Easter Parade

With its unique potential for four guilt free nights out on the trot, Easter tends to be a big one for the clubs scene. As usual there are too many nights to choose from, with house heavyweights, hip-hop heads and even hardcore heroes coming to Bristol over the weekend. Here are fifteen to be going on with.

Thursday night picks include Jellyhead at Lakota, a wide-ranging party session with UK rap veteran Rodney P, drum and bass innovator Dom & Roland and hard dance pioneer Billy ‘Daniel’ Bunter among the bigger names. Meanwhile, Detroit 4/4 deity Seth Troxler plays All Night Long at The Love Inn as part of the Red Bull Music Academy Tour, and The Marble Factory hosts a five-hour set from Bicep, the Belfast duo whose vast knowledge of house and disco rarities has won them a legion of followers. 

International megastar Paul Van Dyk heads up Goodgreef at Motion on Good Friday, while Meat Katie adds a touch of tech-funk to Bass Kitchen’s breaks-heavy formula at Timbuk2. Leftfield hip-hop and grime are on the agenda at RBMA’s Lords of the Manor party, as Danny Brown, Mumdance and Novelist take over Kings Weston House. Grime purists, meanwhile, might head for Thekla where Sureskank X Bandulu features sets from Flowdan, Slimzee, Riko Dan and Bristol’s very own Kahn & Neek.

Banjo fans may be disappointed by Wild West at O2 Academy (Sat, April 4), a torrential outpouring of drum and bass from Adam F, DJ SS, Kenny Ken, Grooverider, Randall and Bryan G. There’s festival-style lunacy at Lakota and Old Coroner’s Court as Happy Daze bring immersive décor, market stalls and four rooms of techno, trance and acid. Over at Exchange, meanwhile, Rhyme & Reason continue a run of quality bookings with Lady Leshurr, a fiercely talented MC and producer from Birmingham who would be playing bigger venues by now if the world made any sense. 

Ravers with strong stomachs might consider Motion, where HTID Concept (“Hardcore Til I Die”) stars Darren Styles, Hixxy, Gammer and Dougal alongside showgirls, lasers and “a hand-built UV and LED suit” known – disturbingly – as “the Predatron.” Saturday’s strangest party, though, is at Arnolfini where Just Jack and RBMA team up with research scientist Dr David Glowacki for Altered States, an experiment in “Danceroom Spectroscopy” soundtracked by DJ Koze and ItaloJohnson. 

For many it’s a day of quiet reflection; for others a chocolate-fuelled emotional rollercoaster. For Bedmo Disco, Easter Sunday is a perfect storm of bleep techno, breakbeats and thundering dub as Winston Hazel (Kabal / Forgemasters) arrives at The Big Chill. Meanwhile back at Lakota, Banjax mark three years of proper-job house parties with sets from Prok and Fitch, Scott Diaz and a truckload of Bristol talent. Best keep Monday free for a lie-in.  

For more bank holiday weekend clubbing read our preview of the Red Bull Music Academy Tour