On a hot and sticky Saturday afternoon in May, the very first TEDxCanton event was held in our favourite micro-pub, St Canna’s! A tiny, very special audience attended the main event, and more watched through the day from the viewing party in the Printhaus, and even more caught the Facebook Live stream!
We had SUCH an amazing day listening to incredible speakers with fascinating ideas. We also drank (a lot) of Pipe’s special ‘From Acorns’ IPA (inspirational pale ale…), ate delectable smoked aubergine canapes made from food waste, and were captivated by beautiful music.
And even on the day of the Royal Wedding AND the FA Cup Final, TEDxCanton was trending in Cardiff on Twitter! Over 600 people watched the live stream on Facebook too.
This week, TEDx have uploaded the talks to YouTube. Here’s a round-up of all the speakers so you can re-live the day all over again!
Sabrina Cohen-Hatton: Ordinary people who do extraordinary things
How do firefighters make decisions in emergency situations? Sabrina explores who protects the protectors, and how our brains work in high stress situations.
“Firefighters are the last thing standing between a dying breath and another day…. Whose job is it to prioritise firefighters’ safety, so they can prioritise yours?”
Stepheni Kays: Building cohesive communities, beyond the buzzwords
What do we mean by ’empowerment’, ‘citizenship’ and ‘cohesion’? Stepheni tells her story of being a refugee in Wales to explain why welcoming, inclusive communities are better for everyone.
Imagine if you had no alternative but to leave everything behind that is dear to you…. For people looking for a place of safety, citizenship means ‘my humanity is acknowledged’.
Did you know that trees in urban areas can improve child development, reduce violence and boost house prices? John tells us about ‘nature’s air-conditioners’, and why we shouldn’t take them for granted.
The benefits of trees to human health are massive. Pregnant women who spend time close to green infrastructure have bigger, healthier babies. Children exposed to green infrastructure at a young age show less signs of allergies. Patients in hospitals recover more quickly and are discharged faster if they have a view over green infrastructure than a hard landscape or no view at all.
Follow the London Tree Officers Association @LTOA33
Josh Doughty: From west Wales to west Africa
The kora is a 21-string lute-bridge-harp used extensively in West Africa, which Josh learned to play under the Master player Toumani Diabate. Hear his beautiful music and listen to the extraordinary story of how he came to play the instrument.
One of the rules of the kora is that you don’t play it at night by yourself, because the spirits come and listen and corrupt your soul. But if you don’t fear the spirits and you listen to them, they have things to teach you.
Becca Clark and Lia Moutselou: How we turned a city’s food waste into a supper club
How much food do you put in the bin? Becca and Lia are community food waste trailblazers. Together they run Wasteless Suppers, which bring together local food businesses, food lovers and passionate people to create positive change and reduce food waste.
Our Wasteless Suppers are a collaborative platform of local food businesses to create a food surplus feast. We collect food surplus and our chefs create beautiful dishes from food that otherwise would have been wasted.
What would you do if you found a £10 on the floor? Matt introduces us to the We Make Good Happen project, a movement that promotes everyday good deeds.
On Groundhog Day, I hid a number of £10 notes around the city and put photos of their location on social media. It turned into a good deed treasure hunt.
Today we speak to author Dan Tyte about his novel The Offline Project, OUT NOW!
My first novel, Half Plus Seven, was written, in the main, in Cardiff but its story took place on the streets and in the suburbs of an Everycity. It was probably an unconscious homage to the director John Hughes, who set his films in the made-up town of Shermer, Illinois, but the reality was I felt like the issues of the book could and should resonate with people everywhere; Toronto, Tokyo; that setting a novel in Cardiff could have been a barrier to that.
Those feelings of universality are the same for this new novel, The Offline Project. It’s the story of Gerard, a millennial who moves back home to Cardiff from London. Perennially online and defined by those interactions, his sense of self-worth is inextricably linked to his online persona. Too much internet fries his brain and he leaves Wales and goes off-grid living in a community of former online addicts in the Danish woodland, where the new way of living might be more sinister than it first appears. These themes and conflicts feel like a very real issue, for me at least, and perhaps a lot of others in society today, coming to terms with how to be good to our brains and bodies after collectively sleepwalking into relying on the internet for almost everything.
Despite the themes being broad-brush, and novel’s one’s location decision, it felt important to me to set the novel in Cardiff. There aren’t many books I can remember reading that have been set here: Dannie Abse’s Ash on a Young Man’s Sleeve, John Williams’ The Cardiff Trilogy, Roald Dahl’s Boy; and only one of them is purely fictional. The city continues to grow in stature and unless its artists are confident enough to use it as the backdrop for stories, why should the rest of the world care?
The Offline Project’s Cardiff is a modern Cardiff, the city of the here and now, looking towards the future but grounded in myth and mysticism. For Gerard, for lots of us, that’s a city of freelance creatives, of Welsh mams, of world class museums and minimum wage jobs, of craft ale bars and intercontinental visitors. A city hurtling towards tomorrow helped by a history of industry and internationalism. I hope you’ll like spending time there.
Dan Tyte’s second novel The Offline Project is out now on Graffeg Books and available from the Graffeg website and from Amazon. He’s on Twitter @dantyte.
In today’s profile, we meet Jannat Ahmed, founder and editor-in-chief of Lucent Dreaming – a new creative writing magazine coming straight out of Cardiff!
I’m Jannat, founder and editor-in-chief at Lucent Dreaming. The LD team and I have officially just launched our debut issue from Rabble Studio. I’m a 22-year-old MA English Literature graduate from Cardiff University, born and bred in South Wales and ever since I could read, I’ve wanted to write. Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl and J.K. Rowling have been the cornerstones of my imaginative life since I started school and they continue to inform what I do today. I dabbled, about 11-ish years ago when I was in my final year of primary school with a little thing called J Club. It was a club I made up where I asked for the email addresses of anyone who visited our house and sent them a ‘magazine’, i.e. a word document that comprised exclusively of wordart, clipart and rhyming poetry about flowers written by me.
At 10 or 11 years of age I had a club that sent a magazine every month (for only about two months), that also sold stationery I’d bought from Woolworths, and even had its own paperclip collection bought by my dad. Looking back, I think I was ridiculous but onto something. Just over a decade later and it seems I’m kind of doing the same thing but better (I hope!)
Lucent Dreaming is my childhood dream come true: it’s a new independent creative writing magazine publishing beautiful, strange and surreal short stories, poetry and artwork from emerging authors and artists worldwide. Our first issue even has poetry about flowers! This is the story of how it started.
It was during my MA, this time last year, that I happened to be working on a parody creative writing magazine for one of my modules. After having too much fun making parody adverts for Cardiff University’s new revolving doors and Arriva Trains Wales’ delayed transport, I thought it would be a great idea to make a real creative writing magazine. I was talking to my friend Jess—now also one of Lucent Dreaming’s editors—about her experience of trying to get a job in publishing. She told me she’d exhausted her savings going to publishing internships and still didn’t have enough experience to get a job. It was then I asked if she’d be willing to donate her time to my as-yet-unnamed ‘real’ creative writing magazine and she said yes! Jo and Jonas—my two other editors—also, surprisingly, said yes. And so it began.
The idea was put on hold over the summer while I was working on my dissertation but come September it was back on. We had a name and a logo and we launched our website for submissions on Halloween last year. We planned on being an online-only creative writing magazine but that soon changed.
In November last year I applied for the pilot Ymlaen placement and got it! The placement is for six months and gives me desk space and business mentoring at Rabble Studio as a collaboration between Creative Cardiff, Cardiff University’s Enterprise and Start-up Team and Rabble Studio. Since January I’ve been working from Rabble, a coworking space for freelancers, small businesses and remote workers, and it’s been fantastic. I’ve been around freelance writers and designers and a bunch of other wonderful humans who have set up businesses before, worked with printers before and know what it’s like to work in creative industries. Everyone is so friendly, helpful and incredible at what they do; it’s been invaluable to me to be around them.
Working at Rabble has morphed Lucent Dreaming from an online-only to an also-print magazine. Last Saturday saw the launch of our debut issue and we’re so proud of how far it has come in such a short space of time. We sold half our magazine print run as well as our hand-designed notebooks and we can’t wait for issue 2! (We’re currently accepting short story and poetry submissions by the way!)
As far as the future is concerned, we hope to continue LD in print. Our aim is to encourage creativity and to help writers reach publication. However, we’re not just a publisher, we see ourselves as a springboard. We offer feedback on all qualifying submissions so that writers aren’t left in the dark about why their work might be rejected. We give our writers feedback so they have constructive ways to improve for their next submission. And, for everyday creatives, writers and doodlers, we’ve also set up a notebook subscription because we know that creativity rarely concludes with publication in day-to-day life (and it’s the other half of my childhood dream to sell stationery!). Whether or not you’re interested in publishing your work, we want to encourage you to be creative. A haiku, a doodle, a list of important memories—they are all produced from a feeling that cannot always be pinned down, but it’s that beautiful, strange, surreal feeling that we want to inspire both through our magazine and everything else we may create in the future. I hope we never lose sight of that dream!
Visit the Lucent Dreaming site – they’re currently open for submissions and preorders of Issue 2.
Jannat Ahmed is a recent English Literature graduate and expert project-starter. She enjoys anything she is capable of envying and secretly compares LD to Lovegood’s The Quibbler with confessedly more fiction. She is editor-in-chief at Lucent Dreaming.
Chapter Arts Centre are doing something special for the Cardiff community once again by hosting this year’s Cardiff Animation Festival, right after the end of their successful art festival Experimentica. The festival, which looks to cover all types of animation from student pieces to Isle of Dogs, will take place between April 19 – 22nd at Chapter. A full schedule has already been released, detailing a bunch of fun stuff, including a live Q&A workshop with Isle of Dogs animators, over 90 short films, workshops, and industry sessions for those trying to break into the competitive world of animation.
The multi-day festival appears to have lots to offer everyone, regardless of animation ability. The first day, known as the “Industry Day”, is more catered towards those who have a professional interest in animation and the surrounding industry. Passes for the Industry Day are available, with sessions including Afternoon Tea with the Children’s Commissioners, giving delegates the rare opportunity to learn how to pitch to TV networks and how to market independent short-form content, as well as a chance to sign up for a one-to-one sessions. The Industry Day will kick off with a keynote from Bob Ayres, the head of TrueTube, which received a record-breaking seven awards nominations at the most recent BAFTA Children’s Awards. Panels also include a talk on Licensing and Distribution, featuring speakers such as Alison Taylor (Aardman Rights) and Helen Howells (HoHo Entertainment). The rest of the festival will take a slightly less serious tone for hobbyists and watchers, but the first day is incredibly useful for those with even a cursory knowledge of the animation sector.
Friday will celebrate new Welsh stop-motion animated feature Chuck Steel: Night Of The Trampires. Director Mike Mort, Art Director Bridget Phelan, Executive Producer Randhir Singh, and animator Laura Tofarides will give an exciting look behind the scenes, as well as a chance to see a few deleted scenes. The film is almost the centrepiece of the entire festival, as it will also be the basis of a four-day exhibition based on the film’s sets, props, puppets, etc.
Masterclasses will also be available, including one from Cartoon Saloon’s Mark Mullery who will treat audiences to behind the scenes of Oscar-nominated feature film The Breadwinner, a stunning animated drama about a little girl living under Taliban rule. The film will also be screened ahead of its UK release, which is a nice touch.
Another highlight appears to be the workshop by internationally-renowned artist Jac Saorsa, who will lead a Life Drawing for Animators workshop. The workshop is tailored to hone drawing skills crucial to animation. Suitable for animators, students, hobbyists and anyone looking to develop their drawing skills for animation.
The major highlight for We Are Cardiff who are, self-admittedly, a little too dog-obsessed, is the Isle of Dogs feature. For those who haven’t seen it yet (WHY HAVEN’T YOU SEEN IT?), the film is directed and written by Wes Anderson, and features some gloriously detailed stop-motion of talking dogs. A workshop based around the film, involving Lead Animator Kim Kong, Model Maker Josh Flynn, and Kerry Dyer, head of the Isle of Dogs Puppet Hospital, will be put on show, detailing some props, methods, and insights into the making of the film.
The festival will also be screening 99 short films, which will be assessed by The Jury, who are tasked with selecting the winners of the animation programme from films on display. The Jury, who are named rather ominously, will be made up of independent director Rhiannon Evans (Heartstrings, Fulfilament), Manchester Animation Festival producer Jen Hall, author and Skwigly Animation Magazine Managing Director Ben Mitchell, Aardman animation director Will Becher, and independent producer, Director of Animation UK, and newly-appointed director of the British Animation Awards, Helen Brunsdon.
Sadly, all passes excluding the Industry Day pass have now sold out, but there are tickets for sale on the Cardiff Animation Festival website for individual events. Further details, including the timetable for the entire festival, can be found there, too.
YES Cardiff. The finalists for the 2018 Cardiff Music Awards HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED! So get on with it, and get your votes in!
There were over 3000 nominations across all 20 categories, which have been narrowed down to just FIVE in each section. Voting is NOW OPEN, and will close on the 23rd of March. You can vote now! Head to the Cardiff Music Awards website.
Need some inspiration? TAKE YOUR PICK (before voting …)
It is easy to forget that photography, at its core, is a shared experience. Swaps, an exhibition that cultivates photographs from David Hurn’s private collection, is a reminder of the process by which twentieth-century photography developed: through sharing photographs. This exhibition, now being held at the National Museum in Cardiff, has been curated through years of David Hurn playing swapsies with a variety of photographers. The result is a collage of photographs that are simultaneously intimate and universal. The work spans roughly 60 years, ranging from politically-motivated pieces to more surrealist, modern photographs. Generally, the exhibition feels professional in its rigour and variety, but also so warmly familiar when the context of the exhibition is appreciated.
The exhibition has a feeling of familiarity to it, like someone showing you a dusty old photo album, but this familiarity is offset by the sheer quality of photographic skill on show. The collection comprises of photographs by leading 20th and 21st century photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Eve Arnold, Sergio Larrain, Bill Brandt, Martine Franck, Bruce Davidson and Martin Parr, but there are also some more unique, less famous photographers, such as ieke Depoorter, Clementine Schneidermann, and Newsha Tavakolian.. This certainly isn’t a safe exhibition, yet that means it doesn’t suffer from contrivance – it flows naturally from photo to photo, from generation to generation, with Hurn’s passion and interest for each photo being apparent thoroughout. It’s kind of like having somebody else’s time capsule you can dip into for a little bit, except that other person happens to be a gifted photographer with really cool mates.
A particular highlight from the exhibition includes a photograph of Henri Matisse by Hurn’s close friend Henri Cartier-Bresson, as seen on the bottom here:
It is a reminder that Hurn, despite his modesty, is up there with the pantheons of the art world, yet you would never think it reading over his genuine and friendly descriptions of his photographs. The exhibition details the context and story behind each photograph from Hurn himself and, sometimes, these descriptions are as entertaining and thought-provoking as the photographs themselves. There’s a video installation, too, where you can hear Hurn speak about some photographs in his own voice. Overall, the exhibition is organised to give off a very homely and understated feel, yet maintain the impact of some of the photographs. There is no pretension here, just an immensely talented photographer talking about and showing images from a craft he has been embedded in for years.
The exhibition is in place until March 11th, so pop down before it finishes! There’s an event where you can see David Hurn speak with his friend and fellow photographer, Martin Parr, about the photographs and life as a photographer in general on 7 February, too. Tickets are £10 and links to the event and the Welsh museum page can be found below.
Hold on to your pants, one of our favourite Cardiff bands (who played at our book launch back in 2015) are dropping their debut album this week as a Christmas gift to you all! Here’s Robin from the Jutes to take you through the album track by track, along with a video (made by our very own Jameso) and some gorgeous album art….
A scene-setter rather than a first song, really, this was an instrumental guitar piece I’d had knocking around for a while that we quickly jammed and recorded in the studio. We recorded all of the basic tracks for this EP in one hectic day in the Music Box this spring – live as bass, drums and guitar, and pretty much in the same sequence as the track-listing.
Sadly Dan – our bassist – couldn’t make it, so Adam deputised on bass as well engineering/producing with his brother Paul. Adam was a complete monster – playing all these songs for the first time on the day we recorded them. I imagined this as the soundtrack to a shot of a car driving towards the vanishing point in the American mid-west at sunset. Not sure that explains the frog noises.
Track 2: Light a match
An attempt at a punchy, crowd-pleasing first proper song, we tried to channel Yo La Tengo and the Lemonheads, with hopefully some Real Estate guitar on the chorus. It’s one of only two songs on the EP about anything – distracting yourself from existential boredom by chit-chat and getting drunk. I tried to go full J Mascis with the guitar solo, but perhaps mustered up a slightly virile Norman Blake from Teenage Fanclub.
Track 3: Dear Susan
I really love Orange Juice (Edwyn Collin’s early-’80s fusion of the Byrds, Chic and fey Scottish teenagers with plastic sandals and fringes like Roger McGuinn) and this is intended as a straight-up homage.
The first line (“Evidently my dear Susan”) seemed like the sort of comically overblown thing Edwyn Collins would sing, though I couldn’t quite manage the voice – which Alexis Petridis described as like “a tipsy man launching into an after-dinner speech with his mouth still full of port and walnuts”. The lyrics are an aggressive take-down of religious extremism, which should hopefully sort a few things out.
Track 4: Gallic Way
When I formed the band I basically wanted us to be Pavement, but we could never manage their nonchalant slacker charm. Sounding like you don’t care and still being good is really hard! This is probably as close as we got. I think Neil nailed the drums, which sound like someone very drunk falling down the stairs holding a pint and somehow not spilling a drop.
The lyrics are fairly Malkmus-pastiching, but those are the sort of lyrics I like – a collection of (hopefully) striking images and phrases rather than a coherent narrative. No-one listens to lyrics beyond the first verse and the chorus anyway. The chorus refers to a traumatic haircut I once received where the hairdresser maintained eye-contact with me – in the mirror – throughout, seemingly never once looking at my hair/head, and relying on some sort of echo-location to avoid cutting my ears.
Track 5: Persian Regret
The name for this song is taken from the Jutes range of hard-wearing interior paints. The concept (for the song rather than the paint range), is that you (YOU) have just stepped out of a taxi in down-town Addis Ababa and into a club where this music is playing. Full disclosure: I’ve never been to Addis Ababa or listened to any Ethiopian music. Paul made some throat-noises, as this is what he presumes happens in Addis Ababian nightclubs.
Track 6: Borderline
This starts as a charming tale of love thriving in the tedium of low-level espionage, but quickly resolves into gibberish. Quite an unorthodox pronunciation of “archipelago”, but I’m sure Mick Jagger has done worse. After a straight-up American 90s college-rock first half we tried to seamlessly weld a 70s psych-rock outro onto the back like a backstreet mechanic. I enjoyed trying to play guitar like Neil Young, anyway.
Track 7: Plane
Another contender for most-Pavementy-song (an attempt to channel Here from Slanted and Enchanted), this was the first song we wrote as a band, and the last one we recorded. Despite playing it for over two years, 6 songs into the session I experienced some sort of studio-induced dementia and had to do star-jumps in the car park until I could remember how to play it again. Paul (producer and long-time friend and collaborator) reminds me that this is the second time I’ve used the line “sold up and moved to Tibet” in a song, which could tell you something (I’ll plagiarise anything: including myself).
I’m glad there’s some funny guitar halfway through. For me, the worst thing that’s happened in music in the last 20 years is the dominance of self-obsessed earnestness – in indie music and X-factor pop. When people talk to each other, they constantly use irony and humour, but when they pick up a guitar or a microphone they so often rely on po-faced seriousness. Whatever happened to Chuck Berry singing about his ding-a-ling?
The Jutes are:
Robin Wilkinson: guitars, vocals, songs, arrangements Neil Williams: drums, arrangements Adam Rustidge: bass, keys, percussion, production, engineering, mixing Dan Holloway: bass inspiration, arrangements Paul Rustidge: production, engineering, mixing, head of logistics
Recorded at Music Box, Cardiff
Mastered by Charlie Francis at Synergy Mastering
Cardiff Book Festival started off as a fairly modest affair last year, but this year it’s bigger, brighter, and even has its own literary-themed disco! We’ve combed through the programme (the best value ticket is a weekend wristband for £30, btw) and found our picks for the weekend. So get your read on, and let’s go …
Cardiff Book Festival: Where the written word comes alive, aloud, and off the page in the Welsh capital!
Friday 22 – Sunday 24 September, The Angel Hotel, Cardiff
OUR PICKS:
Friday 22 September
Catherine Mayer – Attack of the 50 Ft. Women: How Gender Equality Can Save The World!
7.15 PM – DRAGON SUITE, THE ANGEL HOTEL
Not a single country anywhere in the world has achieved gender equality. In more than a few countries, progress for women has stalled or is reversing. If gender equality promises benefits not just to women, but to everyone, why aren’t we embracing it? And how can we speed the pace of change? In ‘Attack of the 50 Ft. Women’, journalist and co-founder of The Women’s Equality Party Catherine Mayer tackles those questions and many more, sharing inside views and experiences. In her insightful, revelatory, often hilarious, and hugely inspiring book, Catherine Mayer takes us to a place she calls Equalia. What is it like? Does gender equality make for a society that is more equal in other ways too? Who does the low-paid jobs? How does gender express itself in a place freed from gender programming? What’s the sex like? What’s on the telly? (£7 full price, £5 concessions)
Dylan Jones on David Bowie: A Life in conversation with Mike Williams sponsored by Capital Law
8.30PM – DRAGON SUITE, THE ANGEL HOTEL
Dylan Jones is the award-winning editor of GQ magazine, a position he has held since 1999, winning the British Society of Magazine Editors “Editor of the Year” award a record ten times. A former editor at i-D, The Face, Arena, the Observer and the Sunday Times, he is the author of New York Times best sellers on musical heroes including Jim Morrison and Elvis. His new book David Bowie- A Life is an engrossing, magisterial biography unlike any Bowie story ever written. It’s an epic, unforgettable cocktail-party conversation about a man whose enigmatic shapeshifting and irrepressible creativity produced one of the most sprawling, fascinating lives of our time. Drawn from over 180 interviews with friends, rivals, lovers, and collaborators, some of whom have never before spoken about their relationship with Bowie, this oral history weaves a hypnotic spell as it unfolds the story of a remarkable rise to stardom and an unparalleled artistic path. By turns insightful and deliciously gossipy, David Bowie- A Life is as intimate a portrait as may ever be drawn. It sparks with illuminating, never-before-seen material from Bowie himself, drawn from a series of Jones’s interviews with him across two decades. Dylan will be interviewed by Mike Williams, the editor-in-chief of NME, himself a winner of the British Society of Magazine Editors “Editor of the Year” award during his time at Kruger Magazine, which is where I also cut my journalistic teeth. RIP KRUGER. (£7 full price, £5 concessions)
Saturday 23 September
Scientists of Wales/Gwyddonwyr Cymru
1PM – PRINCE OF WALES SUITE, THE ANGEL HOTEL
The University of Wales’ series of books Scientists of Wales/Gwyddonwyr Cymru charts the lives, times and works of Welsh scientists, and of people active in science in Wales. This event will see lively discussion in Welsh and English about Wales’ place on science’s world map, taking in the stories of William Robert Grove, a pioneering researcher who anticipated the general theory of the conservation of energy, and was a pioneer of fuel cell technology and Evan James Williams, whose work included attempting to prove the existence of Hidiki Yukawa’s hypothetical pi mesonparticle, and working on the MDS (magnetic detection of submarines) system to tackle the U-boat menace of World War II. (£5/£3)
35 years of Fighting Fantasy with Ian Livingstone
2.30 PM – DRAGON SUITE, THE ANGEL HOTEL
Ian co-founded iconic games company Games Workshop with Steve Jackson in 1975, launching Dungeons & Dragons in Europe. In 1982, he co-authored The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, the first Fighting Fantasy gamebook in the series which has sold almost 20 million copies worldwide. His best-selling titles include City of Thieves, Forest of Doom and Deathtrap Dungeon, and his new book, The Port of Peril, marks the 35th anniversary of Fighting Fantasy. When serving as Executive Chairman at Eidos, he launched global video games blockbusters including Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Ian has a passionate belief in the power of play as a contextual hub for learning, and he is a leading advocate for the importance of having Computing on the National Curriculum. His book Hacking the Curriculum is an essential guide for teachers to promote creativity, computational thinking and problem solving in the classroom – meta skills for the digital age. He was awarded a BAFTA Special Award in 2002 and a CBE in 2013. Ian will share a reflection on his career before a Q & A session chaired by BBC Radio 1’s Steffan Powell. (£7/£5)
Sanctuary – Refugee writing in Wales
8.15PM – PRINCE OF WALES SUITE, THE ANGEL HOTEL
Eric Ngalle Charles is a poet, dramatist and novelist and a former Cameroon refugee. His first book ‘Asylum’ deals with what it means to be a refugee, caught between two worlds, destitute and unable to move forward with one’s life. He’s joined by others seeking asylum and refuge in Wales whose stories, poetry and essays about their journeys feature the extraordinary histories of the men, women and children who are seeking sanctuary in Wales. (£5/£3)
Sunday 24 September
Merthyr: the crucible of modern Wales? Sponsored by Modern Wales, Parthian
1PM – PRINCE OF WALES SUITE, THE ANGEL HOTEL
Dai Smith interrogates Joe England’s claim that Merthyr was the crucible in the development of Wales in the 19th Century and moving on a century asks why Huw Lewis’s moving memoir of growing up in Aberfan in the 1960s and 1970s, The Skylark’s Song, has so much to say about the past as a foreign country. (£5/3)
How Bullshit Conquered the World with James Ball
2.30 PM – DRAGON SUITE, THE ANGEL HOTEL
2016 marked the birth of the post-truth era. Sophistry and spin have coloured politics since the dawn of time, but two shock events – the Brexit vote and Donald Trump’s elevation to US President – heralded a departure into murkier territory. This is the story of bullshit: what’s being spread, who’s spreading it, why it works – and what we can do to tackle it. This is bigger than fake news and bigger than social media. It’s about the slow rise of a political, media and online infrastructure that has devalued truth. The Pulitzer Prize-winning James Ball should know. He’s worked in political, data and investigative journalism in the US and the UK for BuzzFeed, The Guardian and the Washington Post in a career spanning TV, digital, print and alternative media. (£5/£3)
Neil M.C. Sinclair
6.30PM – DRAGON SUITE, THE ANGEL HOTEL
Afro-Celtic author and historian, Neil M.C. Sinclair is a native of Tiger Bay, the oldest multi-ethnic community in Wales. He has written extensively on the history of his unique hometown, a place which is now the subject of the new musical ‘Tiger Bay’, premiering in Cardiff this November. Sinclair’s insider’s view of the area draws on personal memories, family history and a lifetime’s worth of connections within one of Cardiff’s most celebrated communities. Supported by Wales Millennium Centre’s Tiger Bay the Musical, 13th-25th November 2017. (£5/£3)
I think you can take as a testament to quite how good this year’s Green Man was that it’s taken me over a week to get myself together enough to write this review.
If you’re in a rush and just want the headline: Best Green Man yet!
For more: read on!
If you’re not in the Settlers camping, general admission starts at 10am on Thursday. In Green Men past, I’ve always liked to be one of the first people in on a Thursday (gotta make the most of it, right? Also means you get to camp near Orange parking, which makes the get-in and get-out easier) but we were delayed a bit this year, meaning we ended up fenced out of our normal spot, and instead deeper into the camping areas – pretty much right behind the Mountain Stage. Which made our tent-festival-tent commute a staggering five minutes. YAS!
We put the tent up (we indulged in a trolley this year to assist us), had a tent cider, then wandered into the festival. We headed straight for Nature Nurture with swimming cossies, just in case there were any spaces in the hot tubs. And guess what … there totally were! So we splurged the £25, had a lovely shower, and then spent two hours intermittently boiling in hot water and then dunking in the cold plunge pool.
Thursday night was finished off with a viewing of the Ben Wheatley film Free Fire in the Cinedrome (which, judging by the number of napping adults in the tent, also doubles as a grown person creche).
On Friday morning we scrambled out of bed in time to see the Druids of Stonehenge open the festival. This year it was Rollo Maughfling on his todd, and he opened the festival with the traditional series of blessings and group chantings and wishes for peace throughout the world. He did also hope for good weather, but as if by magic, the heavens opened and it poured down during the ceremony.
The rest of Friday was mostly spent pootling around between the Mountain Stage and the Back of Beyond, a relatively new stage for the performing arts. Like many of the people at Green Man, we were with people who had kids in tow. But luckily for all of them, it’s a festival that’s built with families in mind.
You’ll see various families pulling these trolleys around the festival: they’re the same trolleys you can use to help drag all your camping crap in during the set up. You can also rent one out for £25 a day, complete with cushions inside and roof to protect your little ones from the weather.
They were an absolute godsend – like mini pillow forts on wheels. The kids slept, ate, and played in and around them all day – and more importantly, they weren’t as tired and crabby as if they’d been walked around.
Frankly, I was a little jealous that no one was pulling me around in one.
We managed to catch quite a bit of music on Friday. The weather was holding steady, which meant sitting on the floor (or rolling around if you needed to) were still possibilities. On the Mountain Stage we caught Johnny Flynn and the Sussex Wit (who we’d seen at Green Man a couple of times before – and has never disappointed), and the grungey, slow-roasted rock of US band Lift to Experience, who had on stage with them the biggest Texan flag I have ever seen.
We also enjoyed British Sea Power (who turned the stage into an arboretum for their powerful set).
For the big finale of the night, it was a toss up between Future Islands and Kate Tempest, which split our group. Personally I was in favour of staying in Round the Twist, which was busting out some 80s classics (and had handed out inflatable guitars to everyone for some serious moshing), but plumped instead to head to see Kate Tempest.
And my word, am I glad I did. I’ve never seen her live before, and she performed Let Them Eat Chaos, all the way through. Despite some ill-timed whooping from hammered ravers whenever she mentioned drugs, it was one of the most effective performances I’ve ever seen. I’ve listened to the album before, but there was something incredibly special – raw – vital – about her voice, about the words, about experiencing it live.
When she finished, I was so overwhelmed by it that I couldn’t even clap. We staggered out of the tent and headed to Chai Wallah’s to get a drink.
We headed back for Roni Size – I was hoping that listening to New Forms all the way through might help ease the tension, but the first 20 minutes was some straight jump-up, which I just didn’t have the energy for. We rambled back down the hill and to bed at 2am – a relatively early night – to get ready for Saturday.
Slightly bruised by our late night politics, we spent much of Saturday moving slowly from stage to stage, absorbing music, talks, djing, and many, many pints of Growler, which has now become the festival’s ‘house pint’.
We caught a couple of bands in between moving very slowly, many children in tow between stages: the excellent H.Grimace, who played on the Green Man Rising stage (and very kindly let us use one of their tracks for our video above – thank you Hannah!), folk veteran Shirley Collins, old school rnb revivalist Michael Kiwanuka, experimental disco-punkers Liars (although they were a bit loud for the kids, so we hung outside with Bloody Marys for their set), sludgy garage-rockers Thee Oh Sees.
There was also plenty of food explorations on Saturday – and although the jury’s still out, here are the best eats at Green Man (sorry there are no pics, we ate everything before we had a chance to take photos!):
the Vietnamese place up by Fairy Power (I ate here three times can’t remember the name …!). They had the MOST AMAZING sweet and sour broth, stuffed full of veggies and noodles with pork balls on top … for £8 …
the Roaming Rotisserie chicken place. Half a chicken, stuffing and potatoes for £8.
Strumpets with Crumpets. Just do the blue cheese, jam and bacon one when you’re pissed and on your way back to your tent – and don’t even trip, dog.
So anyway, back to the festival, I guess …
My highlight for the weekend was always the Saturday night … Jon Hopkins into Daniel Avery (be still, my beating techno loop).
And it was, predictably, absolutely amazing. I’ve been a Hopkins fan for years now, and Daniel Avery’s Drone Logic is one of the best dance albums released over the past ten years. Hands down.
Myself and the We Are Cardiff technical futurologist have a fun tradition of waiting until we are the drunkest we can possibly be, and then rugby tackling each other down the between the hill between Chai Wallah’s and the Nature Nurture area. This is us, by the way (during the daytime).
This year was no different, but unlike previous years, we were either not quite drunk enough for this escapade (or far too drunk). So upon waking, I was a bit worried to feel extreme pain all around my ribcage when I moved, or coughed, or just breathed.
We decided to take Sunday a little bit easier. hiding from the rain in alternate locations (mostly between Chai Wallah’s and Far Out), grabbing slices of pizza and pints of Wrexham lager when the weather allowed, and absorbing Actress, Sunflower Bean, Richard Dawson, and Manu Delago.
As Sunday night drew to a close, and the weather drew in, Mountain Stage headliner PJ Harvey took to the main stage. You can hear her performance here on the BBC, and I read a great review of her set (and actually of the festival as a whole in the Quietus) so why not head over there, show them some love, and so I can pull this thing to a close!
My camera always falls to pieces every year when I try and capture the burning of the Green Man, so this year I thought your photos would be better to try and represent the ritual. Earlier in the festival I would check the wishes that were written on tags and tied to the man and dragon combo. They ranged from the fairly standard (I wish I was a fairy, please can I have a pay rise) to more fatalistic (my favourite: everything is fucked).
And maybe it’s just me – but after such a wonderfully rich weekend, with good music, good people, and good booze – was burning all those thoughts that we are troubled with – some sort of opportunity for a new beginning?
Radical ritual, folk hearted celebrations of art, music, literature, and people. This was the best Green Man yet. And I cannot wait to see what they pull out of the bag for next year!
GREEN MAN 2018 EARLY BIRD TICKETS ARE OUT SOON! Make sure you’re following:
So for the time being at least, Womanby Street has escaped the corporate clutches of various property developers and our independent venues are safe … so come celebrate with a weekend of music, art, performance, street food, and LOADS OF BOOZE – between 25th – 27th August bank holiday weekend, gorge yourself on 200 ACTS // 12 STAGES // 3 DAYS // 1 WRISTBAND! Scroll to the bottom for full MASSIVE line up and venue breakdown.
HUB Festival is one of our favourite Womanby Street takeovers, and this year the line up is MASSIVE, plus street food from Feast Fest – I mean, what else could you ask?
They’ll be squeezing in rock, reggae, folk, blues, funk, hip hop, pop, jazz, disco, metal – as many genres as they can find, with promoters/labels/bands working together to show the rest of the country that Cardiff is absolutely buzzing.
Taking place at:
Clwb Ifor Bach // Fuel Rock Club // The Moon // Castle Emporium // Tiny Rebel // City Arms // Jones Court // Banc Car Park // The Busk Stop // Bootleggers // The Street
PLUS: Comedy, Spoken Word & Poetry, Performance Art, Live Graffiti & Street Dance, Carnival acts, Silent Discos, Feast Fest street food, guest DJs and Busk Stop!
WEEKEND TICKETS:
Adult £25 adv + bf
Youth £10 adv + bf (ages 12-17)
Children under 12 go free.
Under 18s are allowed in all the venues until 9pm(apart from City Arms 7pm).
1-DAY TICKETS (SATURDAY OR SUNDAY)
Adult £15 adv + bf
Youth £7 adv + bf (ages 12-17)
Children under 12 go free.
Under 18s are allowed in all the venues until 9pm(apart from City Arms 7pm)
Tickets are on sale in Spillers Records Cardiff, Diverse Music Newport, and online from WeGotTickets.com + SeeTickets.com
UPDATED 31st AUGUST! While one half of We Are Cardiff is a proud Cardiff Bay-er, the other half lives in Canton. As Cardiff is so small, we always take it for granted that everyone knows all the nice places to eat and drink. But we met someone the other day who didn’t know Canton beyond Chapter, so we thought we’d do a little round of our favourite spots in Canton (and slightly beyond) that you may not know about.
We’re assuming here that everyone knows the well-established big hitters of Chapter, Bangkok Cafe, Calabrisella, Ichiban, Got Beef, Kimchi, Chai Street, Time and Beef and The Lansdowne. Have we missed any off this list?
This place has quickly become our new local since it opened in April. Run by the lovely James, he keeps us busy between free beer Fridays, delicious local ale, food popups from the likes of Pettigrew Bakery, Bearded Tacos and Great Eggspectations, pianos, games, dogs, babies, artwork and general warm, friendly lovely amazingness. We have SO MUCH love for this tiny micropub! (photos from @stcannas/@sarahchew1/ @pettigrewbakes)
Hidden away beside a mobile phone shop opposite Peacocks, we stumbled upon this place after moving to Canton. For £25 a month (no contract), you get access to a super friendly gym (run by the wonderful Mered), with a great selection of weights and cardio equipment and a fantastic selection of classes (no extra cost). From fitness pilates to to circuits, they also run socials and competitions. AND Mered let me rig my trapeze in the studio! What a hero.
It’s easy to miss Vivo Latino at the city end of Cowbridge Road, but it’s a great spot for big groups or a quick cocktail. When it first opened, we decided that their nachos are THE BEST in Cardiff. The staff are super lovely, the decor is cool and the drinks are great.
This place is a three-in-one: brewery, bottle shop and bar! The CD boyz make their own beer in Canton (I’m reliable informed it’s cracking stuff, especially the Mikey Rayer) the bar has a great atmosphere and they now have a big screen and Sky Sports out the back for SPORTZ. (photo from @craftdevilbrew)
Again, another hidden gem! If you wander through the Printhaus gate on Llandaff Road of an evening, you’ll find this oasis of tasty food and booze. Since they moved here about a year ago, it’s hard to get a table in the semi-outdoor restuarant. The pizzas are spectacular, with adventurous combinations and perfect dough. The environment is so special, and the staff are banging too.
Speaking of Printhaus, we couldn’t miss those guys off our list. Printhaus is an independent creative community based in Cardiff, offering artists’ studios, screenprinting workshops and event space. We’ve all taken workshops here, from bookbinding to screenprinting, and their frequent artists’ markets are ideal for presents, interior decor and art. Super friendly classes are a great way to try out different skills for a day, You can see their upcoming courses here. (photo from @ThePrinthaus)
The Bone Yard is a collection of fitted-out shipping containers in an old scaffolders yard at the back of the Printhaus. These colourful little boxes are home to myriad of creative, wonderful people and businesses including: Therapy at the Bone Yard, Free Range Frames, Twin Made, England Designs, Ffwrnes Pizza, Yurt in the City and Magpie Gallery among MANY more. So if you’re looking for a therapist, handmade books, galleries, craft classes, pizza, frames or regular markets and events – GO FIND IT!
Manglas Spice of Life, 587 Cowbridge Road East, @manglasspice
EVERYONE!Check out Mangla's Spice of Life, the new vegi Indian restaurant in Victoria Park. Amazing food, hilarious host. £5 taster on Sat! pic.twitter.com/jlQHFuH7IJ
We were lucky enough to check Mangla’s out in the first week of trading, and since then she has brought a burst of spice and happiness to the top of Cowbridge Road (opposite Victoria Park). Her exceptional skills as a cook are matched by her hosting and effervescent personality. It’s an Indian vegetarian restuarant, but also has great reviews on the vegan site HappyCow.net. Read Mangla’s story on WalesOnline!
We literally only tried this place out yesterday, after hearing our buddies RAVE about it. It DID NOT disappoint! It’s just a few doors up from Mangla’s, and sports a fresh and modern interior that overlooks Vicky Park. Bedecked with houseplants and trendy lighting, the open kitchen churns out incredible pizzas with unusual toppings like cashew cream with spinach, and tasty-ass starters like dough sticks with a tomato dip and HUGE green, lemon infused olives. Smashing staff, great Poretti beer on tap and kid-friendly. They are planning to expand the menu to include meatballs, and are starting Prosecco Sundays…. I don’t know that it involves, but I’m in.
— Pettigrew Bakeries Cardiff (@PettigrewBakes) June 17, 2017
YOU LIKE BREAD AND CAKES AND MERINGUES THE SIZE OF A CHILD’S SKULL? Yep, us too. The Pettigrew tea gang have built a baked empire of tastiness and long may it spread! Their innovative pop-ups (like pinxtos at St Cannas) are a fantastic way to sample their goods if you’re too lazy to walk up Cowbridge Road.
Falafel Wales, 122 Cowbridge Road East @falafelwales
We are always surprised how many people don’t know about this beautiful park that sits quietly between Canton, Victoria Park and Pontcanna. The beautifully kept lawns, gardens and trees are set across a gentle hill, and the field at the top has a great view across the city.
And so, to end, a classic. If your heels break 5 minutes before leaving for a party- they’re there. If you need a new key cut after an scuffle with a metal-eating wolf- they’re there. If you’ve realised that you don’t have anything but Converse to get married in- they’re there. Cheap, reliable, excellent quality, AND they have a great logo.
ADDITIONS – 31st August
We had lots of suggestions for additions to this list, so here goes:
The Bee & Honey, 63 Clive Road http://www.thebeeandhoney.co.uk/ @thebeeandhoney
This place only recently opened and we haven’t had the chance to visit yet. But, judging by the people who recommended it, we should head over soon! It’s a deli and cafe, and sells a wide range of goodies from freshly baked artisan breads and marinated olives to Welsh cheeses and homemade jams and pickles. The cafe menu looks fab too, we can’t wait to check it out!
Canton Grows Wild community garden, Lansdowne Road @cantongrowswild
— Canton & Riverside (@cantongrowswild) July 16, 2017
Since its establishment up a few years ago (we covered it here), this beautiful little patch of life has matured into something fabulous. They throw garden parties and gives Canton and Riverside residents a chance to get their hands dirty by volunteering.
Park View Cafe, 571 Cowbridge Rd http://parkviewcafe.org.uk/ @parkviewcafe
Another recommendation from a lovely reader: Park View Cafe is just opposite Victoria Park, run by “lovely people and good food and very affordable prices” in the words of Aivi! We were sold already, but the cafe is also a social enterprise- it supports trainees with learning disabilities, who may struggle to find regular employment, to give them the confidence and skills to find work.
Sally Williams left us a comment about the print workshop (unfortunately we couldn’t find a working website or Twitter account). She said “Cardiff print Workshop has a gallery and small workshop [..] It’s open every Saturday from 10.00 to 3.00. They sell original prints, handmade books, cards etc. All of the work is made by members and are original prints that have been either etched, embossed, litho or relief printed. The work is really high quality and they do classes! Watch for the latest dates and times pinned up on the front window.”
I’ve never been in there even though I live on the next street – one to put on the list!
How could we miss this out?! Beautiful crepes and waffles, in a stunning location. Amazing service too! We’ve been reliably informed that the milkshakes are banging.
If you haven’t been down to Cardiff Bay in the last few days, you won’t have seen the mesmerising new sculpture that’s currently visiting the Senedd. The ‘Weeping Window’ installation was originally at the Tower of London, where 888,246 poppies were displayed- one for every British or Colonial life lost at the Front during the First World War. Now you can see the whole piece up close on your doorstep, and there are loads of events surrounding it to suit all ages!
Photo credit : Geoff Caddick/PA Wire
The display forms part of Wales’ programme of events marking the centenary of the First World War, which are taking place across the country. The display of Weeping Window will coincide with the centenary of Battle of Passchendaele, which took the lives of many Welshmen, including the celebrated poet Hedd Wyn.
For the first time visitors will be able to view the sculpture from all sides, including behind, through the Senedd’s floor to ceiling windows.
Younger visitors will be able to explore a free Senedd Trail or try their hands at making a poppy. For those a little older, there will be free half-hour tours on the hour to illustrate why democracy at the Senedd is important to ensuring peace in society.
In addition, on Thursday evenings in August, the Senedd will be open until 20.00 for visitors to see the sculpture as the light changes, and the Senedd café will be open for longer to accommodate this.
Alongside Weeping Window the National Assembly for Wales will also host an exhibition titled Women, War and Peace. Renowned photojournalist Lee Karen Stow brings her world-famous exhibition to Wales, featuring the addition of specially commissioned portraits telling the story of Welsh women affected by war.
You can see Weeping Window until 24 September – trust us, don’t miss it.
We Are Cardiff 