The Ashton Court festival is an outdoors music festival held annually in the grounds of Ashton Court, just outside Bristol, in mid July. It is a weekend event which features a variety of local bands and national headliners.

History

The first festival was held in 1974 and since then it has become increasingly popular. For several years it was claimed to be Europe's biggest free festival; however the "suggested minimum donation" for entry has now become a compulsory UK£5 entry fee.

Although locals have long referred to the festival as the "Ashton Court Festival", before 2004 it was officially called the Bristol Community Festival. At times in its history, the Ashton Court event was only part of a city_wide festival.

In 2001 the Bristol Community Festival temporarily relocated to Hengrove Park in the south of the city. Ashton Court estate, which includes a deer park, was closed as a quarantine measure due to the outbreak of foot and mouth disease that affected the United Kingdom that year.

Headliners at Ashton Court in recent years include Robert Plant, McKay and Electric Soft Parade in 2003 and The Stranglers, Goldie Lookin' Chain and Glenn Tilbrook in 2004.

In 2003 the weight of crowds returning from the Ashton Court festival and Bristol International Balloon Fiesta put such great strain on the Clifton Suspension Bridge that it was decided to close the bridge to all traffic, including pedestrians, during these events in 2004.

External links

• Ashton Court Festival (http://www.ashtoncourtfestival.co.uk/) - offical site
• eFestivals listing (http://www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals/ashtoncourt/) for Ashton Court