All-encompassing work of Bristol Festivals

As umbrella organisation Bristol Festivals launches a new one-stop website, director Anna Rutherford outlines its all-encompassing work

Bristol is a city of festivals like nowhere else I’ve ever been. They’re almost the heartbeat of the city, a public expression of the creative nature of the people, and there’s one happening almost every week. Even in vibrant cities like Manchester, that isn’t the case. It’s unique. We have everything from big food festivals to music, Pride to St Pauls Carnival, the balloon fiesta – these are really big, diverse, positive expressions of life. 

There’s something really special about people coming together in streets or fields to celebrate parts of the different city’s culture, different communities. For example, some people don’t ever go to St Pauls apart from the carnival, don’t otherwise mix with the people that live there, or share their culture. It’s really important.

Over 30 festivals are now members of Bristol Festivals, working to ensure we’re engaging the people that live here, and helping grow audiences and developing the festival sector. A variety of different festivals have offices in our hub at the bottom of Park Street: Encounters, In Between Time, Brisfest, etc. Among the benefits of being able to work together in one space are more affordable office space, and hosting volunteer meetings so festivals can engage with the public. There’s something special about Bristol willingness to collaborate and help each other, rather than just competing against each other. We’re formally set up as a charity, share challenges – meeting the council, meeting the tourist board, making sure dates don’t clash, etc – and really learn from each other. 

So many people say ‘I love Bristol, love its festivals, but I don’t really know where they are or when they’re on’ – unless you know someone going, you often don’t know they’ve happening. We’ve just launched a Bristol Festivals website, letting people know what’s going on and also enabling them to volunteer to get involved.

Last year we received a strategic grant from Bristol 2015 European Green Capital, and have been working with experts on best practice in improving the sustainability of the sector, getting festivals to become greener. It’s hard running a festival, it may well be that green thinking comes at the bottom of a list of priorities, so we’re highlighting the positives, talking about how you can do it without impacting on your business. We’ve been working in things like learning to measure the carbon footprint and its impact, promoting the use of reusable cups, working on waste issues (for example, generating biofuel from the toilets), and making sure festivals are doing onsite recycling and  using ethical waste providers. Very practical greening guides are available to share from the website for all Bristol Festivals members.

Read more: Interview: Tribfest