All proceeds this time will be donated to the Somerset Eel Recovery Project - a grassroots charity working to protect and bring European eels back to the Somerset Levels. Once plentiful across the Somerset Levels, this migratory fish is now registered as critically endangered throughout its range. Their last event raised just over £400 for Trees For Life and before that raised £1000 for Somerset Wildlands Trust.

If you've never been to a ceilidh before, don't worry. There will be a caller on hand to tell you all the steps. Fancy dress as your favourite native wildlife is non-compulsory but very much encouraged. There will be a prize for the best dressed. However, bear in mind that riotous ceilidh dancing means that you will want to keep layers and extra potentially-eye-gouging-apendages to a minimum. Trainers/ comfortable shoes are highly recommended.

Timings: 
Doors open: 7.00pm
Ceilidh begins: 7.30 pm
Ceilidh ends: 10:30 pm
Venue closes: 11.00 pm

As a group, you will then paint your favourite lines, or words onto fabric and create a tapestry.

These workshops offer a supportive environment for seasoned poets, secret writers and anyone that just fancies a go. It's a chance for you to share ideas and write together in a warm, supportive, space.

Travelling Tales will be popping up in multiple towns and cities over the Spring and they hope they can create a tapestry that travels with them and is added to by different Roadside communities along the way.

This workshop is free of charge and all materials will be provided as well as hot drinks and vegan snacks. Any allergens drop them an email in advance so they can be sure to have something suitable for you.

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Travelling Tales is facilitated by Maddie Wakeling, Beth Goodwin and Albi Knight.

The workshops are part of Roadside, a new play coming to the Trinity Centre (Bristol) in March. Inspired by interviews with roadside dwellers across the south west and drawing on the musical history of this new traveller community, from festivals to free parties, to songs around the fire. Roadside is a celebration of dance floor revelations and the emergence of a new traveller culture from festivals and free parties.

Roadside is supported by ACE, Trinity Community Arts and The Cockpit Theatre.

Kick off with a warm-up before you prance ecstatically and unguided for 60 minutes. Bring your most flamboyant moves, or just finger-dance in a corner - all are welcome.

Keep the event alive by supporting with a fiver in cash or card at the donation station. You won’t be turned away if you're in a financial pickle, but please donate if you can.

Newcomers are welcome! It’s okay to feel nervous, especially if you come alone. Dancing freely around others is a courageous act. Yet we come together to overcome our fears. If it helps, a bunch of bobbling humans is meant to look hilarious and not #InstaCool. You’re welcome to stay for snacks and chatter at the end.

Please bring earplugs if you are sensitive to loud music.

Dress code: wear whatever you like but fancy dress is encouraged.

Ecstatic Prance will run on the following:

• Tue 28 Oct, 7:30pm - 9:30pm
• Tue 04 Nov, 7:30pm - 9:30pm
• Thu 27 Nov, 7pm - 9pm

Join Club Love for their regular mid-week social where their gorgeous community will be meeting up outside a clubbing and play environment to chat about all things ENM, do a bit of shopping/swapping and soak in a talk or demo.

If you are curious about Club Love's play parties this is the perfect event to meet like-minded people and have all your questions answered with no pressure or judgement. Club Love socials will be open to members and non- members. Non-members will also have the opportunity to be vetted for Club Love Membership in person at the event.

Club Love are also initiating the; Kinky Clothes Swap'. Bring all the bits you don’t wear anymore, don’t fit, or the some beloved items you want to share with someone else.

Stalls by: 
Tamatha-Ann Lovett 
Chipper Leather Company 
Lisa Rose Illustration 
Collared by Miles 

Everyone is subject to Club love's vibe checks on entry. This is not a cruising event. You will be turned away if we feel your intentions are misaligned or your vibe is off.

Low-income tickets or free PA tickets are available via email here.

• No Dress Code
• No Under 18's
• Club Love Event Etiquette Applies
• Not a Play Party
• Workshop starts 7:30pm sharp

Please ensure you visit Club Love's website for event etiquette and guidelines. 
Visit here for more info on accessibility and parking.

Each week, you'll use arts and craft activities to build your confidence, understand your strengths, set goals for the future, problem solve independently and as a team, and gain support with speaking and listening skills.

This course is open for anyone aged 19+

Refreshments for all, and help towards transport costs provided on a case-by-case basis

Starts Wednesday 29th January 2025, 10am-1pm at Trinity Centre

If you need help filling out the applicaiton form, please email info@trinitybristol.org.uk for assistance.

Rude Movements will be bringing along their expansive musical selections and party playfulness, to keep our spirits lifted this midwinter. Food is included with all tickets, and served from the start until it runs out.

The team behind Precious Energy are committed to creating a safe and welcoming space for everyone. Please ensure that you and your friends have read through their safer space policy before attending. You can find this below.

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

Last entry: 2 hours before curfew

Venue levy: Trinity has introduced £1 restoration levy on every 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.

Safer space policy: Precious Energy is a party that intends to bring people together through a shared love of music and dancing. Our aim is for everyone to leave the party with more positive energy than when they arrived. To help achieve this we ask everyone to read and adhere to this policy.

Everyone is welcome to attend as long as they treat others with kindness and respect. Be nice and look out for each other. Please respect other people’s pronouns, their boundaries, and their wishes.

Please remember to take responsibility for your friends' behaviour as well as your own. If you see your friends acting inappropriately please be an active bystander and call them out on it.

We do not tolerate abuse or discrimination of any kind. This includes (but is not limited to): ableism, ageism, homophobia, queerphobia, racism, religious discrimination, sexism, transphobia, intimidation, harassment, non-consensual touching, violence, or any kind of verbal or physical abuse. We reserve the right to remove anyone found behaving in this way from the party.

If you experience or witness these, or any other negative behaviours, feel uncomfortable, unsafe, or unwelcome, please come and speak to someone wearing a glowing band. We will be on hand to listen, provide a quiet space, and will respond to the situation. We will support you to find the best course of action and ultimately, make sure you get home safely.

We are still at the start of this journey and welcome any feedback that you have. We promise to listen and will be continuously reviewing our policy. You can send us an email at: preciousenergy.party@gmail.com

Thank you for taking the time to read this and helping us to make this party a safer space for everyone.

With love,

The Precious Energy Team

A party for soft heads and big hearts

With live music, puppetry and resting spaces - including comfy places to be horizontal, cushions, spoonie massage, puppet making, a library, space to chill and an atmosphere that encourages and supports slowness.

This is a relaxed event, you’re welcome to come in and out of performances as you wish, stand, sit, lie down, stim, be still, move and rest in whatever way feels good for you.

Please read the access guide before coming. Some elements of access are created with Spoonie Rave organisers and the venue, and some need the whole group to take care of our community. Access is a collective effort for collective liberation! Let’s look out for each other.

Programme:

3pm: Doors open and settling in

3.45 - 4pm: Welcoming

4 - 4.30pm: Bean Pig Puppets and Neogaze

5 - 5.30pm: Kwiet Boize

6 - 6.30pm: Dan Johnson

6.30 - 8pm: Closing with dj mr_hopkinson

8pm: Event ends

Acts:

Bean Pig Puppets are a collective of queer puppeteers and performers who believe in the life of all things. Beanpigs expand the imagination as a revolutionary tool, inviting audiences to dream other worlds into existence through the power of objects, breaking the boundaries between real and imagined, animate and inanimate. Their understanding of transformation is deeply informed by their experiences of being queer and trans, and their performances are surreal rituals that facilitate the lives of puppets, ultimately allowing the puppets to choose how the story unfolds.

Neogaze is the experimental electronic project of Nigerian-Welsh solo act Neo Ukandu. Neogaze brings to life their creative voice through anthems of self-acceptance and queer identity. They will be playing downtempo and dream pop influenced sounds merged with Bean Pigs surrealist puppetry.

Kwiet Boize Normally  doling out abrasive improvised skronks as half of no-wave supergroup Yoke or in their duo as Noisy Boize, Rebecca Sneddon (saxophone) and Jo Kelly (double bass) have rebranded as Kwiet Boize to bring some gentler extemporisations to the patrons of Spoonie Rave.

Dan Johnson is a percussionist working in improvised sound and expanded composition. Undermining conventional notions of drumming, his experimental work is manifested across a wide range of projects; from eight-hour solo improvisations responding to instructions provided by the audience, to invite-only performances in rail tunnels, lifts and public toilets, to non-hierarchical group improvisation project Ecstatic Drum Beats.

mr_hopkinson is a multi-disciplinary artist and stalwart of the Cube Microplex since its inception. His atmospheric and witty loop and effects DJ sets have appeared all over the globe and been featured in Ninja Tune’s Solid Steel series.

Venue levy: Trinity has introduced £1 restoration levy on every 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.

Trinity patron, Miriam Margolyes, visits Jacobs Wells. Photo Alistair Brookes, KoLAB Studios

The last year at Jacobs Wells we have been focussing on leading further investigations of previously out of reach areas to determine the condition of the building, leading to some fascinating and unexpected discoveries.

By uncovering elements of the building, including removing stonework and cutting back the vegetation that has been creeping into the building, we can determine what is salvageable and which areas might need to be entirely rebuilt.

The Pump Room

Further works have now been paused in the Pump Room, following the discovery of a small bat roost of the lesser horseshoe bat - Rhinolophus Hipposideros. These species are listed in Annex II of the EU Habitats directive and so are protected by European legislation which means no further works can take place as long as they are there. Once we have undertaken the safe relocation of any bat roost with advice from Natural England, we can continue with planned asbestos decontamination that will enable the professional team to gain greater access to some of the more mysterious and unusual elements of the site.

The Pump Room is a unique area of heritage significance, featuring intact Victorian engineering, including large iron-cast water tanks that once held 60,000 gallons of water, fed by an ancient natural spring redirected from several local sources, including Jacob’s Well. By collaborating with industrial heritage engineering specialists, we will gain better understanding of this remarkable setup and develop a clear plan for the best use of this natural resource.

Our vision is to transform this space into rehearsal studios, informal performance areas and a café/bar, making this hidden gem accessible to the public for the first time.

Victorian Tiles

We are making strides with other repair works including the deconstruction of a parapet wall on the southern aspect of the building, roof repair works on areas not used by bats on the northern and eastern aspects and other small-scale works.

During recent cleaning trials, including external graffiti removal, specialists have uncovered yet more Victorian glazed tiles in the entrance corridor of the building, which have been painted over and hidden for decades.

This discovery accompanies the tiled finishes already uncovered within the Main Hall and underscores the importance of our investigation works, so that we can fully understand what lies beneath more modern finishes in order to ensure the building’s historical richness is sensitively restored and conserved for future generations.

Fundraising & support

We are grateful for the continued support from our funders and community, including the recent awards:

• Centrica: Energy for Tomorrow - £84,600 to advance our renewable energy scheme

• Historic England - £89,000 for expanded South Studio roof and masonry works

• Support from individual donors on our Fundsufer

The band broke massively worldwide with the release of the album’s classic singles ‘Fields Of Fire’, ‘Chance’ and signature song ‘In A Big Country’, which went on to become massive worldwide hits, selling over 2 million copies and driving ‘The Crossing’ to 3 prestigious Grammy nominations in the USA.

The Vapors formed in 1978 and after supporting The Jam on the ‘Setting Sons’ tour in 1979 went on to release the classic singles ‘Turning Japanese’, ‘Jimmie Jones’, ‘News At Ten’, ‘Waiting For The Weekend’ along with albums ‘New Clear Days’ (1980) and ‘Magnets’ (1981) before splitting.

+ support: Glasgow-based Pistol Daisys are one of alt-country’s most exciting new acts who have recently supported Callum Beattie.

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

Last entry: 2 hours before curfew

Venue levy: Trinity has introduced £1 restoration levy on every 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.

Thank to everyone who has made the magic happen at Trinity this year- it's thanks to the generous support from people like you that we can continue to inspire and strengthen local communities through arts and culture.

This year we’ve made strides towards our vision of Creative Expression for All offering a year-round cultural offer.

We launched the Cultural Alliance - a two-year arts-based learning programme in three local primary schools, ensuring every Key Stage 2 pupil now receives weekly dance & drama sessions.

We’ve increased our commitment to young people, including weekly Speak Out sessions, giving young people the creative tools to take action about issues they care about.

By nurturing young people’s creativity, we’ve welcomed rising talent onto Trinity’s stage including the Next Gen Sounds performance at the annual Garden Party.

We’ve appointed three Community Connector roles to better understand the needs and interests of residents and community groups within the Newtown area, Stapleton Road as well as people accessing services at the Wild Goose Cafe.

We are continually working to enhance our heritage building, ensuring it remains accessible, inclusive and sustainable for all. This year we launched the Ticket Levy, a fee applied to all bookings to help us fund essential improvements to Trinity Centre.

Our Citizens for Culture, delivered in partnership with St Paul's Carnival, and Citizens In Power, is bringing together people across the Southwest to meet with creative practitioners, cultural providers and decision-makers with the aim to create a Cultural Plan for the region.

Advocating for our shared community spaces remains a priority for us as we progress in our mission to save Jacobs Wells. We’re now working hard to raise essential funds to restore and re-open the building as a multi-purpose community hub by Autumn 2025.

We are hugely proud of everything we’ve achieved throughout this year, and the impact we continue to create for our local community.

None of this would be possible without the longstanding support and friendship of our supporters, partners and audiences.

The food served will be cooked by Josh Eggleton and a team of Bristol’s best chefs.

On offer:

• Regular hot meals (breakfast from 10am & lunch from 1pm)
• A warm welcome and good company
• Wellbeing, health and social activities
• Emotional, mental health and medical support

About Caring In Bristol

Caring in Bristol’s vision is to create a city empowered to solve homelessness. They work in imaginative and creative ways with people experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness, and within local communities to bring about sustainable and permanent change in Bristol and beyond.

Caring in Bristol don’t receive any statutory funding for this work, so are reliant on donations from the incredibly generous community in Bristol and beyond. Support them here.

To volunteer and see what items you can donate click here

Please drop off any donations at the Caring in Bristol offices at 14 Little Bishop Street, St Paul's on the following dates:

• Wed 20th Nov, 3pm - 7pm
• Sat 30th Nov, 12pm - 2pm
• Mon 2nd Dec, 3pm - 7pm
• Tue 10th Dec, 8am - 1pm

Caring in Bristol contact number: 0117 924 4444

In Autumn 2024 we celebrated the rich creativity in Old Market through a programme of free creative happenings throughout the inner city suburb.

Amplifying the wide-ranging grassroots musicians in Bristol we took over shops and restaurants transforming them into pop-up DIY music venues hosting the likes of d Young Echo, TLK, EJ:AKIN and Rider Shafique and Sarahsson.

Audiences also explored Old Markets history through a promenade performance devised by writer Edson Burton and artist Tom Marshman. The performance uncovered the hidden stories of residents from Old Market’s past as well as exploring the sites and sounds of the area.

In addition to celebrating the rich cultural offerings in Old Market the programme of work intended to help encourage new audiences to Old Market – an often overlooked suburb of Bristol. Over 90% of audiences who came along to one of the free events shared that they were visiting the area specifically for the show or performance – and 55% shared that having come along to an event meant they were more likely to visit Old Market in the future.

In total over 700 audience members attended one or more of the events as part of Destination Old Market. As part of the programme we created paid opportunities for 48 musicians, 5 actors and 15 creative practitioners.

About Destination Old Market

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.

What to Bring:

A warm blanket or shawl for comfort during meditation and performances.A sacred item for the community altar (optional).Water from your local spring, well, or tap.Your open heart and a willingness to journey inward.

Arrival:

We recomend you arrive at 2:30pm to get settled into the space and drink some wild teas. The ritual begins at 3pm. Doors will close as the ritual begins.

Image credit: Amy Fern

As we move towards the Assembly’s delivery in 2025, here’s a look back at what we achieved in the second half of 2024.

Outreach and Partnerships

Building strong connections has been central to our progress. Since the project’s launch, we’ve worked to establish a wide-reaching network of partners, supporters, and collaborators - from cultural organisations, to community groups, to political leaders.

Over the last six months, we’ve:

• Engaged with more than 100 organisations across the cultural sector, led by our Assembly Producer, who joined us in May.
• Hosted online information sessions in August to connect with cultural organisations and individuals interested in becoming Assembly Associates.
• Secured £100,000 in funding from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, with additional funding prospects in development.

Designing the Assembly

Creating a representative and impactful Citizens’ Assembly remains central to our work. The Assembly’s design principles have been shaped through collaboration with citizens, community partners, and cultural organisations, with a focus on accessibility and inclusion.

Key steps in the design process include:

• Developing a detailed sortition process in partnership with the Sortition Foundation to recruit a diverse and representative group of Assembly participants.
• Complementing this recruitment process with targeted outreach to historically underrepresented groups, including working-class citizens, young people, and rural communities.

Adjusting the Timeline

The Assembly is now scheduled to take place in autumn 2025, a shift from the original spring timeline. This adjustment ensures we can brief the region’s incoming mayor on the initiative after the spring elections, securing their full support.

Meanwhile, we’ve begun public engagement through events like the Trinity AGM and Speak Out with Young People. These initial conversations have helped develop provocations that will shape the Assembly’s focus on accessibility and inclusion.

What’s Next?

As we move into the next phase of Citizens for Culture, we’re committed to building a representative Assembly and developing an actionable Cultural Delivery Plan. With strong regional collaboration and growing support from funders, the project is positioned to influence cultural planning and governance locally and nationally.

In the comings months, we’ll be:

• Launching a public awareness campaign to engage communities across the region.
• Hosting summer festival events to spark conversations around ‘what culture means to me.’
• Preparing for the Assembly’s delivery in autumn 2025.

We’re excited to set the stage for a more inclusive and democratic cultural future in the West of England.

Interested in finding out more?

• Explore the Citizens for Culture website
• Read Martha King's thoughts on redesigning leadership for a more equitable future

About Citizens for Culture

Citizens for Culture is an initiative from St Paul Carnival CIC, Trinity Community Arts, Citizens in Power and West of England Combined Authority and is supported through funding by Arts Council England, Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (UK Branch).

The workshops are designed for all levels - from beginner to advanced.

Beginners will be able to get the right knowledge from instructors who have taught for years in different countries, but above all, they will understand all the techniques and tips necessary to get ready for the world of dance.

More info here