rise @ bluebird is our Acomb evening arts venue.
The space regularly plays host to live music, spoken word, art exhibitions, theatre, comedy, family- friendly nights and much more.
Rise aims to be a vibrant and independently-run creative hub, driven by love and support from the local community - and an ardent sense of adventure.
Pop down and check us out - we’re looking forward to you helping shape this place just as much as we do.
Gallery
What's on
-
Jack Broadbent Orchids Tour UK
In 2026, Jack Broadbent hits the road in support of Orchids, a deeply personal new album recorded at the legendary Abbey Road Studios. The record which earned early acclaim and led to Broadbent's 2025 Boisdale 'Jazz/Blues Artist of the Year Award', presented byJools Holland, showcases his signature slide guitar alongside some beautifully crafted piano pieces and his most sensitive songwriting to date. Orchids explores love, loss and family, featuring Jack's father Mick Broadbent on bass. This is Jack Broadbent, exposed, raw, intimate, and unmissable live.
-
Gary Stewart and Holly Taymar - the songs of Paul Simon and Eva Cassidy
Join us for an unforgettable experience as two exceptional UK artists pay tribute to two legendary singer-songwriters. Scottish singer-songwriter, Gary Stewart is no stranger to the live acoustic music scene. While celebrated for his own folk-pop originals, Stewart has also wowed audiences across the UK with his band's stunning interpretations of Paul Simon's classics. Expect beloved hits like Graceland, Mrs Robinson and hidden gems like Song for the Asking. Proud to call the city of York her home, Holly Taymar is an in-demand session songwriter and vocalist and has been winning over fans for twenty years with her vocals, guitar playing and heartfelt original songs. Taymar breathes new life into Cassidy's treasured repertoire with warmth and sensitivity. Together, these two remarkable performers will take you on a journey through some of the best songs ever written. Don't miss!!
-
D&D the Easy Way
Welcome to the wonderful world of Dungeons & Dragons!
Do you want to learn the basics? Gain a new group of adventurers to play with, or just learn more about one of the finest tabletop games ever invented?
Then come on down!
I know what you're thinking, this all seems like a lot! Where do I begin?
Fret not - this workshop aims to teach the basics, undo any stigmas and create a safe, enjoyable environment to start or play in your first campaign.
Everything you need will be provided, just bring yourself, maybe some friends and the spirit of adventure!
(Full set of dice, character sheet and stationery included with ticket purchase)
This event has been devised by 3 independent creatives united by a love of tabletop gaming, creativity and collaborative story telling. We've all been running gaming sessions for years, creating new stories and teaching friends how to get involved with these sorts of games. Together we realised that many people had the desire to engage with tabletop fantasy gaming but had no idea where to start. We hope that this workshop is the beginning of us cultivating a community interested im many more similar opportunities for us to bring tailored experiences like this to York and beyond. -
Luke Wright: Later Life Letter
Later Life Letter tells the story of Luke Wright’s adoption – the life he leads, and the one he might have done. What’s it like to stumble across your birth mother on Facebook? How do you honour the parents who have raised you while satisfying a curiosity about where you came from? Is it telling that you married a social worker?
Wright navigates his audience through a warm and honest hour of poems and stand-up with the wit, pathos, and silliness that has made him one of the most popular live poets in England. -
Baps 'n' Buns Burlesque
Another of our fabulous burlesque, cabaret, drag and comedy nights all produced by the equally fabulous Freida Nipples! Welcome glass of fizz or soft drink on arrival. Book early so as not to miss this!
- 23/05/2026
Doors and music from 7pm
DJ Nights
Free
Dusko
Join us for Dusko again after a short break last year. Expect the same talented DJs taking you right back to the old-school clubbing scene with classic anthems, uplifters and dirty beats. We doubt you will leave the dancefloor....
- 30/05/2026
Doors and music 7pm
DJ Nights
Free
Into the Groove
Another date for our fantastic Eighties night, not a bad tune in sight!! This one is a film and TV special....
- 05/06/2026
Doors and music from 7pm
DJ Nights
Free
On My Way
The second date of the year for our popular Northern Soul, Motown and Soul DJ session. Dancing is an absolute must!
- 06/06/2026
9am - 3pm
Family Friendly Activities
Free
Saturday Mini Makers' Fair
We thought we would bring you a weekend of local talent this year with two parts to our wonderful Makers' Fairs - today there will be tables outside, hosting creatives who are all outdoor and garden themed. We will have bird boxes, willow branch decorations, flowers and more. Further details to follow.
-
Dirty Olive Supper Club
Dirty Olive is an intimate supper club rooted in a deep love for Mediterranean cuisine and the stories that travel with it. Inspired by journeys abroad, each menu reflects the flavours, techniques, and moments gathered from coastal kitchens, bustling markets and shared tables. This is not just dining - it's an experience shaped by place, memory and season. Expect thoughtful dishes that celebrate bold ingredients. At Dirty Olive, every menu is a snapshot of travel, reimagined and brought to the table.
- 07/06/2026
10am - 3pm
Family Friendly Activities
Free
Sunday Makers' Fair
Part two of our creative weekend! This Makers' Fair runs alongside our usual Sunday cafe service from 10am - 3pm . Expect more local talent with beautiful things to buy, alongside our rather good coffee and goodies! Outside seating only so hoping for the sunshine!
-
Unwritten: The Literary Improv Show
This brilliant show is back at rise! Expect an unscripted evening of laughter, silliness and plot twists, totally unique, face ache from laughing kind of stuff!
- 18/06/2026
Doors 7.30 Show 8.30
Poetry & Spoken Word
Free
The Green Parcel - A poetry reading and book launch with John Challis
Join us for the launch of The Green Parcel, John Challis’ second collection of poetry from Bloodaxe Books. Written during the first years of his daughter’s life, the rural terrain of The Green Parcel provides a new lens for exploring history, class and work, our relationship to the natural world, and cycles of growth and decay.
Described by the Guardian as ‘poetry as archaeology, though with lyric alchemy’, much of Challis’ debut, The Resurrectionists, concerned working lives in the city: his father a London cabbie, his grandfather a market porter. Here we find ourselves beyond, in backyards, on motorways, in fields, searching for the green patch, where an East End family picked hops in the summer.
Challis’s pamphlets include The Black Cab (Poetry Salzburg, 2017), a New Writing North Read Regional Title, and Hallsong (New Writing North, 2022), written while he was writer-in-residence at the National Trust’s Seaton Delaval Hall. His poetry has appeared on BBC Radio 3 and 4, in Poetry Ireland Review, Poetry London, The Poetry Review, The Telegraph and elsewhere. He is the recipient of a Northern Writers’ Award, a Pushcart Prize, and an Author’s Foundation Grant from the Society of Authors. He is an editor for Poetry Salzburg Review and is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at York St John University.
-
Under the Influence presents: Tom Bright
“ACHINGLY BEAUTIFUL” — Rev. Kate Bottley, BBC Radio 2
“THE EXCELLENT TOM BRIGHT” — Guy Garvey, BBC 6 Music
“ONE OF THE UK’S MOST MOVING SONGWRITERS” — John Kennedy, Radio X
Tom Bright is a relentlessly touring songwriter whose songs land with emotional weight and unvarnished honesty. 2025 saw him make his third television appearance on BBC One’s Sunday Morning Live, serenade thousands at his fifth Glastonbury Festival, and sell out shows across the UK and beyond.
Armed with a guitar signed by Johnny Marr of The Smiths and John Squire of the Stone Roses, Bright's tireless graft has seen him hit iconic heights of the London Palladium, Shepherd’s Bush Empire, appear on BBC’s The One Show and Sky News, and record countless live sessions and interviews for BBC Radio 2, 5 Live, Radio X and more. Along the way, he’s shared stages with The Libertines, Mystery Jets, Tom Grennan, Reverend & The Makers, Katherine Priddy, Ed Harcourt and others.
He has collaborated with The The, earned continued support from tastemakers Guy Garvey and John Kennedy and spent two years on Spotify’s Most Beautiful Songs in the World playlist with 'If I Met Your Shadow'. -
Pottery Power with The Wilson Sisters
The return of our hugely successful pottery workshop - the only bakery with a full size pottery wheel! Create three ceramic masterpieces including one on the potters wheel. All welcome, no experience needed, just bring an apron and a sense of humour!
- 20/06/2026
Doors and music from 7pm
DJ Nights
Free
Flares!
After a very successful 70's night last year, we return with a non - stop night of the best hits across all genres of the decade.
-
Rise Up! - June edition
Welcome back to our 2026 Rise Up! poetry series - with three wonderful poets kicking off a fantastic new year: Peter Sansom, Michael Schmidt and Shash Trevett.
Peter Sansom's Carcanet books include a Selected Poems and more recently Lanyard ('It is kind. It is strong. It is beautiful' -- MIR).Bloodaxe publish the best-selling Writing Poems. He received the Cholmondeley Award from the Society of Authors in 2016. Peter is co-director with Ann Sansom of The Poetry Business in Sheffield, and has been Company Poet with M&S and the Prudential, and Fellow in Poetry at both Leeds and Manchester universities. Michael Schmidt is co-founder of Carcanet Press (1969) and PN Review (1972). He is an editor, anthologist, literary historian, critic, one-time novelist, one-time academic, and poet. The Poetry Business has published – all edited by Peter Sansom – his Selected and Very Selected Poems, Talking to Stanley on the Telephone and other slim volumes. https://michaelschmidt.org.uk/ takes you to his website. Shash Trevett is a poet, critic and a translator of Tamil poetry into English. Her poetry has been recorded for the Poetry Archive and she is a winner of a Northern Writers’ Award. Her collection The Naming of Names (Smith|Doorstop 2024) was shortlisted for the Derek Walcott Prize 2025 and longlisted for the Michael Murphy Prize. Out of Sri Lanka: Tamil, Sinhala and English Poetry from Sri Lanka and its Diasporas (Bloodaxe 2023, Penguin India 2023) which she co-edited with Vidyan Ravinthiran and Seni Seneviratne, was one of the Times Literary Supplement’s Books of the Year for 2023. Shash has been a mentor for both New Writing North and the National Centre for Writing, and a panelist for awards run by the Singapore Book Council, the Gratien Trust (Sri Lanka) and English PEN. She is a Ledbury Critic, reviewing for The Poetry Book Society and a Trustee of Modern Poetry in Translation.
-
The Sunday Social Comedy Club
A great way to spend a Sunday evening, another Comedy Club returns to rise. Hosted by John Pease with laughs from another four hilarious acts, secure your tickets now!
-
The Ballad of Blea Wyke
A young woman wants to see the sea. A stranger stands on a cliff. The last grey seal swims
towards the shore. On her eighteenth birthday, Cerys, a tough care-leaver, breaks the city’s
lockdown and travels to the coastal cliffs that birthed her, the crumbling landscape drawing her back to her mythic past.
Evocative and lyrical spoken word storytelling that draws inspiration from the traditional
Selkie myth and reimagining it for a not-too-distant future. A haunting interweaving of
story, music, poetry and song, with a rich backdrop of harmonies.
‘Beautiful and heart-rending’ ‘Spell-binding and magical’ ‘Utterly transporting’
(Audience Feedback)
‘No York shaper of words captures a sense, meaning and memory of place so movingly, so evocatively...’
‘Elliot Smith-like nihilism contrasting with nimble, beautiful guitar playing.’
(Charles Hutchinson Press)
Writer / Performer
Hannah Davies is a writer, theatre-maker and slam-winning poet from Yorkshire. She has
written for Royal Court Theatre, Ice&Fire, York Theatre Royal, Guild of Misrule and
performed at leading spoken word nights across the UK. She has held roles including co-
leader of the MA Playwriting at University of York, Artistic Director of Common Ground
Theatre and Executive Producer at ARCADE. hannahdavies.co.uk
Musician / Performer
Jack Woods is a Yorkshire based musician, and instrumentalist. He studied music at the
British and Irish Modern Music Institute, and plays mandolin, violin and guitar. He has played in many different bands across many different genres, writes and records as
Pascallion and has featured on BBC Introducing with Jericho Keys. pascallion.bandcamp.com
Director
Em Whitfield Brooks is a director, choral leader, creative facilitator, voice teacher and coach. She has directed large-scale community opera and small-scale touring theatre, she has produced/directed for Ryedale Festival Community Opera, was a choral director of Hull Freedom Chorus, Angus & Ross Theatre Company, Back to Ours in Hull and was Artistic Director at Helmsley Arts Centre 2012 - 2016. emwhitfieldbrooks.com
Sound Engineer: Jim Taylor - 17/07/2026
Doors and music from 7pm - 11pm
DJ Nights
Free
BYO - new style!
This month's theme is Summertime Special - Long Hot Summer, Club Tropicana, Boys of Summer - you get the drift! Let us know if you would like a half hour slot to play whatever you would like to bring - [email protected] Happy to provide some tuition for those new to decs!
-
The Sunday Social Comedy Club
Join us again for a good giggle at rise with the very funny John Pease and laughs from four other hilarious acts.
-
Lilith: The Other Side of the Story
A dramatic, uplifting one -woman spoken word show. An exploration and
celebration of female power through the mythological character of Lilith.
Shocking, seductive and entertaining. -
Brilliant Burlesque!
We are delighted to welcome back our resident Burlesque Queen, Freida Nipples! New performers, so much fun, more details to follow...
- 10/11/2026
Family Friendly Activities
Lino printining Workshop
Susan Bradley is leading this workshop where you can come along and print your own Christmas cards and tags, more details to follow...
- 17/11/2026
Family Friendly Activities
Paper Christmas Tree Workshop
Talented designer Susan Bradley, joins us again to host a workshop where you can come and make a free standing tree from crepe paper, simple idea, stunning effect! Mince pies available as standard! More details to follow....
-
Christmas Pottery Power with The Wilson Sisters
Come and get festive with our second Wilson Sisters workshop this year. Create and glaze a family of three ceramic Christmas trees for a gift or a gift to self! All trees will be fired in kilns and ready for collection before Christmas. Mulled wine and Bluebird mince pies will of course be available!
- 26/11/2026
4.30pm - 8.30pm
Family Friendly Activities
Free
Christmas Makers' Fair Number One!
Our Christmas shopping evenings are back! We will, as usual, be host to an array of talented, local makers, have a choir, be raising awareness and money for a local charity and have mulled wine and frangipane mince pies on tap! All you need for your Christmas shopping needs!
- 10/12/2026
4.30pm - 8.30pm
Family Friendly Activities
Free
Christmas Makers' Fair Number Two!
Another evening of artists and makers', fund raising and frangipane mince pies! We can't wait already!
More events coming soon!