''Venue'' was the

listings magazine A listings magazine is a magazine which is largely dedicated to information about the upcoming week's events such as broadcast programming, music, clubs, theatre and film information. The BBC's ''Radio Times'' was the world's first listings m ...

for the

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

and Bath areas of the UK. It was founded in 1982 by journalists who had been working for another Bristol magazine, ''Out West'', which had been consciously modelled on

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

's Time Out magazine. Originally published fortnightly, ''Venue'' gained a reputation for the quality and authority of its coverage of the local arts and entertainments scene. It played a leading part in re-establishing Ashton Court Festival and was an early champion of the

Bristol Sound The Bristol underground scene was a cultural movement in Bristol beginning in the early 1980s. The scene was born out of a lack of mainstream clubs catering for the emergence of hip hop music, with street and underground parties a mainstay. Cre ...

in the early 1990s. It continued to play a significant role in nurturing and promoting local art, theatre, film and music until its closure in April 2012. ''Venues last editor was the playwright Tom Wainwright. ''Venue'' also had a reputation for investigative reporting of local issues, including

health Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...

, policing, local

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

and

environmental A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

matters. ''Venue'' also featured humour and satire which many found attractive, but which was occasionally criticised as puerile. Stand-up comedian

Mark Watson Mark Andrew Watson (born 13 February 1980) is a British comedian and novelist. Early life Watson was born in Bristol to a Welsh mother and English father. He has younger twin sisters and a brother, Paul. He attended Bristol Grammar School, ...

and comedy scriptwriter

Stephen Merchant Stephen James Merchant (born 24 November 1974) is an English comedian, actor, director, presenter and writer. Alongside Ricky Gervais, Merchant was the co-writer and co-director of the British TV comedy series ''The Office'' (2001–2003), and ...

both worked for ''Venue'' when they were younger. Author and reviewer

Kim Newman Kim James Newman (born 31 July 1959) is an English journalist, film critic and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's ''Dracula (1931 ...

contributed regularly. Another author,

Eugene Byrne Eugene Byrne (born 25 February 1959) is an English freelance journalist and fiction writer. His novel ''ThigMOO'', and the story it was based on, were nominated for the BSFA award. His story "HMS Habakkuk" was nominated for a Sidewise Award for Alt ...

, one of the magazine's founders, remained involved with it as Consulting Editor until the magazine ceased publication. In 2000 the company was sold to Bristol United Press (BUP), the company which runs the

Bristol Evening Post The ''Bristol Post'' is a city/regional five-day-a-week (formerly appearing six days per week) newspaper covering news in the city of Bristol, including stories from the whole of Greater Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. It was ...

and

Western Daily Press The ''Western Daily Press'' is a regional newspaper covering parts of South West England, mainly Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Somerset as well as the metropolitan areas of Bath and North East Somerset and the Bristol area. It is published Mon ...

newspapers. BUP in turn was owned by the Northcliffe Newspaper Group, part of the

Daily Mail & General Trust Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) is a British multinational media company, the owner of the ''Daily Mail'' and several other titles. The 4th Viscount Rothermere is the chairman and controlling shareholder of the company. The head office is ...

group. The takeover by BUP was controversial with many readers, advertisers and staff, particularly because the conservative political outlook of the

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...

was very different from that of ''Venue''.

Weekly edition

In 2001, ''Venue'' magazine started to publish weekly, and, trading as Venue Publishing, the company diversified further in the years after this. It produced a successful controlled-circulation lifestyle monthly, ''Folio'' (whose closure was announced in March 2013, with the April 2013 edition being its last published issue, following its latterly merging with ''Venue'' for a few combined issues), as well as several annual guides including Eating Out West, Drinking Out West, Days Out West, a Student Guide for Bristol and Bath and a Festival Guide. Venue Publishing also undertook contract publishing, particularly for large local events such as the

Bristol International Balloon Fiesta The Bristol International Balloon Fiesta is an annual four day free festival of hot air ballooning in Bristol, England. Teams from the UK and other parts of the world bring their hot air balloons to the site and participate in mass ascents where ...

and the

Bristol Harbour Festival The Bristol Harbour Festival is a festival held annually in the English city of Bristol, and which the celebrates the city's maritime heritage and the importance of Bristol's docks and harbour. Most of the activities, including live music, street ...

. In 2005, Venue Publishing established an in-house design agency, Bang, offering design services to external clients. The magazine was briefly associated with some other provincial listings magazines in the 1980s, like

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

's '' City Life'',

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

's '' Due South'' magazine and '' The List'', which covers

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

and

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

. Only the last is still publishing.

The Weekend 'Powered by Venue'

The ''

'' ceased its Saturday edition in April 2012. On 25 May 2012, ''The Post'', as it was then titled, launched a new 64-page lifestyle magazine, ''The Weekend'' (subsequently shortened to ''Weekend''), a supplement with its Friday edition. This carried many listings, reviews and entertainment articles derived from the Venue website and was justifiably straplined "powered by ''Venue''". From issue 43 of ''The Weekend'' (15 March 2013), the strapline was quietly dropped. ''The Weekend'' magazine was relaunched with issue 252 (31 March 2017) as a larger-format publication, but still carrying many of the original ''Venue''-style listings. However, the distinctive ''Venue'' logo continued to be seen in printed format each Wednesday in a section of three or four pages in that day's Bristol edition of the free Metro (British newspaper), the section being headed "WHAT'S ON - The week ahead with ''Venue''". The ''Venue'' name still continued also on periodic publications such as ''Venue Festival Guide '13'' and ''Eating Out West 2013/14'', the latter title reflecting the title of the magazine's own predecessor.

Website

The ''Venue''

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...

, one of the longest-running commercial websites in the UK, was originally set up in 1995. Following the demise of the printed ''Venue'' magazine, the website continued to include event listings, music, theatre and comedy reviews, augmented by selected features from the Bristol Post's Weekend supplement and several of the annual guides, and included a popular free personal-advertisements section. ''Venue'' Magazine Final Post. The ''Venue'' website was closed by Local World at 11am on Friday 29 November 2013. Venue writers, photographers etc published an open letter on the site which subsequently went viral and was picked up by Buzzfeed.

References

{{Media in Bristol 1982 establishments in the United Kingdom 2012 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Biweekly magazines published in the United Kingdom Online magazines published in the United Kingdom City guides Defunct magazines published in the United Kingdom Listings magazines Magazines established in 1982 Magazines disestablished in 2012 Print media in Bristol Online magazines with defunct print editions