15 reasons to visit Bristol in 2015

It is the time of year when Christmas and New Year seems like a distant memory and our thoughts turn to holiday plans for the coming year. 2015 is going to be a special year for Bristol and the team at Visit Bristol have come up with the top 15 things to do in the city this year, in no particular order:

1. LOL
This weekend (January 22-25) sees the annual Slapstick Festival, celebrating silent and classic comedy, return to the city and this year it is bigger and better than ever. Vic & Bob, Victoria Wood, Stephen Fry and Chris Addison are among the guests this year. For five days in July, Queen Square is taken over by Bristol Comedy Garden, a festival of comedy that has previously attracted big names such as Josh Widdicombe, Milton Jones and Nina Conti.

2. Go Green
Bristol is European Green Capital for 2015, the first UK city to win the award. Events, big and small, are taking place throughout the year. The Bristol Blue Whale will be a huge interactive sculpture made by locals from recycled materials. Fog Bridge on Pero’s Bridge from February 12-22, part of the In Between Time festival, aims to highlight how a changing climate may disrupt our lives by making the bridge completely disappear in a man-made fog. Big Green Week (June 13-21) promises to be bigger and greener than ever in this special year.

3. Investigate the ships shaped in Bristol
From April, artist Luke Jerram will install a flotilla of abandoned fishing vessels in Leigh Woods. The display, part of the European Green Capital calendar, will be available for the public to view for six months. Aboard Brunel’s ss Great Britain, you can even climb the mast and out on to the yard-arm with Go Aloft!. The best way to get to the ship is via one of the many ferry boats that service the pontoon there. If we’re talking boats, you can go far wrong with an Avon Gorge trip on either The Matthew or one of the vessels operated by The Bristol Packet or Bristol Ferry Boats.

4. The year of the Sheep              
Aardman Animations’ loveable lamb Shaun the Sheep and his flock will be brightening up Bristol’s streets from July 6 to August 31 with an arts trail that ewe won’t want to miss. 60 five-foot high sculptures painted by local artists and celebrities will be placed all across the city for the summer before they are auctioned off by Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Appeal to raise money for Bristol Children’s Hospital. To whet your appetite don’t miss the Shaun the Sheep Movie, which was made in Bristol, in cinemas from February 6.

5. Here come the girls
Bristol Academy is one of the top Women’s Football teams in the country and this March they take on Frankfurt in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League. Don’t miss the home leg of the tie at Ashton Gate Stadium (date TBC). If cricket is more your thing, England’s women take on Australia in a one-day international, part of the Ashes Series, at the County Ground on July 23.

6. Eat, drink and be merry
Eat Drink Bristol Fashion returns to Queen Square from April 30 to May 9, once again featuring the cream of West Country food and drink within a tepee village. Bristol Food Connections (May 1-9) kicks off with the BBC’s Food & Farming Awards before bringing together hundreds of food-themed events across the city. The month of food is finished off with VegFest (May 23-24). Meat-eaters are in for a treat later when Grillstock returns for the weekend of July 11 and 12.

7. Dance to the music
Bristol International Jazz & Blues Festival takes place at the Colston Hall from March 5-8 with performers from around the world. Bristol Folk Festival has events at St George’s as well as the Folk House on May 2 and 3. Bristol Proms (July 27 to August 1) are rightly attracting much media attention for their varied and interesting programme of classical music events. Love Saves the Day dance music festival takes place over the late May Bank Holiday weekend and Bristol Summer Series (June 24-28) will bring big name acts for open-air Harbourside gigs.

8. Up, up and away
The largest event on the calendar is always the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta and 2015 will be no different. Marvel at the huge number of hot-air balloons taking off at the same time and majestically floating across the city. To tie-in with the year as European Green Capital the world’s first modern solar-powered balloon, designed by local hot-air balloon legends Cameron Balloons, will launch at the Fiesta which takes place at Ashton Court from August 6-9. 2015 also sees the return of the hugely popular Bristol International Kite Festival, taking place at its new home of the Downs on August 22 and 23.

9. Roll up, roll up
Circus City, a new festival of contemporary circus in and for Bristol takes place in October in venues across the city. Walking the Chains is a circus-theatre play with music all about the Clifton Suspension Bridge. The world premiere was staged in the apt setting of the historic Passenger Shed at Bristol Temple Meads Station last week. The show combines history, legend and recent day anecdotes to tell the long and lively story of the bridge and runs until January 25.

10. Animal Magic
The RWA currently has the British Wildlife Photography Awards available to view until March 8. Nature, Camera, Action! will be the flagship exhibition at the M Shed in support of the European Green Capital programme of events. It will highlight Bristol as a global centre for wildlife filmmaking and runs from July 18 to November 1. Bristol Aquarium has some new residents for 2015, along with their 4,000 other aquatic creatures you can now view a quartet of ‘sexy shrimps’. The tiny crustaceans are famed for their bizarre, booty-shaking dance which has led to their provocative name.

11. Shop ‘til you drop
Bristol loves its independent shopping with Gloucester Road and North Street being among the favourite destinations, but Bristol Shopping Quarter has just released a guide to the independent shops in the city centre where you’ll find almost 100 businesses offering everything from fashion to food. Continuing on the same theme, St Nicholas Market is fiercely independent and also hosts a number of weekly markets in addition to the permanent stalls in the Covered Market and Glass Arcade. Many independent retailers welcome payment in the Bristol Pound, the UK’s first city-wide local currency, which ensures that money spent in the city stays in the city.

12. Yes you can
New examples of amazing street art appear on the walls of Bristol buildings on a regular basis and if you are a fan of Banksy et al then a walking tour with Where The Wall Street Art Tours should be top of your list of things to do when you visit. Upfest, Europe’s largest urban art festival returns to North Street from July 25-27. Talented artists travel from over 50 countries to paint live at this free event. The weekend also features live music, graffiti workshops, illustration battles and hundreds of pieces of affordable art for sale. 

13. Find out more about Brunel’s bridge
The Clifton Suspension Bridge celebrated the 150th anniversary of its opening with a huge fireworks display in December 2014, but part of the programme to mark the anniversary saw a new visitor centre open on the Leigh Woods side. Find out why the design of the bridge changed so many times, how daredevil bridge builders managed to get the suspension chains from one side to the other and much more.

14. Go to the theatre
The tale of the witches of Oz flies into the Bristol Hippodrome on February 18 when the box-office smash hit Wicked starts a five-week run. Don’t miss Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory’s Romeo & Juliet at the Tobacco Factory Theatre from 19 February to April 4, or the adaptation of Sebastian Faulks’ Birdsong at the Bristol Old Vic (April 27 to May 9). Mayfest presents a broad range of unusual, playful and ambitious work from leading theatre makers from Bristol, the UK and beyond across several venues from May 14-24. And Bristol Shakespeare Festival takes place in July across some of the city’s most beautiful indoor and outdoor spaces.

15. Art Attack
The RWA’s 163rd Annual Open Exhibition takes place from October 4 to November 29 but earlier in the year (March 21 to June 7) don’t miss Drawn, a biennial open submission drawing exhibition. Bristol Museum & Art Gallery has exhibitions throughout the year, but two not to miss for art fans are Hockney: A Rake’s Progress where Hogarth’s classic morality tale gets a Pop Art makeover by renowned and influential artist David Hockney. In the summer, TATE Britain lends its entire collection of oil paintings by William Hogarth to the museum. This will be the most comprehensive show of the artist’s work ever in the South West and takes place from May 16 to August 31. The Affordable Art Fair returns to Brunel’s Old Station over the weekend of 18-20 September, offering art for sale from as little as £40.