nearfield, Bath (2025)

21/08/2025

“We’ve been doing this for nearly ten years. It’s a nice moment for reflection, for something that bridges the gap from those starting points – the more ambient, jazzy stuff – to this bigger, louder thing, and to create a show for that… It’s stretching ourselves, too. It’s amazing how quickly you lose the danger – which is kind of the fun for me. It’s got to be slightly dangerous.”

Pete Cunningham – bandleader, saxophonist and founder of – is talking about his group’s career-spanning set with The Rituals Orchestra at this Saturday, featuring guests and , among others.

It’s a chance for the band to bring together the different sounds they’ve immersed themselves in across three albums, including ambient and astral jazz, dub, techno and transcendent walls of Four Tet-ish noise. And we can’t wait.

The show was just one of the topics we covered with Pete during a long, sunny afternoon conversation for the latest issue. We also chatted about his origins in Midsomer Norton, being swept up into the new-jazz explosion of the late 2010s, and supporting local talent through his label.

For now, though, it’s all about Saturday on Clifton Downs. “It feels like a bookend for something,” Pete reflects. “I just don’t know what that is yet.”

Find the full interview – along with loads of other essential features about the southwest – by picking up a free copy of nearfield at 500+ locations.

To find your nearest, see 🔗 in bio. You can also subscribe and support from just £3 + VAT per month and get a copy through your letterbox.

And don’t forget to sign up for our weekly Field Notes newsletter. Again, 🔗 in bio.

20/08/2025

Ready to unleash your creativity on the world?

🎨🖌️🖼️

You are? Well then, you’ll definitely want to win an art workshop or course at the Royal West of England Academy’s Drawing School in Bristol.

RWA’s courses are led by expert tutors, with basic materials provided (unless stated). Workshop participants also receive free entry to exhibitions on the day of their class (excluding Mondays and exhibition changeover days), along with a 10% discount at the Spicer+Cole café.

If you’re ready to harness that end-of-summer, back-to-school energy, listen up. RWA is offering one nearfield reader the chance to win a voucher worth £150 to be spent on a workshop or course of their choice between 31 August 2025 and 31 August 2026.

For your chance to win, simply follow .nearfield and , like this post and reshare it to your feed (via the circular arrow button next to the comments one).

The competition runs until 6pm on Friday 5 September, when we’ll select a winner at random and announce them here. We’ll DM the winner with details of how to redeem the prize.

Terms & Conditions:

• Only one entry per user will be entered into the prize draw

• Voucher has no cash equivalent

• The prize is redeemable for a voucher to be spent on a workshop or course taking place between 31 August 2025 and 31 August 2026 (subject to availability)

• The winner will be chosen at random by .nearfield at 6pm on 5 September

• The winner must be over 18 and have proof of identity

14/08/2025

COMPETITION TIME! 🚨🚨🚨

In the latest issue of nearfield (it’s out now – grab a copy), the award-winning comedian and co-founder of Rode Comedy Festival Jarred Christmas tells us that comedy is needed more than ever when things get a bit turbulent.

And because we’re all on a bumpy ride right now, Jarred and his team at Somerset’s “greatest littlest comedy festival” – which runs 27-31 August in Woolverton, between Bath and Frome – want to give nearfield followers a bit of levity, an escape from, well, EVERYTHING.

Rode Comedy Festival is offering one lucky nearfielder two tickets to Sunday 31 August’s grand finale, along with two complimentary meals and two free drinks.

Performing on the night are Taskmaster’s Phil Wang , 1930s throwback , New Zealand’s no-talking standup , perennial festival favourite and fast-rising Bristol comedian . Jarred will be hosting alongside world champion beatboxer, .

For your chance to win, simply follow .nearfield and , like this post and tag a lucky friend or loved one you’d like to have a giggle with.

The competition runs until 6pm on Friday 22 August, when we’ll select a winner at random and announce them here. We’ll DM the winners with details of how to redeem the prize.

Terms & Conditions:

• Only one entry per user will be entered into the prize draw

• The prize is redeemable for two tickets to Rode Comedy Festival on Sunday 31 August

• The winner will be chosen at random by .nearfield at 6pm on 22 August

• The winner must be over 18 and have proof of identity

13/08/2025

“Ice cream is SO back. It’s grown up, glowed up and is currently slinking around the southwest in its softest, most sophisticated forms,” writes our food correspondent in the latest issue of nearfield.

Taking on the assignment absolutely everyone wanted, Meg reports on the frosty revolution hitting the region this summer – and discovers a world of ice cream several galaxies removed from the cheap tubs of vanilla of our childhood.

Think bulgogi and pét-nat wines paired with soft serve, or freshly baked croissants pumped full of the stuff; traditional ice cream with a bold, homemade twist, blending kinako with milk chocolate or sandwiching mountain-of-coffee granita and white chocolate ice cream into something you’ll be dreaming about for weeks; mind-blowing subscription services; and glorious gelato that walks the line between dessert and cheese board.

Meg even gets the scoop from Bristol-based food and wine oracle Fiona Beckett on how to actually pair booze and ice cream, and digs into the science behind frozen treats.

When temperatures soar this week, you can forget Mr Whippy. There’s a tastier way to cool down.

Featuring:

goodies

Read Meg’s ice cream ululations by grabbing a free copy at 500+ locations across the southwest. To find your nearest, see 🔗 in bio.

You can also subscribe and support from just £3 + VAT per month and get a copy through your letterbox.

09/08/2025

Highly recommended beach reading material 🏖️

07/08/2025

NF11 in Bradford-on-Avon!

We love these pics of the new issue of nearfield mag in BOA, courtesy of our delivery team.

You can pick up a free copy in over 20 shops and cafes in the centre of town, including:

Where are we missing? Let us know in the comments below and we will up our distro game 🙌🏻

06/08/2025

Late summer has two personas – and we’re celebrating both in the latest issue of nearfield 🌾

To help you through a hot and sticky August, we’ve got the scoop on an ice cream revolution: think soft serve paired with booze and croissants, and ever-evolving experiments in gelato and ice cream like you’ve never licked before 🍦

Before the sun sets on festival season, we look ahead to Forwards Festival with Bristol’s always-adventurous jazz-not-jazz outfit, Ishmael Ensemble. Founder and bandleader Pete Cunningham shares their unlikely beginnings in small-town Somerset 🎺

And riding the back-to-school energy that courses through early September, we round up some of the weird, wonderful and just plain handy workshops and courses available across the southwest to help refresh and upgrade your skills 🐏

Also in this issue: we get excited for the Rode Comedy Festival with Jarred Christmas, chat with Bristol Bears and Red Roses prop Hannah Botterman about the Women’s Rugby World Cup, preview Somerset Art Weeks, highlight the tastiest places to grab a bite, and pack all the best events for August and September into one bumper guide 🎟️

Pick up a copy – you might just learn something 👩🏼‍🎓

Out today from 500 stockists across the southwest, or subscribe and get a copy delivered to your door - see 🔗 in bio.

30/07/2025

If ever there’s a good time to drink up thy zider, it’s now.

In the current issue of nearfield, we roundup the tangiest spots in the region – all with something different to offer.

Bristol’s pours freshly fermented craft and traditional cider under the railway arches of St Philip’s – fuel for its daytime discos.

Passionate about putting land health first and improving access to nature, on Bath’s Claverton Hill is open every Saturday during summer for food, booze, blooms and tunes.

Can you say you know Bristol if , on Welshback, is new to you? Moored beside old cobbles that have destroyed many a Saturday-night stiletto, the 1920s Dutch barge boasts a quayside bar and cider so potent that staff can’t serve it in greater quantity than a half.
grave.inn, in Faulkland, is a 200-year-old, straight-from-the-barrel cider institution listed in the National Inventory of Historic Interiors. The Stranglers even wrote a song about it.
taphouse, up the hill from Iford Manor, reopened in April with more cider and more seating for guests to soak up the rolling-hill views. Stay for the sourdough pizza, the music and the cinematic sunsets.

in Redhill was built as a retirement project by local legend Tom Vowles – a carpenter, stonemason, and traditional hedgelayer – and has since become a beloved fixture. Tom recently passed away, but Hedgers is planning to carry on in his memory for the foreseeable.

Read the full feature in the current issue of nearfield by heading to the 🔗in bio.

To get a copy of the next issue – our 6 August – through your letterbox, you can subscribe and support from just £3 + VAT per month.

And don’t forget to sign up for our weekly Field Notes newsletter. Again, 🔗 in bio.

23/07/2025

Folk is not just a four-letter word – it’s a living memory that keeps us in touch with our everyday past.

Un/Common People is a touring exhibition exploring that very concept.

Co-curated by Mellany Robinson, Amy de la Haye and the Museum of British Folklore’s Simon Costin, the collection – currently on display in Devizes until 6 September – Un/Common People focuses on Wessex folk culture.

The exhibition features objects unearthed in the archives at Museum & Art Swindon, Wiltshire Museum, Poole Museum, The Salisbury Museum and Dorset Museum.

And here’s to explain why it matters.

“Folklore serves as a way for people to express their shared history, beliefs and experiences through stories, songs and rituals,” he says. “History shows that innovation, culture and resilience often come from the ground up – ordinary people finding extraordinary ways to navigate and transform their world. The folklore of the everyday – whether in art, storytelling or community-building – has the power to reshape society from below.”

Photography: Creative Studio, Ash Mills

Read the full feature, from issue nine of nearfield, by heading to the 🔗in bio.

To get a copy of issue 11 through your letterbox, you can subscribe and support from just £3 + VAT per month.

And don’t forget to sign up for our weekly Field Notes newsletter. Again, 🔗 in bio.

17/07/2025

Some of the southwest’s finest soul DJs collectors come together for a soul-stirring, chalk-flying session to celebrate nine years of the friendliest dancefloors around this Friday 🕺🎶

Twenty years after his debut on the Bristol comedy circuit, returns with ‘Songs the World Will Never Hear’, an eclectic performance packed with songs, stories and his razor-sharp wit. He’s playing this Friday and Saturday 🎤🎹

A Sunday afternoon of Bluegrass, old-time American music and Appalachian step-dance from is headed up by champion USA fiddler and funny frontwoman, in Frome 🎻✨

15/07/2025

Stroud bistro, , has collected more than a few prominent admirers over the past few months – including Grace Dent, who was all breathless over the tarte tatin. But will Daniel Chadwick’s French-Italian restaurant seduce us?

It’s a big, resounding, yes.

With talent drawn from Bristol, London and Juliet’s sister restaurant, in Slad – once the favourite pub of author Laurie Lee – the reasons are plentiful.

There’s the booze-free rhubarb shrub, with an apple cider vinegar kick. The silky oeuf mayonnaise and crab salad, crowned with pink petals of Castelfranco chicory. The baccalà mantecato, a Venetian whipped cod special. The fresh morning madeleines and coffee. The sun-drenched terrace. The relaxed vibe but meticulous details…

We could, and do, go on in our review of Juliet in NF10.

Read our swooning thoughts (and pick up more tasty tips) by grabbing up a free copy at 500+ locations across the southwest. To find your nearest, see 🔗 in bio.

You can also subscribe and support from just £3 + VAT per month and get a copy through your letterbox.

Photos: Ed Schofield

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