Southbank Arts Trail - 8 an 9 May

The 2010 Southbank Bristol Arts Trail takes place this weekend, 8 and 9 May. This year, over 55 venues will be opening to show the art, performances and other such things of over 150 artists.

Wander the happy streets of Southville, Bedminster and Ashton, pop into homes, churches, bars, cafés, community centres and all kinds of other spots and see some interesting and diverse work.

Trail brochures, with a map, venue details, events listings and the like are available at several venues, including the Southville Centre, which acts as the main hub of the Trail. There you can see over 30 artists, musicians, makers, and all sorts under one roof, grab refreshments and contribute to a message to the future.
It's highly recommened!

Art for art's sake

Our local Arts Trail will take place on the weekend of 8 and 9 May 2010. You'll be able to see a range of arts and crafts in public places as well as private homes in and around Southville, Bedminster and Ashton.

BOB's back this Saturday

Best of Bedminster (BOB) Show takes place on Saturday 26 September from 10.30am to 3.30pm on North Street Green. There will be all the usual competitions including best jam, best wildlife photo, best cake and best mini garden, as well as stalls from local environmental groups, a Dr Bike session, refreshments from the Malago WI, entertainment, games and all round fun.

Southville Carnival - but strings attached

On Sunday 6 September the streets around the Tobacco Factory in Southville will come alive with the sights, sounds and smells of the first ever Creatures of Southville Carnival.

This is the finale of the Bristol Festival of Puppetry. So look out for all types of creatures winding their way through the streets of Southville in a party of colour, music and song. More details on the Tobacco Factory's website.

See Southville gardens this Sunday

On Sunday 16 August, 19 gardens in the Southville area are open for you to visit. Most of the gardens are open between 11am and 6pm, but you need to check the programme for exact times. For more information go to the event's website.

Also, between noon and 3pm, Avon Wildlife Trust will be offering wildlife friendly gardening advice at the Southville Centre.

Banksy, but without the queue

Simply Southville has eventually got round to visiting the Banksy exhibition at the city museum and can highly recommend it. However, based on the 'three-hour queue' stories got up there at 1pm and waited for about an hour and 45 minutes to get in. Not too bad I thought.

However, as I waited it became clear that the overall queue was dwindling. When I'd looked round the exhibition and came out at 3.45pm there was only about 30 or so people waiting to get in. I'm sure they'd all be in within a quarter of an hour.

The exhibition has a last entry at 4.30pm and closes at 5pm. I walked past the museum again at 4.25pm and guess what? No queue, you could walk straight in.

So if you've been put off by the stories about never-ending queues, go late in the day and if today was a good example, you'll get in pretty quickly. One word of warning though, Wednesday is late night viewing so the 4pm(ish) quick entry might not work so well.

Southville's summer sky

Well the sky over Southville was the place to watch this weekend. We had a giant yellow turtle floating by, accompanied by nearly 100 hot-air balloons of all shapes and sizes. On Saturday afternoon the Red Arrows treated Southville residents to a display of flying and Thursday and Saturday nights the skies were lit up by fireworks.

All of this because of the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta (6-8 August) in neighbouring Ashton Court. One of the bonuses of living in Southville.

Zambia comes to Southville

Local project Creative Kids International is bringing a bit of Zambia to BS3 this weekend with a fundraising show at the Tobacco Factory. There's a Zambian-themed fashion show at 7pm, followed by afro-jazz group Helele at 9pm. Tickets are available from the Tobacco Factory box office - 0117 902 0344. There's also a free part to the event from 4pm where you can browse stalls selling clothes and accessories.

Creative Kids International links children in Bristol and Lusaka, Zambia through visual art workshops in both countries.

'Lazy Sunday' in the park - Sun 5 July

Greville Smyth Park's ever-popular event 'Lazy Sunday' is on 5 July (2-5pm). There will be a BBQ, cafe selling tea and cakes and new for this year a bar selling cold beers, Pimms and soft drinks. Live music, children's games plus a free BMX bike course and trampoline

The event is not-for profit but any proceeds will go into further park improvements

Tobacco Factory's summer street party

Southville's favourite community market gets expanded to a street party on 14 June. Starting at 10.30am the event runs through to 4.30pm. Let's hope we see some sun!

September date for Dame Emily fair

The Dame Emily Park Project will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of thepark's opening as a public park on Sunday, 6 September 2009.

New Cut 200 - further celebrations

A Celebratory party with Irish band "Sergeant Early's Dream". Monday 4 May, 7pm to 11pm on the Grain Barge. Tickets £4 each from the Southville Centre. Available now!

St Valentine's Day Celebration

There's a St Valentine's Day art exhibition at the Southville Centre on Saturday 14 February, 9.30am-3pm. There's work from local artists and residents, and homemade cakes! It's a free event.