Music
St George's
Wide variety of acoustic music including classical, world and jazz.
Anson Rooms
From Comedians to live music, many renowned artists as well as the univeristies' students often perform here.
Thekla
The famous club on a boat, sporting a Banksy graffiti work and prime location by Queens Square.
The Croft
The croft has a policy of supporting new music of every style and scheduling mainly homegrown talent.
The Louisiana
Bands that have played here include, Coldplay, the Whitestripes, Kings of Leon, Keane and many, many more.
Black Swan
A pub that regularly hosts alternative liberal, electronic dance, rave music events.
Full Moon & Eclipse
Formerly an important Metal and Punk venue but has now become a backpacker hostel with some music events targeted at their guests.
Pubs offering live music of some sort are extremely numerous in most areas of the city.
The bristol to bath railway cycle path
This showcase cycle path runs on a disused railway line from central Bristol to Bath. With its traffic free tarmac, gentle gradients, and only two minor road crossings on its 22km stretch, it is ideal for cycling. At a leisurely pace the journey to Bath takes a good 2h through green suburbs and some attractive countryside. If you are too tired to cycle back, you can take your bicycle free of charge on one of the frequent trains from Bath Spa to Bristol temple meads station. The journey takes 10-15 min.
From Bath, you can continue cycling along the towpath of the Kennet and Avon Canal allthe way to Bradford on Avon, taking another hour or so. Though not paved and somewhat narrower than the Bristol to Bath cycle path, the towpath is still traffic free and the scenery even more beautiful. There are two or three places to stop and eat or drink on the way. The aqueduct at Avoncliff is worth seeing. From Bradford too there are direct trains back to Bristol that carry bicycles. You can view a PDF map at Bristol and Bath Railway Path (http://www.bristol.gov.uk...).
Sheer Adventure
Abseiling and rock climbing group activities in Bristol's famous Avon Gorge for stag and hen parties, families, charity and corporate events.
Comedy
The Comedy Box
Usually hosted above the Hen and Chicken pub on North Street, Southville but sometimes at the nearby Tobacco Factory especially for more popular acts. Has hosted a number of major stand-up acts, including Mark Thomas, Sue Perkins, Ed Byrne and Marcus Brigstocke.
Theatre
Tobacco Factory Theatre and Brewery Theatre
A hidden gem outside the city centre, in the Southville area of town. Well known for being involved in some of the most cutting-edge theatre in the city.
Bristol Old Vic
Bristol's main repertory theatre, located in the city centre
Redgrave Theatre
320 seat theatre hosting amateur drama, Bristol Old Vic Theatre School productions and concerts.
Wickham Theatre
University of Bristol's theatre, hosting both student and professional performances.
Kelvin Studios
Home to the Kelvin Players Theatre Company, an amateur theatre group on Gloucester Road.
Alma Tavern Theatre
Theatre located on the first floor of the Alma Tavern & Theatre pub in Clifton, a short walk from Whiteladies Road. The theatre seats 50, with the bar on the ground floor.
Cinema
Watershed
The primary hub for art-house film in the city centre with a lovely WiFi enabled cafe too.
Cube Microplex
Hidden away not far from the bus station, this small non-profit making co-operative venue is housed in a beautifully shabby 1960's theatre. It's run entirely by volunteers and specialises in experimental film, music and performance. A unique experience.
Odeon Cinema
Three screen mainstream cinema located in the center of Bristol
Vue Cinemas
There are two of these Warner Village cinemas in Bristol, one near the Mall out-of-town shopping center at Cribbs Causeway near the M5/M4 junction and the other in Longwell Green, off the A4174 Ring Road. Both are modern multiplex type cinemas with approx 10 screens.
Showcase Cinema
Bristol's first multiplex cinema, the Showcase has been open since at least the mid-1990s. Compared with the Vue cinemas, it's beginning to look a little tatty, but it does offer cheap tickets on Tuesdays - £3.75 all day. The Showcase is situated on the Avonmeads retail park, off the spine road that runs between the Lawrence Hill roundabout take the exit before Junction 2 signposted as the A4320 to Bath and the Bath Road in Brislington.
Cineworld
Notable for showing at least one Bollywood film per week.
Arnolfini
Right on the water's edge at Narrow Quay, this contemporary arts center includes a cinema showing alternative and arthouse films. And the quayside is a great place to soak up the sun with a beer from the cafe!
The largest independent employers in Bristol are the two Universities, the Orange telco, Airbus, Rolls Royce, Hewlett-Packard/Compaq, AXA and various media companies including BBC Bristol famed for its natural history department, ITV West Country and Endemol. The Ministry of Defence has a large site employing around 5000 people in Filton towards the north of the city.
Casual work, usually supermarket, call centre, bar and restaurant work is fairly easily available in Bristol. Many employment agencies are located in the city centre. Bristol has the second highest job ratio of the eight English core cities after Manchester making it very good for employment opportunities.
listings
There are various websites publicising these events, but probably the best thing is to pick up a copy of Venue Magazine (http://www.venue.co.uk/) analogous to London's 'Time Out' from a stockist (http://www.venue.co.uk/im...). Venue is no longer weekly and paid, but has been merged with the 'Folio' free monthly lifestyle magazine, and new editions are usually available on the last Friday of the month. Saturday's edition of the Bristol Evening Post has a free pull-out supplement called Seven that lists much of what is on offer in the city during the following seven days. Alternatively you can check out Bristol Music & Theatre listings online on Bristol Music (http://www.bristolmusic.co.uk/) which also house's contact details for all local venues and music contacts and reviews.
Headfirst (http://www.headfirstbrist...) is a local website and mobile app that offers detailed listings of what's going on in many of the bars and late night venues around the city, with an emphasis on live music.
special events
Bristol has a widespread range of festivals throughout the year. The most significant include:
higher education
Bristol is home to two universities: University of Bristol (http://www.bris.ac.uk/) and University of the West of England (http://www.uwe.ac.uk/). There is also a music college on King Square, the Bristol Institute of Modern Music (http://www.bimm.co.uk/bristol), which from September 2009 will offer a BA Hons course in Professional Musicianship.