Find out what’s on in South Wales this week
Glasto isn’t the only festival worthy of your attention as Hijinx Unity Festival (Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay + Cardiff City Centre, Wed 1-Sun 5 July. Tickets: from £10 / £6 conc / £25 festival ticket / some events free) comes to Cardiff to offer five days of the best inclusive arts from around the world that has been made by, and with, performers and creators with disabilities. There will be gritty circus coming from France, a hard-hitting movement performances Mozambique and sensual dance from Italy. The festival will also see the returns of Hijinx and Punchdrunk Entertainment’s secret location shows.
Cardiff’s Welsh Language Festival, Tafwyl (various venues in Cardiff, Sat 4-Sun 5 July. Tickets: individual events priced separately / many events free) returns to the capital this week. The festival’s week-long programme of welsh music/comedy/film/events, Tafwyl Week, started last Friday but the festivals big finale, the Tafwyl Fair, takes place this weekend. The grounds of Cardiff Castle will be filled with the biggest names in Welsh arts, culture and sport, along with excellent food and drink.
Music is also alive over in Gower as the Gower Festival (various Locations, Gower, Wed 1-Sun 12 July. Tickets: individual events priced separately) returns after a sell-out show last year. Clarinet player Emma Johnson and pianist Gordon Back open the festival, which has a line-up of many notable musical including Classical Guitarist and BBC Music Magazine ‘one to watch’ Morgan Szymanski, the world famous London Brass Ensemble and the critically acclaimed The Klemperer Trio.
If you prefer you festivals in the traditional farm setting there is The Big Day Out (Humble By Nature, Wye Valley, Monmouthshire, Sat 4 July. Tickets: £30 adult / £10 under-16s / free under-4s / £70 family tickets). Kate Humble’s very own working farm will be having it’s very own festival that will have everything from live music to outdoor cooking to welly wanging.
For the fish lovers among us, the scenic Aberaeron Harbour has the Cardigan Bay Seafood Festival (Aberaeron Bay, Sun 5 July. Admission: free) which will showcases the best in local produce and will host an array of Wales’ best chefs, who will be delivering cookery demonstrations.
It’s not just well-known chefs that are getting active this weekend as celebrities from Wales, England and Scotland grab their golf clubs to raise money for charity at the Celebrity Celtic Manor (Sat 4 July-Sun 5 July. Tickets: £15-£25 / £5-£20 conc). Spectators will be able to see comedian Rob Brydon, TV presenter Gethin Jones, and Life On Mars’s Phillip Glenister battling it out against Ireland’s Bryan McFadden, England’s Zoe Hardman and Scotland’s Alan Hansen.
If you fancy getting active yourself there is always the Wales Full And Half Marathon (start point De Valence, Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Sun 5 July. Admissions: entry closed / free to spectators) – which stands as Wales’ only closed road marathon. Taking place in Pembrokeshire, the scenic route is one well worth taking in. It’s too late to enter but you can always go down and support those brave runners and take in the surrounding area on a day that promises to be a riveting display of athleticism.
It’s a weekend of sport in Tenby as the day before will see the Welsh Sportive (start point De Valence, Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Sat 4 July. Admissions: entry closed / free to spectators). The big bike event consists of several courses, the longest being 112 miles, and will finish off with a well-deserved pasta party.
For an event with a faster pace there is the British FIM Speedway Grand Prix (Wales Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, Sat 4 July. Tickets: £19-£100) where bikers zoom around the stadium in the battle for the title of champion. Fan or no, this looks set to be an exciting event, with a serious amount of talent on display from the participants. If you decide to go just be prepared to leave with significantly less nail than you went in with.
If you’d rather fast wit then fast bikes then Kevin Bridges (Grand Theatre, Swansea, Wed 1 + Thurs 2 July. Tickets: £25) will be bringing his show A Whole Different Story to Swansea. The Glaswegian comedian has been a growing success in recent years and there is no doubt about it that the funnyman’s shows will provide a necessary dose of thick-accented comic relief.
words ZAK MAOUI