This city is our stage – bringing it home to Bristol

This week, we’re bringing it home to Bristol. For a while, our slogan for Mayfest was ‘This City Is Our Stage’, and we always meant that in the broadest sense – ‘ours’ as in ‘all of ours’ – a city rich in creativity and with a restless, radical spirit that runs through the work of the many artists and companies that call Bristol home.

We’ve brought world-class performance from all over the world to some of Bristol’s most unusual, surprising spaces. We’ve stood on hills overlooking the city, we’ve danced in car-parks, we’ve laid down on forest floors. 

In a week where we open a new exhibition by Kitchen Table Photo Club at St Anne’s House as part of Confluence – our residency programme that is exploring the changing city – we’re celebrating why Bristol inspires everything we do. 

Have a look at the gallery below to explore just some of the projects from over the years that have popped up in unexpected places.  

Photos: 

The Guild of Cheesemakers – Stand and Stare (St Thomas Church, Redcliffe)
Praxis Makes Perfect – National Theatre Wales/Neon Neon (Motion)
Back Seat of My Car (And Other Safe Places) – Greg Wohead (Redcliffe)
The Lands Heart Is Greater Than Its Path – Olivia Furber and Ramzi Maqdisi (Castle Park)
Of Riders and Running Horses – Still House (Queen Charlotte Street NCP)
Salt in the Sugar Jar – Nikesh Shukla (A house in Windmill Hill)
Contact Gonzo (Jacobs Wells Baths)
Lookout – Andy Field and Becky Darlington (Brandon Hill)
Afterlife – French Mottershead (Leigh Woods)
FORGE – Rachel Mars (Unit 15)
The Folded Path – Circumstance (Old City)
Confluence – Redcliffe
HABITAT – Doris Uhlich (The Galleries)