in collaboration with Black Creatives.
• A genre-crossing lineup featuring KWAZI, TIA, iAM13E, MĀDŁY, SOULBEE, Cindy BlackBird and BLCK Stream.
• A celebration of Black creativity, culture and community from Bristol and beyond.

Adventures in Hidden History:

• A joyful, interactive adventure celebrating hidden histories, remarkable lives and Global Majority trailblazers.
• Live music, oral history and imaginative storytelling combine to bring untold stories to life.
• Exploring identity, colonialism and alternative histories through a family-friendly lens..

Teachings In Dub:

• Dub legends Iration Steppas bring their heavyweight Leeds soundsystem to Bristol for a highly anticipated edition of Teachings in Dub.
• Going head-to-head with Bristol/Birmingham sound system Concrete Lion in a powerful clash of roots, bass and sound system culture.
• Expect a full-force sound meeting drawing dub heads from across the country.

Omega Nebula:

• UK future dub duo OMEGA NEBULA bring their powerful blend of dub, reggae and electronica to Trinity.
• An immersive live show with added pressure from Sinai Soundsystem
• Pushing dub into new territory with a high-energy fusion of live and electronic performance.

Festus Market:

• A festive all-day market celebrating African Caribbean and Black British culture.
• Discover unique gifts, handmade products and local traders offering everything from jewellery to cosmetics.
• Enjoy family-friendly craft activities, storytelling and free badge-making workshops.

Soak up the festive atmosphere with hot sorrell, great music and community spirit throughout the day.

For Black History Month, Edson Burton looks back at the people, music and movements that have shaped Trinity, asking what that history tells us about the importance of giving emerging culture space to grow.

By Edson Burton

“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” My mangled version of this aphorism can be applied to the Trinity Centre.

In the 1970s, with congregations falling and maintenance costs rising, the Diocese closed Holy Trinity Church. The building was acquired by Bristol Caribbean Community Enterprise (BCCE), one of several organisations formed by Caribbean migrants to respond to the needs of Bristol’s first and second generations.

Black Bristolians faced multiple levels of marginalisation, from unemployment and inequalities in education to exclusion from parts of Bristol’s nightlife.

Music captured the mood of the time. Creativity born of difficult circumstances was in abundance. Places to practise and express that creativity were not.

Creativity was in abundance. Places to practise and express that creativity were not.

BCCE saw in the cavernous former church an answer to some of the challenges facing the community. It offered skills training, meeting space and somewhere community groups could gather and rehearse. But a younger generation began to see another possibility for the building.

A space for reggae

Reggae was the voice of a younger generation. Heavily influenced by Rastafarianism, it spoke to the marginalisation of the Black poor in post-colonial Jamaica while also finding resonance in the experiences of a second generation of Black Britons.

As Richard Davis remembers:

“We still really didn’t have a lot of access to white clubs... West Indian party, that’s the main entertainment. Sound systems, Tarzan the High Priest, that was everything to us.”

Bristol’s reggae scene grew around sound-system culture. As audiences increased, pubs and blues parties could only accommodate so many people.

Trinity offered something those spaces couldn’t: room to grow.

Its 500 to 600-capacity hall provided a next step for Bristol’s developing reggae scene. Trinity outreach worker Roy De Freitas encouraged young people to use the building as a music venue and, from the late 1970s, Trinity became part of a network of grassroots venues providing a home for reggae.

Bristol bands including Black Roots and Misty in Roots performed here, alongside artists including Eek-A-Mouse and dub poets Linton Kwesi Johnson and Benjamin Zephaniah.

These venues were platforming reggae artists well before the music attracted mainstream interest. They gave musicians somewhere to develop their craft in front of audiences deeply connected to the culture surrounding the music.

When cultures meet

Trinity also became one of the spaces where Black and white artists could meet, share ideas and create music.

Out of encounters across Bristol’s music scene came what would eventually become known as the Bristol Sound. Artists including Smith & Mighty and Massive Attack drew inspiration from sound-system culture, bringing influences from reggae and dub together with electronic production.

This is perhaps where the importance of cultural space becomes clearest. Providing somewhere for an existing scene to perform is one thing. Providing somewhere different people can encounter one another can lead to something nobody predicted.

From reggae to rave

After closing in 1984, Trinity reopened in 1987 and again became a home for emerging music.

Audiences gathered around house, hip hop and jungle, while Trinity’s grassroots ethos chimed with the free-party and rave scenes of the period.

Club nights such as Ruffneck Ting brought artists including Roni Size, Krust and the Full Cycle crew to Trinity as jungle and drum and bass developed into major musical movements.

Live music evolved alongside club culture. The 1990s brought artists including Terry Callier, Galliano and Gil Scott-Heron, while hip hop acts including Public Enemy also appeared on Trinity’s stage.

Across different genres and generations, the pattern is remarkably similar. New sounds emerge outside the mainstream. People build communities around them. Those communities need somewhere to meet, perform and experiment.

Given the right space, they grow.

What does that history mean today?

Trinity reopened under new management in 2004. Since then, iconic sound systems have returned to the hall while new generations of artists have continued to reshape the musical influences that passed through the building before them.

But perhaps the lesson of Trinity’s history isn’t about any individual genre.

Again and again, cultural movements that were marginalised, dismissed or simply not yet understood by the mainstream found audiences in grassroots spaces. Reggae, sound-system culture, jungle and drum and bass did not arrive as established cultural institutions. People made them.

They needed somewhere to do it.

That leaves cultural spaces like Trinity with an important question today: are we prepared to make room for work before it is established, and give artists and communities space to experiment without already knowing the outcome?

Trinity’s history shows what can happen when we do.

Some of the sounds that once sat outside Bristol’s mainstream now form part of the city’s cultural identity. The challenge is creating the conditions in which the next generation can make something of their own.