Night before Roadblock

It was the night before Roadblock

And all through Roath

Not a creature was stirring 

Apart from the Made in Roath team and most of the artists involved in tomorrow’s series of events

Plus everyone who is out and about enjoying the on going nightly events such as the exhibition opening currently happening in Cardiff MADE

And of course everyone not involved in MiR but out and about enjoying their Friday night’s like

People in pubs, they’re probably stirring

Especially if there are any sporting events on,

then it’s likely to be lots of stirring and possibly singing.

And of course people who work in pubs,

they have to be there.

You can’t have a pub if no one is working there, 

logical really.

And of course people in other jobs,

like shops and taxi drivers

they’re up and about,

especially on a Friday night

loads of late night taxi drivers stirring around the place

Students too,

they’re renown for their late night activities. 

Insomniacs too.

They’re defiantly up late at night

And then there’s all the people who are watching DVD box sets, 

they generally stay up late getting their fix of Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones

Also people who are currently reading the Game of Thrones books in an attempt to act slightly superior around those of us who are watching the TV series

Also I guess staying up late is very much dependent upon your definition of “late”

I mean if Einstein has told as anything it’s that time is relative

It can mean different things to different people

for example late for me would be about 1a.m., but late for my Gran could be 10p.m., a very different definition of lateness.

So what Im trying to say is

it was the night before Made in Roath Roadblock

and quite a lot of things were going on

including with the mouse 

because mice are largely nocturnal 

so are mostly up late.

Owls too,

mice are up so it means their hunters are around as well, 

common sense really

I’d say cats too but I’m pretty sure they’re always asleep,

they are the cats who walk by themselves and all things are alike to them 

but living in Roath I know from experience that Owls are about

there out having a hoot (hehe).

Anyway I digress from my point which is basically Made in Roath Roadblock (Saturday the 17th), one of the biggest and certainly the busiest of all the events is happening tomorrow. 

I won’t discuss Roadblock right now but the spirit of it.

I was trying to think this evening what makes Made in Roath special. I know of many other yearly community events and area fairs which are quite wonderful but they lack a certain creative amusement that Made in Roath has. 

I think what makes Made in Roath “interesting” is this community openness and the involvement it promotes. I know of very few other festivals that allows so many people to get involved and which entertains so many more. It’s a festival that everyone feels more involved in, a festival whose ownership doesn’t feel like it’s controlled by some random, nameless person but is in everyone’s hands. Everyone from shop keepers to artists, to the residents of Cardiff to anyone who happens to be passing through. It’s something that offers so much that it’s hard not to get involved in or enjoy the delights that everyone’s creativity has to offer.

I was reminded the other day of a story I heard ages ago. When Petrol was first invented no one knew what to do with it so it was used as a dry cleaner, a process called “Nettoyage à sec”.

This persisted for a number of years until someone thought of trying out this petrol stuff in these new internal combustion engine which worked great and gave the world cars, trains, planes and pretty much powered the modern world. But it started life, and for many years was, a dry cleaner. I quite like that as a metaphor and I think that is maybe us sometimes in life. Often we are involved and active in things that don’t push us or allow us to reach our full potential. It takes us finding our internal combustion engine to drive us to doing the things we were meant to do. I think in some ways that’s Made in Roath, it’s the creative/community version of an internal combustion engine that changes our views and experience and thus changes the world. 

Nos Da and thanks for reading, Dai