Who are we?

The Bristol Shakespeare Festival was founded in 2003, became a CIC in 2012, and is organised and staffed entirely by volunteers. BSF aims to bring the freshest and most exciting performances  to venues across Bristol enabling new audiences to engage with Shakespeare. Platforming both local and touring companies from across the UK and the world, we use unusual performance spaces to make our programme as accessible as possible and also programme a free Fringe Festival.

Why do we need your help now?

As an arts organisation based in the fantastic city of Bristol, we know that it is important for us to make sure we are reaching, supporting, and working with as many people as possible.

A focal point for last year’s festival was our first in-house production and our new schools educational programme, offering free workshops to young people aged 11-14. This year we have been developing this, piloting a  free educational drama project in schools across Bristol, supporting secondary-aged young people to explore Shakespeare's plays—and theatre in general–in safe, creative environments. Now, we want to push this work even further, offering more educational outreach, staging more fully accessible work for all ages, and producing more professional in-house productions that cast local, emerging talent.

However, since we're a volunteer-run CIC, this is where you come in. To ensure that the workshops we run have fun and accessible materials and are staffed by professionals who are being fully compensated for their skills and time, and to allow our productions to pay their casts and creatives, we need your help. We are actively seeking sponsorship from Bristol's private sector, but as a community-run venture, we also ask for your support. Anything you can pledge would be greatly received, and will go towards ensuring that children from all economic backgrounds are able to access drama opportunities in Bristol, and towards supporting emerging artists to make accessible and exciting new theatre through the festival. Every penny helps!

Last year's production of Shakespeare's Worst was a sell-out hit, generating a buzz and a community spirit of which we are incredibly proud. This year, we are staging 1599, a brand new hilarious play written especially for the festival, promising even better, brighter things!

Help us to share Shakespeare with the city, and make our festival the best it can be.

Become a  Brizzle Bard Buddy - we will give you a free ticket to 1599 and loads of other fantastic rewards .

Thank you