Weekend in pictures

Regardless the rain on Saturday, the Bristol Harbour Festival did not disappoint. Awesome music concerts spread around the waterfront, amazing dog and jet-skiing displays on the water, interesting dance performances and beautifully decorated stalls around the city. We are already looking forward to the festival next year! Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy a set of pictures I took along this weekend.

Harbour Festival: Bristol's maritime heritage

26^th - 28^th July 2013

Bristol's biggest free festival is approaching. The 42^nd edition of Bristol Harbour Festival will take place this following weekend around the waterfront. The  city celebrates its maritime heritage with a festival since 1971 with over 250,000 visitors coming to enjoy live music, street performance and other kind of live entertainments happening in Bristol. The waterfront becomes the focal point of the festival, where tall ships from many countries and hundreds of sailing boats and old-time boats will be displayed. The festival stretches two miles along the city’s waterfront from Brunel’s s.s. Great Britain to MShed, and from Queens Square to Castle Park.

FIREWORKS! // Clevedon-based Firemagic presents Harbour Festival’s main event: the firework display! The popular fireworks will be displayed in the sky around Bristol historic harbour on Saturday night at 10pm.

Picture taken from www.cliftonhotels.com

DANCE VILLAGE // The Dance Village will be located in Millenium Square and renowned performers across the country will come to perform acts from the worlds of ballet, African dances, salsa, Bollywood and street dance, for instance. The National Youth Dance Company will be there which is, according to the organisers, “the brightest dance talent across England”. In addition to that, Sole Rebel Tap will represent their show called “Solely Rhythm”.

If you head down to the Amphitheatre area, you will find the State of Happiness, creating a “happier planet that needn’t cost the Earth”, with interactive performance, music, theatre and creative activities for everybody.

S.S. GREAT BRITAIN // S.S. Great Britain, in partnership with BBC Radio, will line up music on stage and some dressing up during the weekend, between 10am and 6pm both days. There will be food stalls, family fun, the waterfront Dockyard Cafe Bar and twelve foot-tapping live bands. Confirmed actuations: Katey Brooks, Emily Barker & The Red Clay Halo, Daisy Chapman and many more.

Picture from Wikipedia

MUSIC IN QUEENS SQUARE // Queens Square will play host to reggae king DJ Derek, who has been opening the Festival for years, and his concert will happen on Friday at 9pm. Enjoy the green space perfect for picnics while listening to the best local music acts. Pigbag, Evie Woods, Lazibyrd, The Big Figure, Jama, Bashema, Lu Willott and Muff Said will perform on Saturday starting 12 noon and Burning Bandits, Freestyle Collective, The Wires, The Big Figure, Lizzie Deane, Meet your Feet, Victoria Klewin and The True Tones starting at the same time on Sunday. The Newfoundland Dogs will be performing both Saturday and Sunday.

If you are looking for something more relaxed, the Cascade Steps stage offers a mellow location on the water, with acoustic musicians and slam poetry. 

FAMILY AREA // Castle Park will become a brand new Treasure Island activity area this weekend, full of children activities and a circus stage. A giant Pirate Ship will take over Castle Park starting 12pm on Saturday and 11.50am on Sunday. There will be several characters doing some tricks, workshops and arts and crafts activities, as well as poetry and playful folk story telling accompanied with swing jazz rhythms. Cirque Bijou's circus stage in leafy Castle Park beckons, could be the perfect spot to sit back, relax and enjoy acrobatics, daring aerial, comedy, trickery and buffoonery.

Picture from www.247magazine.co.uk

MORE INFORMATION // Information included in this post is taken from official websites and Facebook posts. For more information, organisers are selling official programmes for  £2, income which subsidizes the festival. Programmes can be purchased in several stores (see list here) and you will also be able to pick it up on site from Friday at 6pm if you don’t want to make a special journey downtown to have it beforehand. The organisation apologised on Facebook after several people complaining about the impossibility of downloading the programme online, claiming that they don’t have a “download mechanism for the programme which is sophisticated enough to protect the content” so the printed version is the only programme available this year.

LINKS //
Website: http://www.bristolharbourfestival.co.uk/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bristolharbourfestival

One hell of a thunderstorm

The sound of the rain against the windowpane woke me up last night. It has been long since it didn't rain as heavily in Bristol and the massive thunderstorm last night was quite scary. I found myself hidding below the duvet and counting between lightning and thunder, as I used to do when I was younger. 1, 2, 3, 4... 5! One mile away! Relief. One of them, however, striked very close as we heard a huge "booom" right after the thunder, followed by several alarms that went off. The lightning strike left us without water supply for the day.

The weather lately has been too sunny, hot and humid, and it's been a week since it seemed a gale would hit Bristol. According to BBC, next weeks will be messy. They don't forecast rain again until Thursday, and apparently the weekend will be free of rain too. The temperatures will stay quite the same, though, around 25ºC. 

After 5-6 weeks of summery weather, "A little fall of rain can hardly hurt us now", as said in Les Miserables.

Angry Birds: Seagulls!

Noisy, violent, filthy, aggresive... Our new neighbours damage buildings, wake you up untimely, defecate on you and steal your food from your own plate, if they have the opportunity.

Our lovely friends the Herring gulls (commonly known as seagulls) are enormous four-and-a-half feet birds who can fly 60mph. The cry of the bird is usually associated with seaside locations but not any more. They are everywhere, and any time. 

Apparently, the invasion of the urban gulls began, quietly and cautiously, almost a century ago, and they now settled down in our high streets and gardens depending on how welcoming they are. Street lighting attracts them, as well as food in streets, food waste in easy-to-tear plastic bin bags, food intentionally left for other birds... Bristol City Council has a 10-year project to control seagull population now estimated at 2500 breeding pairs. The colony in Bristol is one of the large urban gull colonies in Britain along with the ones in Cardiff, Gloucester, London and Aberdeen.

So, if you are having fish and chips in the Harbourside, don't left your food unattended or urban seagulls will dive down and steal your food!

Wolf! Wolf! Wolf!

Who has never heard the story of a shepherd boy repeatedly tricking nearby villagers into thinking a wolf is coming to attack his flock, and when a wolf actually does appear, villagers do not trust the boy's cries for help, and the flock gets destroyed?

It doesn't mean that I was a liar when I was a child, but I've heard that story coming from my parents more than once. Perhaps, that is what avoided me from being a liar. And old portuguese proverb says "liars are caught faster than people with a limp". Do you lie like a rug on fire? In a research conducted by the University of Massachusetts, where two strangers were asked to talk for 10 minutes, they identified subjects told an average of 2.92 false things in this time. 

The summer open air theatre has return to Bristol Old Vic with the "The Boy Who Cried Wolf!" adapted by Michael Morpurgo and many other tales including "The Sun and the Wind" and my favourite "The Tortoise and the Hare". The decoration in the stage, smart outfits converting actors into a tortoise, sun, wind or a bear, and catchy songs are some of my highlights. Enjoying good outdoor theatre while having a Ginger Beer is a very nice way to finish the day after a hard work day. Tickets are worth £22 full price (£20 concessions) but if you are fast enough to get one of the 50 first tickets for each show, it will cost you just £10! And I can say it is worth every penny. 

Bristol Old Vic Website: http://www.bristololdvic.org.uk/wolf.html

Gert Lush!

Someone once told me Bristolians are the only people living in a city that talk like countryside farmers. I don't personally know many Bristolians, maybe two or three at work, but I have to admit their English is  peculiar. So, I did some online research on the Bristolian accent.

There are so many dialects in the English language, and Bristolian is part of the West Country dialects. Academically, the region encompasses the city of Bristol and the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset are a dialect, with slight variations one to another. There is some influence of the Welsh and Cornish languages on the dialect, depending on the location.

As any dialect in any other language, Bristolian has its own words, phrases and pronunciation. Even the name Bristol itself (originally Bridgestowe or Bristow) is believed to have originated from the Bristolian pronunciation. 

If a Bristolian asks you "Where do you work to?", there will be a big confusion if you give details of your route to work. Or even when they ask "Where's it to?", they don't mean anything else than "Where is it?". REMEMBER: you are living in "Brizzle", not in Bristol. And your friends place is in "Bemmie", not in Bedminster.

We are more used to other Bristolian sentences such as "Cheers drive!" (what a Bristolian says when leaving a bus), "Awlriiieee!" (meaning "Alright!), or "Laters!" ("See you later!"). Phrases like "gert lush" (meaning 'very nice') or "hark at ee!" ("look at you!") are more often used as a joke nowadays, but there is a huge amount of merchandise to promote Bristol with those two phrases. 

There are several webpages, but if you are really interested, I suggest you visit Mintinit and watch Terry's Bristolian language lesson for beginners.

...because us, outsiders, we have to make an effort for Bristolians to understand us! :)

All lizards love to lie in the sun

All lizards love to lie in the sun. As if they were lizards, Bristolians have been lying in the sun with their legs hanging down the harbourside whole week. A perfect plan: finish the working day and grab some beers to enjoy them until the sun hides behind the buildings in Clifton.

For the past few weeks, we have been able to enjoy a very summery weather, with temperatures reaching 25ºC and apparently summer came to stay at least for another week. Forecasters say weather will be much warmer than July average, with southern areas likely to be hottest. Compared to the summer we had last year, I am more than delighted to have this weather!

Yesterday evening, I became a lizard. I took "To kill a mockingbird" by Harper Lee and I was sitting down near Arnolfini reading it when a band of three people started playing. They just needed a guitar, a clarinet and a trumpet to create a soundtrack for my book. It perfectly fit! They are called The International Jazz Disaster and I really recommend you check them out. 

Good weather, good literature and good jazz: definitely an unbeatable combination!

PS: If you are interested, they sell their CD for 5 pounds. Contact them on their webpage: http://www.jazzdisaster.co.uk/

The Arts House

I love coffee, I love chill-out music and I love reading. The Arts House is a place that provides all of that: good coffee, relaxing atmosphere and comfortable couches to feel as if you were at your own place. It is located in Stokes Croft and  it is a very beautifully decorated coffee-shop in the corner with Ashley Road. It offers a platform for local artists to show their work in the ground floor and every Monday and Tuesday evening, the basement converts into a cosy cinema. A couple of months ago, I used to go there very often to read and enjoy good coffee.

PICTURE: The Arts House, Stokes Croft, Bristol.

I convinced my friends to go there for brunch and to my surprise, the experience was not as we expected. The four of us ordered a coffee and a main dish each. Even though the coffees were brought at our table quite fast (10 minutes), it took them around 40 minutes to bring the main dishes. They apologised for the waiting, but my hungry friends were starving to death. Considering the fact that we ordered two jacket potatoes, one English breakfast and one Eggs Benedict and that the place was not busy, they shouldn't kept us waiting that long. However, the jacket potato I ordered, filled with hummus and roasted peppers, was a very nice combination of flavours with I very much enjoyed. 

PICTURE: the English Breakfast, capuccino and latte we ordered.

The Arts House Website: http://www.theartshouse.org

Bristol Pride 2013

I have to confess: I don't love chocolate. It is surprising, I know. People react the same way when I say it: "Why not?!". Basically, the amount of sugar it has is just too much for me. 

Not everybody loves chocolate (or pies, or sweets...). Not everybody loves what are "supposed to" love. Even in modern countries, accepting that fact has been a challenge for certain people yet. As far as I am concerned, "variety is the spice of life".

Some days ago, crowds flocked american streets for Gay Pride as same-sex couples celebrated a Supreme Court ruling on the legality of gay marriages and Bristol will wear multicoloured flags for the Pride Day this weekend. The South West's most colourful parade will leave Queens Square at 11:45 to go up Baldwin Street, along Wine Street and into Castle Park, where the free festival will held next 13th July. Organisers are asking people to gather in Queens Square from 11am to secure help carry the flag, soak in the atmosphere and to get flags and whistles for a donation to the team.
Local, national and international artists will be performing in the Main Stage and there will be a Cabaret Stage as well. The innovation will come along with a headphone party by introducing a Silent Disco dance area. Rather than using the traditional speaker system, music will be broadcasted via radio transmitters with the signal being picked up by wireless headphone available for a refundable deposit of £5 (+£1 fee for those who don't have a wristband).

Although the festival is free of charge, discounts will be applied on site (in food traders, free access to Dance Area and reduced prices at the Bar) if you purchase a supporter wristband for £5.

The afterparty will continue in the O2 Academy and tickets are still available for £8.  

LINKS

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Webpage: http://pridebristol.co.uk/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/426404244074809/

Well done, Murray!

Millenium Square has been the meeting spot for around 3000 people to watch in a big screen the Wimbledon final between the Scottish Andy Murray and Serbian Novak Djokovic this afternoon. After 77 years without any Briton winning the title, Murray beat Djokovic with straight-sets victory in the 2013 Wimbledon Men's Singles Final. And for me, the first time to watch an entire tennis match! :)

The Big Screen in Bristol is part of the UK's largest network of screens known as London 2012 live sites aiming to place the excitement of London 2012 Games and nowadays the major sporting and cultural programms are shown on the Big Screen, and of course, the Wimbledon Final too!

Some unconditional tennis fans came very early either to get one of the deckchairs that are available in the square or to set up the picnic area despite the extremely sunny day. Straw hats everywhere, loads of sunscreen, bottles of water...  and glasses of cold and sweet PIMM's to bear the unusual weather. The atmosphere was superb! A great initiation day for me to the tennis world!

INTERESTING LINKS

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Big Screen Bristol: http://www.bristol.gov.uk/page/leisure-and-culture/big-screen-bristol

Property on Sale: Clifton Observatory

TO BE SOLD

Exciting property! Consider benefits of owning a historic building right in Clifton Down. 

Investment and leisure opportunity. Freehold for one of the top five tourist attraction in major city.

The property includes: historic observatory building, caves and camera obscura.
Purchase also includes permission for a licensed restaurant with terrace.

The historic building of Clifton Observatory which is located in Clifton Down is for sale now. If you own £2m and still haven't think of any ways of spending it, your name could be at least in Wikipedia as the next owner of the observatory. Hurry up! Two potential buyers have already shown interest!

The observatory is built at 337 feet above the gorge, where loads of climbers practice their favorite sport: outdoor climbing.  It sits up on The Downs and offers superb views from above the Suspension Bridge. Clifton Observatory was build in the 18th century by James Waters as a windmill for corn. It was severely damaged during a strong gale in 1777 but in 1828, William West rented the mill, rebuilt the building and used it as his art studio, installing the camera obscura.

A camera obscura is an optical device that projects an image of its surroundings on a screen. It is used in drawing and for entertainment, and was one of the inventions that led to photography.The device consists of a room with a hole in one side. Light from an external scene passes through the hole and strikes a surface inside, where it is reproduced, upside-down, but with color and perspective preserved. The camera obscura in the Observatory in Bristol is a 5" (13 cm) convex lens and sloping mirror installed on the top of the tower. It projects the panoramic view vertically downward into the darkened room below. Visitors view the true image (not mirror image) on to a fixed circular table 5 feet (1.5 m) in diameter, with a concave metal surface, and turn the mirror by hand to change the direction of view. 

Apart from the camera obscura, William West also built a tunnel from the Observatory to St Vincent's Cave. It is also called Ghyston's Cave or Giant's Cave and it opens onto St Vincent's Rocks on the cliff face above the Avon, and can also be visited.

Currently, the Observatory is opened from 11.30am-5pm during weekdays and from 10.30am-5pm during the weekend in summer (noon to 4pm during winter) and adult tickets to the camera obscura cost £2 and other £2 for visiting the caves. Considering that 45.000 visitors came to the Observatory last year, when it was only open part of the year due to renovation works, it would be a pretty good investment to buy it.

Where is Gromit?

Today, 1st July, is the official kick-off day for the Gromit Unleashed public art exhibition. Even though some of the sculptures were already in place during the weekend, all 80 Gromits will be guarding Bristol for ten weeks, until the 8th September.  The giant fibreglass sculptures of Gromit are 5 feet tall, and have been individually designed and created by invited artists, creating a train of unique pieces of art. 

 

If you didn't already come across with any of them yet, go for a walk around Bristol and I bet that you will spot at least one in less than 5 minutes. As a help, you can download the whole trail map here.

There is also available an application for the phone. By downloading the official application, you will automatically be  donating 40p of the 64p cost to benefit Wallace & Gromit's Grand Appeal, the Bristol Children's Hospital Charity. The hospital is now expanding to create one of the most influential children's hospitals in Europe.

Unfortunately, some sculpures have been seriously damaged during the weekend, before the official start of the exhibition, and had to be temporarily removed to have them repaired. In order to prevent vandalism activities, organizers would like you to help them protect the Gromits during the trail by reporting any suspicious behaviour or damage to the police, or by texting the Gromit sculpture on 07582 064103 or emailing us at info@gromitunleashed.org.uk.

 




INTERESTING LINKS
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Gromit Unleashed Website: http://www.gromitunleashed.org.uk/
Gromit Unleashed on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/?sk=nf#!/GromitUnleashed?fref=ts
Grand Appeal Charity: http://www.grandappeal.org.uk/