Massive Attack to play first UK show in five years on Bristol Downs

Bristol icons Massive Attack will play a huge hometown show on the Downs next summer.

It will be the band’s first UK show for five years - they last performed in Bristol at the Steel Yard at Filton Airfield in 2019.

Prior to that, they played the Downs in 2016, a gig that went down in local legend because of the torrential rain on the day.

Formed in 1988, Massive Attack made their name with their 1991 debut album, Blue Lines, and are often credited for creating the ‘Bristol Sound'.

Next year's August 25 show on the Downs is being billed as a ‘low-emission’ outdoor festival and it will be the lowest carbon show of its size ever staged. 

The group - Grant ‘Daddy G’ Marshall and Robert ‘3D’ del Naja - have worked together with partners Race To Zero, Zenobe, Ecotricity, Train Hugger and Act 1.5 to construct a series of decarbonisation incentives that surround the event.

The single largest contributor to an outdoor event’s carbon footprint comes from audience travel so in order to combat this, and whilst ensuring those who live closest to the event don’t miss out on tickets, residents from Bristol and surrounding areas will be given priority access to purchase tickets for this show via an early pre-sale.

Anyone living within Bristol, Bath and the surrounding Gloucestershire, Swindon and Taunton local area authorities will be able to access the local pre-sale which goes live to sign-ups at 10am on Wednesday 6th December.

Further to this, the show itself (plus production, catering and site lighting etc) will be powered exclusively by battery and solar power. The event will prioritise local, meat-free food and beverage traders who can demonstrate local supply lines and ingredient sourcing - drawing on the wealth of local businesses that Bristol and surrounding Somerset has to offer. 

Attendees will be encouraged to use public transport, with additional post-show rail capacity arranged and electric shuttle buses running regularly to and from the show from the City Centre and Temple Meads railway station.

Secure bike parking will be provided for those wishing to cycle to the event. A full incentivised train travel campaign will be launched ahead of the event in 2024.  Fans wanting to buy pre-sale tickets, can follow the sign-up link found on www.massiveattackbristol.com and enter the first three letters of their postcode when asked.