One of Bristol’s most iconic events is back. The Bristol Harbour Festival, formally known as the Bristol Water Festival was founded to originally help prevent the Harbourside facing the bulldozer. But what can we expect from this years event?
00:00Firstly, tell me a little bit about the Bristol Harbour Festival itself.
00:03It's an iconic thing in the city, one of the biggest events the city sees.
00:07Tell me about it.
00:08Yeah, of course. So, yeah, Harbour Fest has been going, been running for over 50 years now.
00:14Yeah, it's one of Bristol's biggest free events.
00:18We've got multiple sites, including the Amphitheatre here, Millennium Square,
00:24Expression Stage on Millennium Square, Queen Square.
00:27We've got our dance tent and our Bristol Rising Stage.
00:30We've got College Green, which is our family area and circus stage.
00:34And just behind me is our On the Water Arena,
00:38which is where we have all of our Harbour water-based activities, flyboard displays.
00:43We've got some Royal Navy and Marine craft demos this year, famous cardboard boat races.
00:49But, yeah, it's all completely free, all accessible from Friday to Sunday this weekend.
00:54Why, then? Why do Bristol have a Harbour Festival?
00:57Well, I believe it started back over 50 years ago.
01:03It was in protest to closing the harbour, I believe.
01:08And local people came together and said, no, we don't want to do that at all.
01:12So, yeah, so they started a celebration.
01:15I think it was the Festival of the Sea to begin with, and then it turned into Harbour Fest.
01:19And it's just developed into a huge celebration of the harbour itself and everything.
01:24And why do you think locals 50 years ago and 50 years on have really got behind this festival?
01:30I think because it is literally a festival made by Bristol for the people of Bristol.
01:38And I think it's just in the hearts of everybody.
01:41There's so much to do.
01:42There's literally something for everyone.
01:44And, you know, us at Swans and Proud events, it was our first year last year, but we sort of started a new steering group and made sure there was loads of local voices involved so we could learn and hear what people wanted out of it.
01:59And I think that people just think, you know, it belongs to them and they can have the input.
02:03And, yeah, it's just a really great celebration of their city.
02:07So one of the most exciting things about Bristol Harbour Festival is the fact that you bring a lot of new artists in, a lot of local artists, as well as your international people who, you know, who already have a fan base.
02:20Tell me a little bit about that.
02:21And why is it important to give locals the opportunity to be part of this festival?
02:27Swans events, we are the artistic directors of the festival.
02:31So we look after all of the programming.
02:33And one of our passions and missions is to work with local people in all of the cities that we work with and make sure they are involved and that the festival represents them.
02:43I think so many people see Harbourfest as a emerging opportunity.
02:47It's an opportunity to maybe play their first biggest gig or, yeah, just be involved in a festival of this size.
02:54And we see that as a really amazing opportunity.
