News / Bristol Harbour Festival

Local talent to be put at forefront of Bristol Harbour Festival 2023

By Martin Booth  Thursday Mar 30, 2023

Organisers of the 2023 Harbour Festival promise to make it “for Bristol, by Bristol”.

The three-day annual event will take place from July 14 to 16, with changes including “newly imagined entertainment zones” and circus performers coming to College Green.

Festival organisers and Bristol mayor Marvin Rees also said that the festival will be made more inclusive, following a report to the council which highlighted issues around the “whiteness” of the event.

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Local talent will be put at the forefront of this year’s “new and reformed” festival, which is once again expected to attract more than 250,000 visitors to enjoy over one mile of entertainment.

Five performance areas include the use of College Green as the Circus Playground and Queen Square transforming into the Music Quarter curated by Tony Benjamin.

Bristol mayor Marvin Rees took to the water for the launch of the Harbour Festival 2023 – photo: Colin Moody

Speaking to BBC Points West at the festival’s media launch on Wednesday, Rees was asked a question about a Bristol City Council consultation with underrepresented groups.

This report highlighted a number of problems with the Harbour Festival including excess drinking, lack of access for people with disabilities, and “the ‘whiteness’ of the Festival and the invisible barriers for the global majority”.

“There are lots of challenges to inclusion around poverty, around transport networks, disabled people, older people, families,” said Rees.

“And the Bristol journalistic line was simply to focus on the race element of it, which I think was really unfortunate and did the city a disservice once again.

“We know that the city has big challenges around inclusion. Every aspect of the city’s development needs to take that challenge on.”

Main photo: Colin Moody

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