Rub shoulders with bewildered characters as they navigate their once-familiar streets now transformed by time. Listen to their tales of bustling market days where fortunes were made and lost through clever bartering and sharp wit.

This extraordinary walking tour won’t just tell you about Old Market's history—it brings you face-to-face with the very people that lived it.

Tour Times

12pm – 12:30pm

1:30pm – 2pm

2:30pm – 3pm

3:30pm – 4pm

4:30pm – 5pm

A ticket to the promenade gains you access to the fayre (timings 12:30pm - 5pm). More info here.

Further Info

A £5 deposit is required when booking. This deposit can either be refunded or exchanged for a voucher that can be spent in Old Market business taking part in the Destination Old Market.

To sign up for vouchers, after attending the event, a form will be sent to you so that you can choose your business of choice to get a digital code to redeem over autumn!

Please be aware that media (including video, photos or audio) may be collected at this event. If you do not wish to be included, please stand aside and/or make yourself known to the photographer or videographer.

Destination Old Market is produced by Trinity Community Arts and is part of the City Centre and High Streets Culture and Events Programme, funded by Bristol City Council and the West of England Combined Authority. The initiative aims to attract more visitors to the City Centre, boosting local businesses and the economy.

Feast like nobility or dine as a humble peasant - the choice is yours. From succulent spit-roasted pig to delicate mushroom tarts, our period-inspired fare satisfies every palate.

All while our town's finest jester keeps spirits high whilst Bristol's most talented musicians fill the air with melodies that transport you to days of old.

Line Up

True Strays • SOULBEE • Aileen Kelly

Further Info

A £5 deposit is required when booking. This deposit can either be refunded or exchanged for a voucher that can be spent in Old Market business taking part in the Destination Old Market.

To sign up for vouchers, after attending the event, a form will be sent to you so that you can choose your business of choice!

Please be aware that media (including video, photos or audio) may be collected at this event. If you do not wish to be included, please stand aside and/or make yourself known to the photographer or videographer.

Destination Old Market is produced by Trinity Community Arts and is part of the City Centre and High Streets Culture and Events Programme, funded by Bristol City Council and the West of England Combined Authority. The initiative aims to attract more visitors to the City Centre, boosting local businesses and the economy.

Image credit - Alastair Brookes

"The Trinity Centre Stay and Play includes a truly diverse mix of family members from all walks of life that is the most representative of Bristol itself that I’ve ever experienced ! The city centre location makes it convenient for so many people. As a person of colour with mixed heritage children, it’s a place I feel we all truly belong, and that isn’t the case for many places"

Every Friday for as long as we can remember Trinity has welcomed families to enjoy our beautiful space and play with friends at our Stay and Play which has been co-delivered by Central Bristol Childrens Centre alongside Lawrence Hill Health Visiting team.

The partnership made the very difficult decision recently to cease delivery of the group with our final session last week.

Trinity Community Arts was grateful to the generous donation of toys from CBCC which will enhance all future delivery here, we are also looking into applying for further funding to continue to offer a regular opportunity for young families to connect here at Trinity.

Conversations are continuing both with CBCC and other partners to provide this service and we will keep you informed on our socials.

In the meantime, we wish CBCC and LHHV continued support and acknowledge all the hard work they do in supporting families in their local communities.

Over the past few weeks, something has been lurking in the outskirts of Bristol. A presence, felt through the city and captured in their latest reel... 
On May 16th, this force will finally reveal itself, unleashed through the raw energy of a stacked lineup of DJs ready to shake the foundations.

Lineup:

Neuroheadz (Killey & Keenan + DARK D), mind-blowing live set with electric guitar & live vocals

Monroller

Demetria

Hackwaves

Hebra & Vandermou

Optimus

DJ Warm Up Contest

And to top it all off, the Pimientos Collective will be bringing their full power sound system for the first time. Expect heavy-hitting drum & bass, neurofunk, live performances, multiple DJs, and an earth-shaking sound system. And this is just the beginning - more surprises are coming. 
Brace yourself.

Please note this is a standing event, accessible seating is available

Venue levy: Trinity has a £1 Restoration Levy on every event ticket sold. This income will be used to create a dedicated fund for critical building works that will protect and maintain the Trinity Centre building and grounds.

The Grip, March 2025, image by AlastairBrookes - KoLABStudios

"Well done to all at Trinity Centre for hosting The Grip. It was truly wonderful to walk into that crowded, warm, diverse room. The 'show' itself was sobering, raw, beautiful. I will be pondering its messages for quite a while." Audience Member

In March, Trinity played host to The Grip; a poignant, multi-layered live production from Strike A Light.

Blending live radio show elements with film, interviews, and powerful testimonies, The Grip delved into the deeply personal stories of families divided by the Windrush generation experience.

Told through real interviews and evocative film by filmmaker Daniel Folley and producer Philippa Smith, this reimagined performance (first staged at Gloucester’s Guildhall in 2023) was given new life with the inclusion of Bristol voices.

In partnership with Strike A Light, Trinity sought out and supported local contributors to weave their own lived experiences into the narrative: stories of those who were left behind, of parents forced to make impossible choices, and of siblings growing up across oceans.

BBC presenter Kevin Philemon hosted the evening with warmth and gravity, joined by an impressive lineup including Bristol’s first Poet Laureate Miles Chambers, psychotherapist Audrey James, and soulful local singer Celestine.

The result was an emotional tapestry of storytelling, performance, and reflection, shared with a full house of over 100 people. What unfolded was a communal experience. A space of healing, remembrance, and connection. Stories unheard were spoken aloud, grief and resilience given equal weight. It reminded us how vital it is to listen, to speak, and to hold space for stories that shaped generations.

Keeping the celebration alive Passage & Trinity Presents : A new event debuting as the official after-party for Trinity’s Garden Party.

We’re bringing a high-energy night of jungle, breaks, funky, and everything in between.

Line up dropping soon

We’re excited to share the artists we’ve got locked in. Stay tuned.

Please note this is a standing event, accessible seating is available.

About Trinity Presents

This is part of Trinity Presents - our in-house programme of music and performance, bringing world-class artists and emerging talent to inner-city audiences.

Part TED talk, part history lecture, part folk club sing-a-long, part storytelling session… Come and share in these tales as they have been shared for generations.

See here for more information and frequently asked questions page.

Science Fair, 2025; image by Alistair Brookes

After years of consultation, experimentation and refinement, we’re now seeing the impact of our work come together; strengthening our ambition to be a nationally celebrated hub for socially engaged arts. By joining the dots across multiple projects, partners and communities, we’re reaching more people than ever and embedding creativity into everyday life.

At the heart of this transformation is our for, by, with methodology, which ensures that everything we do is created for communities, shaped by those with lived experience, and developed with the people and partners who help bring it to life. Through this approach, we’ve secured major multi-year funding, providing the stability needed to invest in long-term change and build deeper relationships that ensure our work is truly relevant and impactful.

Partnerships with Bristol Drugs Project and Bristol School of Art are creating new pathways for adults to engage with creativity as a tool for health, wellbeing and personal development. Through targeted workshops by expert facilitators and with individuals who may not otherwise access creative spaces, we are providing opportunities to build confidence, express identity, and develop new skills - whether in music or performance.

Our Cultural Alliance and after-school programmes are ensuring that creative opportunities exist for local children - many of whom are engaging with the arts for the first time. By embedding arts provision within schools and community settings, we’re developing work by and with young people that helps them discover their creative potential, make new connections, and gain valuable life skills.

Trinity's combined arts programme continues to flourish, bringing an exciting mix of dance, theatre and live performance from emerging artists both local and touring to allow new audiences to access this exciting work at Trinity and beyond. Alongside this, our Seeding Sessions are platforming some of the most exciting new sounds offering an enchanting and experimental evenings for true music enthusiasts.

By expanding our work for audiences in schools, community spaces, and public spaces, we are ensuring culture is more accessible than ever. Whether through powerful theatre performances by local artists, high-energy dance workshops with community groups, or participatory projects that put people at the centre of the creative process, we are bringing communities together in meaningful ways.

This progress has been made possible by an ambitious, empowered, and dedicated team whose passion for socially engaged arts is driving change. With strong foundations in place and an exciting future ahead, we’re ready to take our work even further - expanding our reach, deepening our impact, and ensuring that culture and creativity remain at the heart of community life for, by, and with the people who need it most.

By Adam Gallacher, Deputy CEO

Led by frontman Cian Godfrey, the Dublin-based band have built a reputation for electric live performances, selling out venues across the UK, Ireland and Continental Europe and sharing stages with The War on Drugs, Bloc Party and Kings of Leon.

Doors: 7pm

Last entry: 9pm

Curfew: 11pm

Please note this is a standing event, accessible seating is available. To reserve a limited seating spot and/or arrange a companion ticket, please contact info@trinitybristol.org.uk

Last entry 2 hours before curfew

Venue levy: Trinity has introduced a £1 Restoration Levy on every event ticket sold. This income will be used to create a dedicated fund for critical building works that will protect and maintain the Trinity Centre building and grounds.

Image Credit: Sophia Stefelle

Report highlights contribution of Bristol’s treasured community spaces, as network of organisations calls for Council reform to ensure their survival

A new report has revealed the significant economic contribution of Bristol’s community spaces, reinforcing the need for urgent policy action called for as part of the Roots of Resilience campaign, launched in the city last summer. The report, commissioned by a coalition of sixteen community organisations across the city, shows that collectively these spaces generate an annual turnover of £16 million, supporting 480 jobs and delivering more than £33 million in economic impact.

The findings have been published as an updated policy framework for Community Asset Transfers is presented to Bristol City Council by the network, marking a crucial next step following last year’s manifesto launch.

The report, and the updated framework, come as a result of ‘Roots of Resilience: Saving Community Spaces’ a city-wide campaign calling for urgent action to protect and enhance Bristol’s shared spaces.

Since the release of the ‘Roots of Resilience’ manifesto last year, tangible progress has been made on several key objectives:

• The Chair of the Health and Communities Committee now leads on community assets, reflecting their importance for the city.

• A community-focused council officer is now involved in Community Asset Transfer decisions. This is a welcome step, though further work is needed to ensure representation from communities most affected by asset poverty and underinvestment.

• Progress made to review key elements of community asset management and Council strategy to support the sustainability of our spaces and the organisations which maintain them.

At a time when local councils continue to face intense financial pressures, the report underscores the essential role of community spaces in Bristol’s economic and social infrastructure. The campaign’s key demand remains: that the decision-making process around council-owned buildings reflects their irreplaceable community value rather than focusing solely on financial considerations.

While significant progress has been made, there are several key areas which could be strengthened in the updated framework, such as representation in decision-making and transparency around the availability of properties for CAT.

Emma Harvey, CEO of Trinity Community Arts, said: “With the publication of this report and our suggested updated policy framework, we are calling on the Council to act decisively to protect Bristol’s community spaces.

As our research shows, our community infrastructure contributes to better health, social and environmental outcomes for all our residents, reducing public spend and enriching our communities. By strengthening the policy approach further, Bristol can lead the nation in safeguarding its community infrastructure.

We are calling on residents to reach out to their councillors and show their support for community spaces, to ensure these spaces remain viable for generations to come.”

Sado Jirde, Director at Black South West Network, said: “We wholeheartedly support the recommendations in this report. Our work at Black South West Network has shown time and again that racialised and marginalised communities face some of the greatest barriers to accessing and sustaining community assets.

The current system is structurally inequitable, many communities are locked out from opportunities to own, shape and maintain the spaces they need. By reforming Community Asset Transfer policies and prioritising long-term investment, we can start to rebalance power and resources in our city. This is about more than buildings, it’s about enabling communities to thrive on their own terms.”

Community organisations and the public are being urged to support the campaign by contacting local MPs and councillors to show support. Find out more here: https://www.trinitybristol.org.uk/about/news/latest-news/becoming-legends-in-our-own-time-fighting-for-community-ownership

Links

Read the Roots of Resilience report here: Roots of Resilience: A report on the value of Bristol’s community spaces

Read the Roots of Resilience manifesto here: Roots of Resilience: Saving Community Spaces

The sixteen Community Anchor organisations includedinvolved in the campaign are:

• Eastside Community Trust, Easton Community Centre and Felix Road Adventure Playground

• Trinity Community Arts, Trinity Centre and Jacobs Wells Baths

• Windmill Hill City Farm

• Black South West Network, The Coach House

• Lockleaze Neighbourhood Trust

• Knowle West Health Park

• Knowle West Alliance

• Southmead Development Trust

• Redcatch Community Garden Limited

• Ambition Lawrence Weston

• Bricks, St Anne’s House

• Artspace Lifespace

• St Werburghs Community Centre

• Filwood Community Centre

• Voscur

• Learning Partnership West

For more details on the event please visit Bristol Transformed website here.

Turn boxes into skyscrapers in our cardboard city.

Unleash your creativity with arts & crafts.

Explore the wonders of nature through exciting outdoor activities and enjoy classic games for all ages.

Pack a picnic and make a day of it – the adventure awaits!

John Parish & Adrian Utley supporting Trinity's #Notes4Notes campaign, 2013

The battle over who gets a say about the land under our feet is a tale as age-old as Robin Hood.

As the housing crisis shows no sign of letting up, this can mask the much wider picture of what it truly means to build sustainable, thriving neighbourhoods where people want to carve out lives. Despite the government’s stated commitment to community empowerment, the closure of the Community Ownership Fund (COF) marks a significant setback leaving the future of community-led asset ownership uncertain.

Even with schemes like COF, the task of taking on a building is one with many obstacles. In England’s fight for community spaces, the Asset of Community Value (ACV) system, while noble in its intention, offers little protection against the weight of market forces. Unlike Scotland’s Community Right to Buy, which grants legal power to force a sale to qualifying community interest groups, England’s system merely offers a temporary pause on commercial disposal, with no obligation placed on asset owners to prioritise community buyers.

This leaves communities having to balance professionalism needed to lever required funds whilst simultaneously growing noisy public campaigns to put of other buyers. If they’re in no rush to sell, the owner will simply wait for the six-month moratorium to lapse before proceeding with sale to the highest bidder, as with Coexist’s campaign to save Hamilton House. Even where groups manage to raise substantial funds and deliver successful public campaign, efforts can be swept aside in a heartbeat by a developer with deeper pockets.

There is marginally greater hope when a building is owned by a Local Authority, where campaigners can cite continued social value. However, securing a community asset transfer can be challenging in the current context with councils under pressure to balance deficit budgets. The temptation of commercial disposal can be hard to resist.

Keeping buildings in public ownership is one of the biggest challenges. Many councils are eager for a quick exit from liabilities such as their expensive portfolio of rapidly dilapidating buildings. By the time an asset reaches a state of severe disrepair, disposal becomes the only logical option; a short-term fix that plugs a budget gap at the expense of long-term social, economic, and health benefits.

People think of the legend of Robin Hood as a story of outlaws robbing the rich, but at its core, it is a tale of defiance against this type of land-based power. The struggle to protect or reclaim what belongs to the people – whether it’s indigenous land reclamation struggles against tech giants mining for precious minerals, tenant unions resisting evictions and rent hikes, community land trusts securing affordable housing, local campaigns fighting to save a building on their doorstep, or even Greenland telling Trump “no means no” – is a narrative deeply rooted in our human condition, local to global.

In this latest telling of the story, we’re not just saving buildings. We’re saving ourselves. Every step we take to save a space is an act of political defiance, challenging the systems that concentrate land and wealth in fewer hands. Community management of buildings unlocks external funding, supports local well-being, and keeps spaces in public hands. It is in these everyday battles to save our spaces that the greatest transformations are forged, proving that resilience, solidarity, and vision to reshape a future in which communities work together to solve some of our shared problems.

Like Robin Hood’s battle against feudal land grabs, the movement for community ownership is about more than individual buildings, it’s about reshaping an entire system. If we only defend one asset at a time, we won’t keep up with the pace of change and we’ll fail to address the structural inequality that means some the odds are stacked against some more than others. Instead, we must challenge the structures that keep land and power concentrated among the few.

Rather than accepting when our decision-makers tell us the cupboards are bare, we need to all be asking more questions of our elected representatives to demand greater transparency around how we’re making best us of the resources we do have. The question isn’t just: How can we save this building? It’s: How can we reclaim control over the places that shape our lives, for the good of all of us?

Opinion piece written by Emma Harvey, CEO

How to help

Register a building as an Asset of Community Value (ACV); this gives your community the right to bid for it if it's put up for sale, helping to protect important local spaces from unwanted development or loss.

Read about our Roots of Resilience campaign; show your support by contacting your Local Councillor to tell them about the importance of civic and cultural spaces in your neighbourhood.

Nominate a building to be listed as a heritage asset; care about the future of a historic place you know and love? Anyone can recommend a building, site, monument, designed landscape, battlefield or wreck site for inclusion on the National Heritage List for England (NHLE).

Write to your MP to call for a UK-wide "Community Right to Buy" to enable communities to take ownership of local assets, along with other measures like a new flexible Community Ownership Fund and support for community businesses to help combat structural inequity in asset management.

...and don't forget to VOTE 1st May! The West of England Mayor has the power to shape investment in civic and cultural infrastructure across the region. This election is a crucial chance to ensure decisions are made that benefit all of us. Don't forget to use your power to vote and make sure you ask your candidates what will they do to ensure investment reaches local communities so they can take on and develop vital community assets.

Resources

Ask your local Councillor:

1. How is the council prioritizsng and funding investment in community assets, and what opportunities exist for community partnerships or asset transfers?
2. Are there underused or surplus council properties that could be repurposed for community benefit, and what funding mechanisms (e.g., CIL, Section 106) can be utlised to better support this model?

Ask your local MP:

1. Will the government introduce stronger legal protections, such as a Right to Buy or compulsory purchase powers for communities, to prevent vital spaces from being lost to private development?
2. Will the government commit to establishing a dedicated, long-term funding programme like Scotland’s Land Fund, to better enable communities to protect the assets that matter to them?

Links:

Locality - Provides expert guidance and resources for community-led organizations to establish and sustain community assets.

My Community - Provides tools and advice for communities to take ownership of local assets and influence local decision-making.

Platform Places - Assists communities in repurposing vacant or underused buildings into vibrant community spaces.

Shared Assets - Offers support for managing land and buildings as sustainable community resources.

Stir to Action - Delivers training and workshops focused on social enterprise and community-led development.

The Plunkett Foundation - Supports rural communities in setting up and running community-owned businesses, including buildings.

Voscur - Offers support services for voluntary and community groups in Bristol, including guidance on managing community buildings.

#WECA #WestOfEngland #MyVoteMyVoice #UseYourVote

#CommunityPower #SaveOurSpaces #SoldFromUnderYou

He played the hang as a founding member of the band Portico Quartet.The acclaimed artist has come a long way, both experientially, musically and philosophically. Nick Mulvey 's work pushes boundaries in song writing and sound, music both traditional and experimental, acoustic and electronic.

+ support: JERUB

Please note this is a standing event, accessible seating is available. To reserve a limited seating spot and/or arrange a companion ticket, please contact info@trinitybristol.org.uk

Last entry 2 hours before curfew

Venue levy: Trinity has introduced a £1 Restoration Levy on every event ticket sold. This income will be used to create a dedicated fund for critical building works that will protect and maintain the Trinity Centre building and grounds.