Where it's at (Ashton Court Community Festival)

Member Name: dhawkins

Product:	Ashton Court Community Festival
Date:	15/01/01 (69 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Free(ish), Brilliant, Sunny(ish)

Disadvantages: A long walk from the Centre!

Ashton Court or the Bristol Community Festival claims to be the largest free festival in Europe. In theory this is true because usually at least 100,000 people turn up over the weekend and you can get in for free if you blatantly ignore the 'voluntary contribution' buckets at the entrance.

The Festival is held on the picturesque Ashton Court estate which is situated high over Bristol on the other side of Clifton Suspension Bridge. It is usually held on the third weekend of July on both the Saturday and the Sunday. It goes on until around 11pm both nights but there is no overnight camping at the site. By some freak coincidence, the weather is always kind to the festival, allowing for lots of basking in the sunshine.

There are various stages and tents offering all types of entertainment be it musical, poetic, dramatic or completely off-the-wall. Being a community festival, the focus is on local talent so you might expect not to actually know anyone performing (they did have Toploader last year and Portishead gave one of the most memorable festival performances ever in 1998). Fortunately, taking from Bristol and the surrounding area there is a plethora of great talent to choose from and all acts are of a very high standard.

Catering for all ages and tastes, the festival is an all-round family event. The demography shows people of all ages and walks of life, mimimising any feeling of intimidation and allowing for a laid-back atmosphere. There will be the usual alcohol and drug abuse but this does not overwhelm the proceedings.

The festival has run for over two decades but continues to go from strength to strength. Although it is a community festival, it attracts people from all over the country and perhaps even further afield. Given that Glastonbury isn't happening this year, this will be my festival of the summer, so if you're not doing anything around that time, I might just see you there.

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