Brisfest provides a friendly conclusion to the outside summer festival season

It's been a while since I last went to a festival in Bristol at Ashton Court. The last time was the Ashton Court Festival headlined by Robert Plant, McKay and The Electric Soft Parade in 2003. Back then each time I'd been to the festival I felt it had a slightly edgy vibe, and my experience that year resulted in me vowing I would never be back.

Going forward a decade and Brisfest (previously the Bristol Festival) a growing local festival of five years has moved base and returned to offer an event in the grounds of Ashton Court with numerous stages and a weekend of music on offer.

I decided to return for a day to see whether the ghosts of the past could be laid to rest, and I'm happy to report that it was a lovely feel good event, that ended the summer festival season for me on a high.

That said the event had a minor technical issue, resulting from the good weather, and a capacity crowd the numbers on site (without their own food or drink) resulted in long queues at food stalls, toilets and bars. More of this later.

Arriving at the site on Saturday in the sunshine we joined the streams of people making their way to the main gate, which already had a decent queue and it took time get in to the site which was in a new location to the old event with the lurid yellow mansion house in view, later it's windows would be aglow with the after party hosted there. Outside the fenced site were massed ranks of cycles, clearly getting here by bike was a big attraction for locals.

The site had been planned as a donut shape with the dozen or so stages mostly laid out like a circle of wagons around the 'back stage' area. Between them were a few stalls and the bars. Then around the outer edge, was the fun fair, kids areas, food stalls, cash points, and the Permaculture stage. Behind them the perimeter fence decorated by graffiti artists.

As the festival had previously been a music and arts festival celebrating local and South West music, art, dance and food. The day started with dance displays, roving drummers, and comedy in the Big top. Whilst the main stages - the main outdoor, BBC Introducing, and The Weapons Of Choice stage built up good crowds early on.

All the elements for a decent festival were present, a diverse age range, from kids zipping about, to teens, couples, stage parties, old folk, those in onesies, those with dreadlocks, wandering performers, and circus skills. A decent looking kids area, and some good workshops I particularly wished I'd made a dove topped top hat. Arcadia's presence was there with their flaming lamp posts around the main stage, and their Lords Of Lightning Show, plus fire shows, burlesque, and cabaret across 13 stages.


The event offered good festival food reasonably priced from £5 to £6, beer was £3.50 a pint with a choice of real ales in the real bar. Which it took us a couple of pints before finding. We'd like to have sampled more of the ales on offer here, but as the crowds gathered so did the queues and soon they were out the tents at the bars. They clearly weren't prepared for the numbers, and soon the queues were huge even at the cocktail bar resulting in waits of at least half an hour for a drink.

The toilet queues at the main stage also become long, although it was a case of going elsewhere to those much less busy. Bizarrely one set of urinals in portacabins weren't open, worsening the situation. But again ones elsewhere on site were.

A programme with a map was available priced at £2 however I don't quite know where from as I never saw anyone selling one and kept having to refer to other people's.

I tried a few times to catch a few of the acts on the Weapons Of Choice Stage to enjoy the Funktion1 speakers but every time I seemed to time it badly and ended up listening to the MCs speaking rather than any body shaking aural beats.

With the sun shining down it was too nice a day to join the crowds at other stages, and the banked sides of the site meant you could sit in the grass and enjoy a good view of the main stage. So, that's what we did and all the acts proved good entertaining choices.

The friendly crowd were up for a dance too, and The Egg and local act Laid Blak got the crowd moving, before Sheelanagig, and Babyhead came on and really got the place jumping. The sun set early giving the impression to my festival mind that it was later than it was and both Beardyman, and Jaguar Skills did their thing on stage to end the night. Neither of which seemed to deliver a performance as good as I've seen them do earlier in the year, and Jaguar Skills was affected by PA issues.

With Seasfire, Dub Mafia, and Duppy Beatz (I love the name) providing entertainment on the BBC Introducing Stage, and The Magic Hatstand DJs keeping those gathered on the hay bales entertained on the Greenfields Stage. Whilst The Gryphon Stage offered more neck springing heavy rock including the enjoyable Mind For Murder, and Martyr Defiled amongst others.

With the weather so nice, I felt no need to go in the packed covered stages which no doubt provided a big attraction when the weather broke the next day. All evening the crowd were friendly, and up for a final outdoor knees up under the billowing flames of the Arcadia lamp posts.

We returned to Bristol centre on one of the many double deckers laid on to take people home, found a bar with a Brisfest afterparty happening, enjoyed the music and chatting to festival goers and locals long into the night.

It's a shame they don't offer camping, as if they did I would have not have been distracted by the warmth of buildings, and been more likely to remain the festival in the damp conditions of day two. And, the next day's capacity was to suffer slightly from mud and wet weather, but for me it was that first day which had done so much to address my feelings about festivals at Ashton Court, it was an unreserved winner, and is sure to become a regular end of season event.

With tickets selling out this year, it's sure to sell faster next year, as everyone I spoke to really enjoyed it, so if I were you I'd get them quick! I can highly recommend this relaxing end to the summer, it'll be even better if they can solve the queues at the bars. I will probably be back next year, for both days next time.

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