Bristol harbour festival community consultation page



About Proud Events

Set up in 2014 by Harry Feigen and Ben Whur, Proud Events is Global Event Production Agency that specialises in creating dynamic, innovative, and diverse events in the live event industry. Partnering with creative production specialists Swans Events, Proud tendered to become the new operators for Bristol Harbour Festival in October 2023 and delivered Bristol Harbour Festival for the first time in 2024. There were many learnings taking by the team from the 2024 event and we are excited to develop and deliver Bristol Harbour Festival 2025 which will take place over the 18th - 20th July.

Bristol Harbour Festival

Bristol Harbour Festival is an iconic event for Bristol and Bristol Harbour which has been operating in the city since 1971. After the decision to close the city centre docks in the 1960s, by the Port of Bristol Authority, local groups fought to save the docks and after much negotiation and public standing the Harbour Festival was formed. The event has grown in size and importance as years have passed and even when the plans to tamper with the docks were shelved the Harbour Festival continued.

Today Bristol Harbour Festival is a showcase of Bristol’s arts, music and culture which is shown through an exciting programme that celebrates the past and offers a fresh perspective on the future that takes place on the Harbour.

For 2025 Bristol Harbour Festival will take place across the below central locations in Bristol City Centre in a mixture of fenced licensed and open spaces.

-       Bristol Harbour, Welsh Back, Bristol, BS1 4SP

-       Bristol Amphitheatre and Waterfront Square (Licensed), Harbourway, Bristol, BS1 5LL.

-       Millennium Square (Licensed Bar & Entertainment Marquee), Anchor Road, Harbourside, Bristol, BS1 5DB.

-       City Hall, College Green (Licensed), Bristol, BS1 5TR.

-       Queen Square (Licensed), Bristol, BS1 4QS.

-       The Grove, Bristol, BS1 5TT.

-       Narrow Quay, Bristol, BS1 4AH.

-       Anchor Square, Anchor Road, Bristol, BS1 5TT.

-       Harbourside Market Steps, Bristol, BS1 5TX.

The below map highlights both the entire footprint for Bristol Harbour Festival 2024 (Green) and the individual licenced sites that will be applied for to Bristol City Council’s licensing department (Red). Licensed areas shall host various forms of entertainment over the festival weekend including music stages, dance tent, pop up theatre, talk tent, jazz and cabaret and more. Within the licensed sites we will also have bars retailing alcohol and facilities for event attendees such as toilets, seating, food, information stalls and more. The three licensed sites will be held in fenced perimeters and access shall be granted based on conditions of entry such as no glass, alcohol or drugs etc. A full list of prohibited items will be agreed with Bristol City Council in advance of the event.

Non licensed areas shall be utilised for areas such as market stalls, food traders and fun fair rides. In these spaces there will be no amplified entertainment or alcohol sales unless a separate licence is sought and granted by an external operator to Bristol Harbour Festival.

Queen Square

As per 2024 at Bristol Harbour Festival Queen Square will be used as an event space on Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th July only, there will be no live performances or event activity on Friday 18th July. Build activity will begin in Queen Square from 17th July and run through until Tuesday 22nd July. Queen Square will host our Emerging Music Stage, the Performative Dance Tent, Pop Up Theatre and a number of concessions and stalls.

Queen Square roads will be closed from 00:00 on Friday 18th July through to Sunday 20th July at 21:00. These road closures will be put in place to manage the safe build of Queen Square as an event space and to prepare for the event over the Saturday and Sunday of the festival.

Queen Square will be closed off as an event space by creating access points at the road junctions into the square instead of fencing off the park itself. By implementing this system, over fencing off the park, we are able to control access into the entire of Queen Square and restrict alcohol, glass and other prohibited items being bought into the site as well as create a more welcoming event space for event attendees. Residents and businesses of Queen Square will be granted access into Queen Square at all times through a dedicated access point. The map below demonstrates how access will work in and out of Queen Square.

Licensing & Permissions

Proud Events has agreed with Bristol City Council access to the sites for the purpose of hosting Bristol Harbour Festival 2025. Proud Events holds individual Premises Licences for The Amphitheatre, Queen Square and College Green to provide regulated entertainment and retail alcohol sales over the Bristol Harbour Festival weekend. Notices will be erected at each of the sites and in a local newspaper following the guidelines of Bristol City Council’s licensing teams.

Separate to the applications for the Premises Licences Proud Events will apply for traffic orders and parking suspensions to Bristol City Council’s Transport teams and for market licences to Bristol City Council’s Markets team which determine which roads will be closed, parking bays suspended and where trading will be able to take place across the Bristol Harbour Festival footprint.


Dates & Site Access

Bristol Harbour Festival will take place over the 18th - 20th July 2025. Each of the event sites will follow it’s own unique build and live schedule which is listed in the table below.

On the dates where the sites are being built or taken down the production teams will be operational from 08:00 - 20:00 each day. On all sites access will be maintained as a thoroughfare throughout build and take down with the exception of the below sites where full access will be restricted and walking diversions put in place.

  • The Amphitheatre

  • Queen Square (Park only; external walking pavements will be maintained)

  • College Green




Traffic & Parking

In order to operate Bristol Harbour Festival across the key locations it is necessary for road closures and bus route suspensions to be put in place to operate a safe event due to the high numbers of event attendees expected over the weekend. By closing roads within the footprint we will allow free flow of event attendees between the event sites and reduce the health and safety risk of having free flowing event attendees mixing with road traffic.

Road Closures


Access Routes

Car Park Closures

Street Parking Bay Suspensions 

We will work with Bristol City Council and the Safety Advisory Group and submit applications in a timely manner to the Highways team.

 

Safety & Security

Proud Events will have a security team on each of the sites 24 hours a day from the start of installation through to the when all the festival infrastructure is removed.

When Bristol Harbour Festival is open to the public our security and stewarding teams’ primary responsibility is the safety and security of guests, some of whom are families with young children. The security and stewarding presence across the entire Bristol Harbour Festival footprint will be substantial and shall be agreed in consultation with Bristol City Council’s Safety Advisory Group. The security and stewarding teams will also be responsible for looking after the infrastructure in each of the festival sites. We will be liaising with Avon and Somerset Police as part of our planning and they will be provided with details of our security plans.

Waste & Litter

Proud Events will work with Bristol Waste who will manage the waste management and recycling services across Bristol Harbour Festival. A specification will be agreed with Bristol Waste which shall address staff numbers, waste receptacle numbers, recycling plans and an operating schedule throughout the build, break and live event for Bristol Harbour Festival.

All licensed event sites across Bristol Harbour Festival will have a “leave no trace” policy and we will have additional litter picking staff to work across the entire Bristol Harbour Festival footprint to reduce waste in the city. Our aim is to minimise the waste created by the event and to improvement from recycling targets to the 2024 event.

Supporting the Local Economy & Community Benefits

We will look to work with the local economy and community in a number of ways. These will include;

  • Form a steering group of different community organisations within Bristol to support programming and creative direction of the festival ensuring we are creating a festival for Bristol by Bristol.

  • Prioritise Bristol based talent programming the event (in 2024 82% of acts were based in Bristol)

  • Look to offer work experience opportunities to young people locally to work as part of our operations, site and programming teams.

  • Recruit the wider onsite event teams from Bristol based event professionals.

  • Work with local suppliers wherever possible and encourage all suppliers, such as security and stewarding, to undertake local recruitment.

  • Create bespoke discounted packages for local food market stalls to trade at the event.

  • Create business opportunities in collaboration Bristol City Centre and Redcliffe & Temple BID teams.

Local Business Involvement

Since the 2024 festival Proud Events has been working with Bristol City Council, Bristol City Centre BID and Redcliffe and Temple BID on a plan to involve local businesses in Bristol Harbour Festival 2025 and encourage collaboration.

A business community forum will be organised and local businesses will be invited to attend meetings to discuss plans for the festival and ways to get involved including sponsorship, trading opportunities, audience participation, the Fringe programme, event licensing and extending your premise activities throughout the weekend and more. Businesses will be invited to join the community forum via Proud Events directly, your BID or via a letter drop which will take place in February/March of 2025.

We will endeavour to invite all relevant organisations to the business community forum however encourage all businesses to share Proud Event’s contact details amongst colleagues to ensure no organisation is missed.

Contacting The Team

We will organise a local resident and business letter drop in advance of the live event with updates on final event plans, access points to the sites and the onsite contact number that can be used during the build, live event and take down of the event if you need to get in touch with the event team or raise a complaint.

We will host online consultation sessions with local residents and businesses starting in the Spring of 2025. Businesses will be contacted directly via the Bristol Harbour Festival team or Bristol City Centre and/or Redcliffe and Temple BID.

During the build, break and live event the Proud Events team will be contactable on private mobile number which will be shared in advance of the event. During the build and break our teams will be available between the hours of 08:00 and 20:00. During the live event the phone line will be managed by event control and will be active whilst the event is open to the public. We are also available on email during this time at consultation@proudevents.co.uk.

If you have any questions in the meantime do not hesitate to get in touch at consultation@proudevents.co.uk.