The Big Bike Film Night

The Big Bike Film Night comes to the Bristol Megascreen at the Bristol Aquarium on Wednesday 14 October, running from 7:00pm to 9:30pm. It's a New Zealand-born festival that pulls together short cycling films from around the world and hands them to two-wheel devotees in an eclectic programme of action, drama, humour and inspiration. The organisers describe it as far from a typical mainstream festival, and past attendees have called it inspiring, breathtaking, heartwarming, quirky and 'funny as F##k'.

The night is built around a programme of shorts that doesn't stick to one kind of riding. There's a mountain-bike ride through Norway's midnight sun, riders on Ireland's TransAtlantic Way, a father and son riding together, and a look at the world of fat bikes. It goes to the more personal side of things too, with a rider recovering from a life-altering injury, and an activist attempting to break the 24-hour downhill mountain-bike Guinness World Record for reforestation in Queenstown. Then there's an underdog tale on the slopes of Mont Ventoux. It's a wide-ranging mix, so you don't have to be a hardcore cyclist to get something out of it.

This is a first for the festival in Bristol, and it forms part of its 2026 England tour, which also takes in Rheged, Birmingham, Cambridge, Manchester and London-Hackney. The whole thing runs for about two and a half hours, with a ten-minute intermission, and it's suitable for the whole family. The venue is the Bristol Megascreen inside the Bristol Aquarium on Anchor Road, BS1 5TT. It starts at 7:00pm and wraps up around 9:30pm.