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Free Gigs in Bristol

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Bristol's Free Gigs Scene

Where to find free music in Bristol Free music's pretty easy to find in Bristol. Whilst most gigs outside of the big venues are usually only a few quid, it's always nice to see some bands for free or a couple of pounds in a bucket (if they're good!) For guaranteed free music with your pint, go to a venue which has a free entry policy.

The Old Duke, The Canteen and The Golden Lion (except fridays) should probably be your first port-of-call to check out Coronation Tap are also very reliable and popular for free gigs. Luckily free gigs can happen anywhere, this means you can keep things interesting and not get bored of rotating the same Bristol venues. Free live music can crop up anywhere from the Grain Barge and Lousianna to Colston Hall and even St Georges.

The economy of free gigs. Can it survive Covid?

Good news: gigs in Bristol are more likely to be free than anywhere else! General ticket prices seem to be more common between free and £5; the £20+ bracket is a rare one compared to the capital’s high-end arts and theatre gigs. Bristol’s pandemic response has opened up some extra local music funding. Will free gigs disappear with the added financial pressures of covid? Indoor gigs may soon be possible, but how many of them will remain free and accessible?

Free outdoor gigs and festivals in Bristol

From mid June to the beginning of September Bristol Council and independent organisations put on some great free music events. Best of all there's something different almost every weekend and they don't cost any money! Significant large events include St Werbergh's Fair, The Harbourside Festival and St Pauls Carnival. In addition there are some great smaller, open air gigs with free entry to be found in places like Queens Square, Stokes Croft and Castle Park.

Buy tickets for free gigs events in Bristol

Our recent free gigs recommendations

All-ages matinee alert! Four helpings of hardcore ‘n’ more from the scalding Shitty Fu Sunday soup, with skull-drilling anarcho-deathrockers Sublux, Bratmobile-gone-screamo wunderkinds Steatopygous, Dyke Mother’s emerging experimental grunge and fresh crust bruisers Polluted Mind Decay. Your baby is worthless if it isn’t a punk!!! Sublux, Steatopygous, Dyke Mother, Polluted Mind Decay at Exchange.

BEEF hosts an avant-crud lineup of AV experimentalism and bizarro sonic wanderers, headed up by Popon’s wiry industrial scuzz sparring with Laura Phillips’ DIY 35mm film collages. For starters: PanOrama celebrates Daphne Oram’s centenary with improvised cello and synths, while Annie Gardiner brings acoustic melancholy and Lucia layers in feminist readings. 10/10! Popon - PanOrama - Annie Gardiner at KIT FORM.

Jason Dungan’s Blue Lake quartet creates gorgeous pastoral minimalism with zither drones, woodwind sketches and sun-bleached rhythms drifting in quietly ecstatic loops. On support: cerebral one-man chamber jazz ensemble Memotone and Eva May’s choir-haunted lullabies. Soft-focus spiritualism FFO: William Tyler, Astrid Sonne, Laraaji. Blue Lake , Memotone, Eva May at Strange Brew.

Massive ritualistic noise born from a minimalist double-drum arsenal! Upset The Rhythm favourites Rattle are pressure-cooker post-punk for the experimentalism committed; their interlocking percussive play cycles through agitation and release, sparsity and theatre, to total hypnotic surrender. Huge happening FFO: Able Noise, tUnE-yArDs, Still House Plants, Shopping, Minor Conflict. Rattle, Double Pelican & Robert Wilkinson at Cafe Kino.