Bristol Encontro 2019 featured 11 local percussion groups performing back to back on one night. Orin Asé Olá Samba Afon Sistema* Drum Machine** Ilu Axé** The African Sambistas Carnaval Transatlântico Barracwda Bloco B* Batala Bristol Jamma De Samba** DJ Ru Robinson * – members of our group performed with this […]
Gig Report
25 posts
We played a short set on the dance stage at Bristol Pride. This year the event was held on The Downs in Bristol. Pride day was only part of a much longer programme of events. We arrived to find a festival site with multiple stages. It looked a bit empty […]
St Paul’s Carnival is an annual multi-cultural event held in the St Paul’s area of Bristol (Wikipedia, official website). The Saturday procession included the following percussion bands: Afon Sistema, Batala Bristol, Ilu Axe, Bristol Samba, Jamma De Samba (Bath) and ourselves. We were interspersed with sound system trucks, dance groups […]
We were asked to provide some birthday party drumming outside the SS Great Britain in Bristol docks on a Thursday morning. We love events like this and we had the bonus of a sunny morning. A worried looking official approached us just before we started drumming to ask if we […]
Here’s our summer samba performances. We’re quiet as always. Sun 5th May: Bristol 10K run Sun 19th May: South Glos Food and Drink Festival Sat 1st June: Sambafest Heerlen Sat 7th June: Peasedown party in the park and The Shakespeare Totterdown Sat 15th June: Sidcot Festival Sat 22nd June: private […]
Street party samba Bristol! On Saturday 8th June 2019 we played at two events. In the early afternoon we performed at Peasedown Party In The Park. It was time to set the controls for loud, having three surdo (bass drum) players playing three drums each plus several extra surdo players. […]
We hatched a plan to play at Sambafest Heerlen. This is an annual event in the Netherland. Our band size went up, down until we almost abandoned the idea and then back up. The result was a very bijoux band of 6. We’ve played with a band this size before […]
This was our annual samba busk and Christmas party. We set up next to the cascade steps next to The Watershed in Bristol city centre. We had some fun for an hour with a good sized band and attracted a decent crowd. Once we’d finished that we moved onto Downtown […]
Westbury on Trym samba at the Christmas Fayre. We first played here in 2017, with a crowd size and reaction far better than we were expecting from a 2pm slot in a suburb. Things were looking good for 2018 up until the day of the event: we awoke to a […]
Picton Street Fayre in Bristol is one of our favourite gigs. The whole street is closed off to traffic, there are stalls selling food and gifts and by the evening the crowd are usually well oiled and ready for us. In 2011 Western Eye asked if it was “the best […]