Made in Roath 2016

 Yesterday (Sunday the 9th) saw the start of Made in Roath 2016. A sun filled day was the perfect beginning to the week long festival happening in and around Roath. The first day saw a variety of events taking place and I spent most of it walking to and fro over the tarmac of the streets, going from one event to the next before spending the evening at 28 the Parade, this years festival hub.

     

My main memory of the first day isn't of one event but of everything, the whole day. The atmosphere that filled the air, the sun blazing down, the crunch of leaves under foot, the sound of traffic. My memory of the day isn't of a single thing but of a holistic recollection.

  

 The days events were stringed together like the families and friends I saw heading this way and that all through the streets of Roath, each with a leader in front holding a MiR festival brochure in hand, navigating from open home to happening and exhibition. These culture hunting packs were of every size, gender, age and ethnicity imaginable, each proceeding upon their own Made in Roath journey that day. 

Some I saw entering the fantastic open houses, the homes turned into a welcoming art gallery for the week. Others were sat in enthralled concentration outside the Pen Y Lan library playing intense games of Chess. I’ve never been to Russia and I’ve never seen a Russian Grand Master chess tournament but the sight I saw outside that library is exactly how I imagine it to be (apart from you know the traffic lights in the back ground). 

Later I was passing some railings and discovered to some surprise a load of cross stitched creatures adorning the metal bars. These cheery and bright interventions enriching the whole road and shouted curiosity to the entire street. 

 As the afternoon was turning into evening I walked up the steps of 28 the Parade. This grand Victorian built home, then turned educational centre, then empty building and now for the week of Made in Roath an art gallery and cultural centre. I’ll talk more about the exhibitions in the building tomorrow as the amazing musical and light show is demanding a mention first.     

This amazing sensory explosion of light and music, taking place outside at the back of the building saw mass light projections being beamed onto the old stone work of the building. With musicians Nevsky perspective, Rachel Gil, BRik phro, Za Sonic, Steve Andrews, and Parcs all performing under the lights for the watching crowds of people on the newly cut and cleared grass lawn of the building.

You know that bit in Shakespeare the Tempest where Caliban’s says 

“The isle is full of noises, Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments, Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices That, if I then had waked after long sleep, Will make me sleep again; and then in dreaming, The clouds methought would open and show riches, Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked, I cried to dream again” 

 It was kinda like that but set in Cardiff. It was that good Im using the master bard of the English language himself to help me try and illustrate the proceedings of the night. It was fantastic and that was just day one, we have six more. Can’t wait to see what other sweet delights the week has in store.