festival

Festival Essentials

culture, festival, Food, holiday, music, photography

With Glastonbury this weekend, Festival season is officially with us, so I thought I’d put together a quick list of what I feel is my personal survival kit after twenty odd years of making it a summer habit (it started for me with Reading 94′).

Now this list will overlap with the countless festival guides that’ll pepper magazines, websites and weekend paper supplements every Summer, every year, but is my personal checklist that I feel can make the experience a little more civilised while keeping your luggage to a minimum. In recent years, I’ve taken to adding to this with cooking equipment , candles (dangerous, but in a lantern is a handy beacon) and an inflatable mattress (I’m getting on now), but this is intended for any upstarts embarking on what might be your first British summer festival trip.

Tent / sleeping arrangements

Yes, I know people who have made the pilgrimage to Avalon with nothing more than a blanket and the shelter of the stone circle, and you will no doubt witness a few bodies scattered about corners of fields in the morning that have clearly spent the night al fresco. I am a city dwelling wimp who needs a bit of peace and some shut eye of an evening, and if that means also sheltering from the elements, all the better. Lately I’ve also found some earplugs can help block out the madness at 4 in the morning and aid a bit of rest.

If you don’t have a tent – at least take a sleeping bag and hope one of your friends will be willing to spoon.

Warm clothes

It’s summer! So surely you can rely on wearing nothing more than a kaftan and sunglasses right? Unfortunately not. Even if you’re blessed with glorious sunshine for the weekend, the nights draw in surprisingly fast and without the warmth of ‘civilisation’ it can get pretty chilly at night. Be sure to pack a few jumpers, base layers if you’ve got them, maybe a hat and layer up.

Torch

The manic organic might do a good carrot juice, but it probably won’t help you navigate a sea of guy ropes as you stumble back to your tent in the wee hours and once you’re under canvas, it’s handy to be able to see what you’re doing.

Waterproofs & Wellies

Even if it’s forecast to be a clear weekend, some parts of the country seem to have their own micro climates, and so a shower or two during a British summer is pretty regular. A waterproof jacket (possibly even trousers to be invincible) Is a good idea.

Wellies. Goes without saying really.

Small picnic Blanket

Not so essential, but having something sit on the dewy morning grass whilst mulling over the coming day / nursing a foggy mind can make you feel damn fine. and actually using it as a picnic blanket / spot to have a drink with friends / roll a cigarette etc will make you festival royalty.

Snacks

Most festivals are a wonderful opportunity to eat some varied and delicious food, but it doesn’t come cheap. So I tend to make sure I can snack relatively healthily in the day, and treat myself to a badass meal of an evening. A couple of pot noodles won’t go amiss for those late night munchies either, providing you’ve got a…

camping stove

Okay, so this may not be slumming it, but a small camping gas stove and pan can be so handy for a pot noodle, whipping up some pasta and pesto, boiling an egg or making tea / instant hot chocolate.

Water

Hydrate! A big bottle of water back at camp is a good idea to replenish your fluids after a hot days festivaling , and a refillable bottle to have on you in the day is the smart choice against dehydration / sun stroke / alcohol poisoning.

Toiletries

Personally I can’t stand wet wipes, so I tend to take face wash to festivals. You’ll probably be near a water point wherever you camp, and the icy outdoor blast of water on your face in the morning does wonders to wash away the nights’ sins at the same time as cleaning your pores.
Don’t forget your toothbrush either – it’s the small things that keep you feeling human sometimes.

Costume

Not ‘essential’ by any means, but the festival is an opportunity to let your hair down and be someone or something else for a night or two. Yes, seeing your umpteenth surly fairy or drunk man in a in a tiger onsie before lunch can be a bit grating, but come Saturday night you might want to make sure you can rock some Fluro warpaint or flutter some silver lashes like the best of them if you feel the need.
I do not condone large novelty hats in this definition of costume however.

Drugs

However you spend your evenings, you might want to make sure you have some multivitamins to replenish lost nutrients and some paracetamol to ease a throbbing brain and aching bones (anti acids might also be needed some nights). Even if you don’t need them, invariably someone else in your tribe or a passing stranger might love you for them.

Turn off your phone

Without wanting to sound like an old man, I remember a time when if you wanted to hook up with friends you’d meet them at the stone circle at 7. If they weren’t there, then 7.30, 8 and then… oh sod it. Okay phones are useful for finding your pals, but, try and enjoy the moment (man) and a weekend without electronic information. Switch off and sure take the odd photo and text a long lost friend you think you just saw dressed as a panda, but try and save you phone for emergencies. You might even find it lasts most of the weekend without needing to charge once your data, wifi Bluetooth and location services are switched off (Keeping the screen brightness down helps too).

Have Fun / let go

It would be nice to see that one band you’ve waited your whole life to see and happen to be on the bill, but beyond a handful of must-sees, try not to worry too much about timing your day to be at the right place for such and such. Firstly, the festival site is probably bigger than you think, and if you spend the weekend planning, you’ll miss so much of what makes festivals the special thing they are and you might end up not actually seeing anything.

Enjoy being in a field with thousands of folk in the same situation, make new friends, catch up with old ones, see some bands make some memories and don’t worry if you end up seeing an Hungarian electro-skiffle band instead of the headline acts.

I didn’t get to go to Glastonbury this time round, but I’ll hopefully be at SuperNormal and GreenMan later this Summer. Give me a shout if you’re going and fancy a chai.

Summer Learning…

festival, Food, holiday, photography, Uncategorized

What I learnt this summer…

The summer is never as long as you think it will be.

Shorts are de rigur for hot days spent at a desk.

Shorts should not be above the knee, unless you are a Scout or can pull it off (I’ve certainly tried but my pins / buns don’t quite cut it).

~~Playing basketball~~ throwing a ball at people and missing hooped targets during lunch with workmates is an excellent way to let loose and focus on the right stuff after a morning of screen burn.

15 minutes of lunch spent training may well not be enough for team Burning Red to one day compete at inter-design agency basketball tournaments.

Make sure you go camping / get to a festival at least once during the warmer months. I always find a few nights under the stars and being a bit closer to nature helps to reset the mind.

Cardiff is an easily locked down town with little resistance from the resistance.

Kittens are only kittens for a short amount of time. By the end of the Summer, they will be cats.

Eggs poached in red wine is a thing!

Oh yes, and Winter is coming…

GreenMan Sketches 2014

Art, culture, Drawing, festival, music

I got to spend a weekend in August enjoying the wonderful Greenman festival vibe, enjoying great music and catching up with friends. Here is a selection of drawings from my sketchbook. Don’t forget to check out my Tumblr for for music and miscellaneous doodles.

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Austin blitz

coffee, culture, festival, Food, holiday, music, U*S*A

As an antidote to my previous rambling posts, here’s a quick fire ‘photo story’ of my SXSW / Austin snapshots, all from my phone and not really processed / cropped. WYSIWYG. There’s other pics in my posts, but I might include them all here with captions too.

For more considered photos, My Instagram lives here

And for a run down of a more composed and architecturally informed Austin, see my Flicker here

As you’re probably aware by now, I rarely take photos of people or bands, so don’t expect any ‘fun’ SXSW photos here…

El Chilito’s take away cafe on Manor Road near where I was staying. Where I experienced my first and best breakfast (Migas) Taco.

My Migas Taco! Egg, Peppers, Onion, tomato and chilli salsa in a tortilla

An abandoned establishment on Manor Road

'Progress 2' by Luis Jimerez at the Blanford Museum of American Art — ‘Progress 2’ by Luis Jimerez at the Blanford Museum of American Art

The Halcyon coffee shop where I recharged my mind and devices regularly during South by. I loved the glitter paintings by Sue Zola on the wall

Bucket drummers were a dime a dozen on the streets of Austin, but not many feature a dancing Iron Man.

I think this is an agave plant that Tequila is made from. I drank some damn fine Tequila in Austin, and I loved the fact that cactus grow wild everywhere

Queuing. You do a lot of it if you go to SXSW. I got fed up of it after a while, which is possibly why I didn't see as many bands as I'd have liked, but here's a photo in case you don't know what a queue is like. — Queuing. You do a lot of it if you go to SXSW. I got fed up of it after a while, which is possibly why I didn’t see as many bands as I’d have liked, but here’s a photo in case you don’t know what a queue is like.

SXSW Day 6. Johnny 2 gigs

coffee, culture, Design, Drawing, festival, Food, holiday, music, photography, U*S*A

I got back into the British music embassy a bit later than expected (it’s taking me a lot longer to get places than I think it should) but just in time to meet a Canadian publicist and Australian design agency director at a speed networking event. 2pm quickly comes around and the venue is packed for Gulp’s first SXSW show – for the fist gig of the day, it packs a punch with some great sound engineering in the mix. My visuals run as expected and initial feedback seems positive. Gulp’s new label manager asks if they can be put on a memory stick; sorry they can’t. A part of me was hoping she’d ask me along for the LA gig the band are heading to next week, but no such luck (one day!)

I spent a few hours that afternoon in the convention centre taking in ‘flatstock’ the annual gig poster exhibition. This is a collection of a who’s who of poster artists and designers with the big names of current poster design such as Methane studios and DKNG sat at booths hawking prints, stickers and t-shirts. I picked up a small print for burning red and got lost amongst the swathes of A2 papers and smell of acrylic ink. Admittedly much of the work almost blends into one – there is undeniably a ‘gig poster style’ which is exciting at first but does begin to feel a little generic. There were a handful of studios making some genuinely fresh work, and these really do stand out – however particular names right now escape me. I added to my business card collection (I’ve got a rather large pile which will need some serious sorting when home) and after a quick visit to south of the river on congress it was time to drop my gear off at the hideout theatre ready for the night’s gig and met the band for a pizza and glass of wine.
Having a pre-show coffee in the coffee shop at the front of the venue, the familiar faces of the Cardiff bands turned up – gruff, sweet baboo, Mr. Hawkline and Cate le bon all in the house. At least there’d be an audience!

It seems that the midnight hour wasn’t in tune with the gulp party. Gwion had to improv a drum kit without toms, Gid’s guitar didn’t have the sound he was looking for, a synth went wonky and half way through the set, I think the wound engineer accidental nudged the space that’s projector had been balancing on, sending it tumbling. I got it back up and running to a degree for the last few numbers but it did put a dampner ony last evening in Texas and the climax of why I was there. But hey – for all intents and purposes the show was a success and after bidding everyone goodbye I got back on the night owl bus out East for the last time.

SXSW Day 5. Late Pancakes, Springs and Welsh Music in a church

Art, coffee, culture, Design, Drawing, festival, Food, holiday, music, photography, U*S*A

I’m hoping that my body clock and sleeping patterns are so thrown up and sideways right now, that when I get back to the UK, I’ll sleep so well I’ll be right as rain for work Monday morning. Stranger things have happened.
Which is how I had a 2pm breakfast (despite waking at 9am) in the Kerbey lane cafe, a typically Austin take on the American diner – all fresh juice, responsibly farmed produce and tacos on the menu along aside French toast and burgers. I was proper stuffed after my short stack of buttermilk pancakes 🙂

Checking out the Guadalupe road area around the university campus, I found a few decent thrift stores and an arcade bar playing punk rock in amongst the coin-ops. Seeing as I’d had a 2 o’clock breakfast I headed south to take in some of the south of the river vibes at Barton springs — a natural spring that is open for a short period every year for the public to swim in. Unfortunately the pool was shut for cleaning, but there was an area a little along that had people paddling and soaking up the sun. Feet all refreshed, I had to get downtown to get some music in me. I wanted to catch up with gulp and some of the contingent Cymraeg, so I went along to the turnstile records party at the st. David’s epistle church. It is a bit odd going all the way to Texas and hang out having a drink with a room full of people from wales, but it was a good night. Gruff Rhys played a lovely set accompanied by kliph Scurlock on drums, and Cate le Bon blew me away, despite having seen her a number of times – the sound and energy the band produced was great.

SXSW Day 4. Mary, Meetings, Cameras, Fans & Tradegy

Art, coffee, culture, Design, Drawing, festival, Food, holiday, music, photography, U*S*A

South by takes over this town, for good and not. It clearly brings an overwhelming focus and celebration of creativity to the town and generates a huge level of excitement and revenue, but also it seems a strain on the area and it’s resources.

Initially I couldn’t make it to town for a networking breakfast due to my bus running almost half an hour late (I was running late anyway) and I just about managed to make it to the convention centre for 11.30 where I was due to meet the band I’m tagging along the coat tails of, Gulp in order to pick up my music wristband. It turned out I could pick it up on my own, as as they were running late, was just as well. Without any coffee or breakfast and rather tired from however many nights little sleep it’s been now I walked past Jarvis Cocker who looked like he’d just arrived – of course I recognise him so I gave a friendly nod, smile and hello. A momentary glimmer or recognition from him faded into a confused scowl. I forgot his doesn’t know me. (but he’d probably like to).

I got to the dregs of the network breakfast and freeloaded on coffee, croissants and the strongest bloody Mary I’ve ever had (these Texans do like to free pour). A coffee shop meeting also failed to happen, so I spent the time drinking a cappuccino skyping with my wife.

At a bit of a loss, and deciding to save music for the evenings, I went to the Charles Long exhibition at the Contemporary Austin. I place of solace away from the crowds and a space to consider the impact humans are having on the planet due to our greed. An ode to Catalin – an early toxic forerunner to plastic and how our hunger for cheap and ‘safe’ substitutes has lead to the slow destruction of the ocean and our need for air conditioning and a comfortable life errodes the ice caps. There’s nothing subtle about this show, but that’s probably a good thing, and the 3D ‘datamapped’ iceberg sculptures have an ephemeral delicate beauty about them that certainly helped to centre me ready for main Congress. Towards the West or downtown, I took snaps of the area and visited Book People, local bookshop who’s had a who’s who of visitors from Simon Pegg to Timothy Leary (their photographs adorn a celebrity wall). I read a book on some interesting sketching techniques which gave me a little inspiration to get drawing (one of my personal aims of being here) . It’s not a library, so after browsing for a good hour , I bought a postcard, some chocolate and left. I LOVE American indie bookshops, well any bookshop really, I could spend all day in them browsing and feeling rejuvenated by the wealth of ideas, cover designs and knowledge (even if I’m terrible at actually getting to read of the bloody things once I buy them)

Across the road was Waterloo Records, one of the larger records shops – not first on my list as I was holding out for a smaller place, but I went in anyway, as one doe and left with a few cheap second hands: A Willie Nelson (I’m in his town afterall), A solo Todd Rundgren, and the new St Vincent album. I had a fantastical vision that if I did, somehow I’d actually get into the gig tonight and she’d be happy to sign it for me.

Another juice later (it’s all I seem to be eating and drinking here as I’ve lost my appetite in the heat, travel and sleep dysfunction) and I went into Hut’s Hamburgers, an old style joint from the 30’s with authentically delicious grass fed Longhorn burgers to match. Nothing mind blowing, but how I imagine a very good all American burger should be, with fries that have their skin on. Whilst eating I Met an LA PR agent who’s been doing SX since the 80’s. She’d had a few glasses of wine as it’s her day off, but we got on well and she insisted on walking me out to where she was heading. I drew my first band of the day, and headed to town.

The NPR showcase was tipped to be a good one, and some of the crew Cymraeg where at the venue. I discovered that they don’t allow ‘Cameras’ into the venue (more on my thoughts on this in a another post), and I pleaded and tried to work out a solution with the security and venue staff to let me in as I never take (digital) photos of bands these days, and how I was only out tonight to see St Vincent, but no. The man at the gate took a photo of me on his cameraphone and said I’d be able to jump the VIP queue if I came back after stashing it, which was really good of him. thanks to the sound engineer at the British Music Embassy, I stowed my cameras with him and heading back to Stubbs and saw Kelis then St Vincent play live. It was fantastic, despite the crowd taking lots of pictures with their cameraphones after being asked by the woman herself beforehand not to and afterwards I wandered backstage unhindered to see if she (St Vincent) would sign my record, but she was clearly upset about something and apologised before being hurried away by her people. I was the only person there, Vinyl and sharpie in hand, but no.
Wandering lonely around 6th Street, a homeless tour guide told me where to get pancakes near my house and about the oldest jazz bar in town – literally underground called the Elephant, so called because they found a wooly Mammouth bone while building it. I wasn’t sure if I beleived him, but sure enough there it was after everyone else had dumped me. I sat at the quiet bar drinking a nightcap of local bourbon on the rocks and a Spanish Austinite told me about the best burger joints in town and some super local tips as well as where Willie Nelson was playing tomorrow.

On the bus home, we drove past a street of police cars where an hour earlier a drunk driver ploughed through a crowd killing 2 people and injuring dozens. A sobering end to the day.

SXSW day 3. Film, chill and bands (finally)

Art, coffee, culture, Drawing, festival, Food, holiday, music, U*S*A

Waking up I promised myself no migas taco for breakfast. So I hopped on the metro rail ( unfortunately not a monorail as I had initially thought) after the ticket machine swallowed up 7dollars of my change and went in search of city treasure thrift. It was underwhelming, so I decided to stop in Cisco’s for breakfast. Supposedly an Austin institution where political deals have been made and broken it seemed a good cultural stop. I didn’t realise it was Mexican.

2 (good n spicy) migas tacos and a large coffee later it was time for the premiere screening of American interior , the new gruff Rhys film. Directed by Dylan Coch who also made Seperado with gruff and produced by Catrin Ramasut it follows gruff on a journey across America as he traces the footsteps of a supposed long lost relative called john Evans who first went to the new world to discover a tribe of native Americans that spoke welsh and along the way inadvertently helps to map the path to the pacific, and determines Canada’s border. It was a funny, heartwarming and enlightening film and rounded off with a special performance by gruff and kliph Scurlock followed by the magnificent Keith bear who talked about identity and played his hand carved flutes.

I met some old and new friends at the screening and accompanied them back to their house in the hot and sunny Texan afternoon which was great. It was a very ‘chill’ afternoon drinking iced mocha, supping corona while schedules and plans were made.

Following my new welsh/uk contingent back into town to latitude30 , where the British music embassy was hosting Huw Stephen’s uk music showcase, I had to watch the first half of sweet Baboo’s set from outside as I still didn’t have a wristband. Luckily Huw let me in through the stage door and I spent the night watching Alice Wolf, Prides, Bi Polar sunshine and Jungle. All in all a good evening with great company, decent music and some rather large rum and colas.

SXSW Day2 . Old Aquaintences, Tequila and Busses

coffee, culture, Design, Drawing, festival, holiday, music, photograph, photography, U*S*A, VJ

So, although I intended to get an early night, I couldn’t get to sleep until 2 am then woke up again at 4 until finally passing out at about 7. I’m not used to insomnia and pulling myself out of bed at 11am was a struggle. I don’t normally get jet lag going back in time, but somehow the day has been more of a haze than Sunday. More migas and coffee on my morning amble took me to bannau’s coffee shop . So hip it hurt, but a good friendly hurt with old sofas and chipped crockery. Almost everyone was sat at their laptops or iPads, everyone. The complimentary power supplies hanging from the roof do encourage it though. My cappuccino was a bit disappointing but the pizza slice was darn good.

Again I walked to downtown with camera in hand soaking up the east side atmosphere and ended up in the empire club, a re-appropriated auto garage and went to a VJ meetup in the main dance floor. A handful of local beamers we’re taking about their techniques and I met Topher Sipes, a local media artist, born in Bedford, raised in Texas. He’s projecting for scrillex on Thursday night in the garage – so if I can’t get tickets to lady gaga playing in the BBQ next door (unlikely) I’ll try my hand there instead.

I met up with a friend from town who I met at a wedding in Italy last year (it’s a small world) for some margarita and tequila before he and his wife and friend had to get the ‘last’ train (at 6.30!) back up to the northern suburbs . Bleary eyed and a little legless I wandered the streets looking for my RSVP’d parties. I couldn’t get into he Wes Anderson talk and screening of Budapest hotel ( no surprise there) and I missed the party at the Jones centre contemporary gallery. Tired and disillusioned I west eastward where I’ve found the onion party in the Mohawk club. Chet faker on the decks and cymbals are out back. I thought I saw Donald Glover in the audience (it wasn’t) but it’d be fab to see him play this week. I’ve been told he’s doing an afternoon party on Wednesday, so I’ll try my luck if I remember. Now it’s bed time for reals.

SXSW Day 1. Acclimatizing

Art, coffee, culture, Design, Drawing, festival, Food, holiday, music, U*S*A, VJ

After being woken by a bird (I presume) that sounded like a Guinea pig, and not being able to figure out how to use the coffee machine I headed out to explore the ‘hood. I picked up a coffee and a migas taco and walked west toward downtown via the Blanton museum of art. Housing a permanent exhibition of art from the Americas, the contemporary galleries displayed a refreshing Latin (and female) perspective on the rise of American abstract expressionism. The temporary exhibition was a retrospective of Eva Hesse and Sol Lewitt’s drawing experiments and how their relationship spurred each other on to challenge themselves. The musum’s main Atrium houses a commisioned permenant installation by Teresita Fernández made up of thousands of tiles of incandescent turquoise, giving the space an almost Mediterranean or Arabian feel.

A postcard later, I pushed on downtown to see if I could so some sxsw. The chaos of sixth street pushed me into the halcyon coffee shop for a recharging snack of Nutella crepe and an iced coffee before wandering about the ‘interactive’ trade show in the convention centre hall. I thankfully managed to pick up some free t shirts ( I didn’t bring enough) and some temporary NASA tattoos.

As the sum went down, I went to the river to watch the bats fly in and out from under the congress bridge. They squeak a lot.

Going South

Art, bike, culture, Drawing, festival, music, U*S*A, VJ

South by South West is one of those events that has been on my ‘one day’ wishlist for a few years now, but the excuse to fly over to Texas for a week of music, crowds, tacos and sun has always eluded me. that is until this year.

Flights are booked and a house share set up, I’m winging my way to Austin on the 9th or March for the Music week (and the end of the interactive). I’m lucky enough to be tagging along with Gulp who are one of the showcase bands, so I’ll be taking my projector along and hopefully doing some projection for their set.

Now Texas may seem a bit of a long way to travel for the sake of a handful of half hour gigs (you’d be right), but it’s said that SXSW offers up innumerable opportunities to see, meet and share a drink with a who’s who of the interactive, Music and Film worlds. I’m personally seeing the journey as an excuse to immerse myself in the alternative ‘fringe’ SXSW – aside from filling myself with free tacos and saturating my ears with music on tap, I’ll be drawing daily (every band I see), photographing and writing for the Burning Red blog.

They Ride Horses Don’t They?

As for my music itinerary, I’m probably going to worry about that when on the plane or in the fray of Sixth street, and once I’ve had time to fill up my SXSW app schedule. I have a vision of throngs of people all trying to get in to the bands that are ‘so hot right now’ so if that does turn out to be the case I’ll likely go with the flow on that one.

I’ll be living like a Texan for the week, and should I need a break from the bands, here’s my list of top things I’d like to try and see and do while ‘keeping it weird‘.

Austinomnomnom

I’ve heard Austin is the home of Tex-Mex, but I’m getting the impression that it’s a foodies paradise no matter the flavour. I’m on a mission to find the best burger, pancakes, milkshake, tacos that I stumble across. Oh yes, and a pharmacy.

Speed Demon

I will be staying in a shared house allegedly a 45 minute walk to the downtown area where many of the gigs will be in the evening. I’m used to cycling my way around Cardiff, and considering Austin is a bike friendly city (for America) I’d like to try and get hold of a bike while there. Although many bike shops rent, it’d work out pricey and the bikes on offer all seem a nit too good. I’m going to make my way to the bike farm when I arrive and see if I can pick up an oldie for under $100. (fingers crossed)

Seeing is Believing

When I feel the need to give my ears a rest, I’ll likely fancy bombarding my eyeballs and brain with some art. I’ll cetainly be after some contemporary work, but the Blanton is a museum I see cropping up so I’ll start there, and see where that leads me.

Going Down

The wrong side of the river seems to be where it’s at. The South congress looks to be a long stretch of galleries, shops, cafes and curiosities. I can’t promise that I will be able to resist picking up a pair of boots while there though.

So, only two weeks to go and I’m equally excited and vervous, but I’ll be updating this and the Burning Red blog as often as I can, not to mention my instagram and tumblr sketchbook

Photo Credit: Phillip Kromer

Week–a–Gig–a–Thon

Art, bike, Cardiff, culture, Drawing, festival, music, VJ

It’s October!

Unofficially the busiest time of the year. In the space if a month, Cardiff plays host to the Cardiff design festival, the welsh music prize, made in Roath, Swn festival, Cardiff contemporary, some of these in the same weeks!

Usually on the week of Swn, like clockwork I’m guaranteed to have a cold, luckily this year I mostly got it out of the way last weekend, and just as the phenylepheriine was wearing off, Thursday evening welcomed the start of Swn with the Welsh Music Prize Awards. I arrived at the kuku club just about on time cycling through a sunny Llandaff fields from a student design presentation at Cardiff Met. After sweatily wandering into a dark sober club straight from work seemed to leave everyone a bit spaced out, so after a complimentary bourbon and lemonade, Jon Rostron and Huw Stephens welcomed everyone and Adam Walton warmed us up for the nominees. As a clip and introduction to each artist was played, the tightly packed crowd of journalists, bands, friends, promoters and fans nodded along and cheered each other on.
Georgie Ruth deservedly got the honour this year, and was genuinely surprised and excited. Wolfing down a ‘mini food’ trio of canapés, I hot footed I over to the angel hotel – somewhere I hadn’t been since a fetish themed rave in the late nineties. It’s good to see such forgotten venues with magical carpets being home to festival events. Eventually I managed to line check the projector and balance it on the edge of the stage (the only place to put it) in between HMS Morris and Chlöe Howl.
Walking round the corner to clwb Ifor bach I set up my projector and laptop just in time for a fantastic set by gulp. Their disco space pop filled the packed room with Guto Pryce’s psychedelic synth bass and Lindsey Levan’s soaring vocals. I always enjoying beaming with bands in clwb as I usually get to fill the stage upstairs with moving light, hopefully helping to produce a far more immersive experience than simply using screens. As the gig finished, I ran with asthma inducing speed around the corner to plug in, borrow Owain’s Ventolin and projected above the stage for a solid Trwbador gig in the Swn venue with the best carpet.

Friday, I had other commitments in the evening, but during the day, I popped into town to have a brief look at the Cardiff Open exhibition in the Castle arcade. Happening about every 6 months, it’s an exhibition made up of artists from around Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan, while the types of artists are varied, it does focus on the more ‘tangible’ side of art – paintings, sculpture, printmaking, photography and ceramics. The standard of the work does seem to be pretty high, and this year, I particularly enjoyed the huge lino print by John Abell with it’s beautifully primal depictions of medieval-wild welsh coal mining valley tales. Natasha Mayo’s blackboard painted clay sculpture of a hairless child holding a duckling standing in front of a large blackboard also caught my eye.

I went next door to chance at having my psycho analysis drawn by Casey Raymond, but probably fortuitously, he was fully booked.

Saturday saw the Made in Roath festival kick off with full steam. In its fifth year, made in Roath is a truly community led affair. Celebrating creativity in all its forms, the weekend plays host to workshops, music events, live art, exhibitions, street theatre and the hugely popular open houses, where people hold art exhibitions in their homes. In the afternoon I went over to check out ‘Inverness groove’ where there annual Roath bake off was held in spice of life, a dodgy postcard and tea room wa, cf≈ ≈s run by the SHO gallery, and artist Richard Huw Morgan DJ’d on the street with drunken miss orderly. The duo only played records from the record shops bargain crates. Rhm or ‘Mr ohm’ focused on only playing 60’s 7-inches with messages or notes scrawled on the sleeves, whilst Zia torta matched her outfit with a music diet of 80’s rock pop and early rave.

Saturday evening I was back in clwb to visualise for fist of the first man, for what may be their last going for a while (as guitarist allun Gaffy has gone to focus on other projects). With the lights off, I attempted to pummel the audiences eyes with audio reactive geometric white shapes while Mark Foley’s deep bass melted the walls to zwolf’s compositions.

After packing up my equipment, I stopped for a quick dance to the extremely loud and deep bass of clipping. While I couldn’t get on board the MC’s lyrics, his delivery got the crowd excited and the bone rattling sub’s got us wobbling.
I caught a chunk of the Wytches enthusiastic teenage pagan rock before catching the debut full band gig by Cardiff legend Foley’s sh…apes project. Simian-esque psychedelic phrases with the best use of a brass instrument in pop music I’ve ever heard (filtered and distorted into another worldly antagonistic wall of human sound).

Sunday, although I didn’t catch any more bands, going back to town via a house on my road that was housing an art exhibition (with a unicorn sign outside), I visited Paul Granjon and his ‘Thingy Robots’ at the ArcadeCardiff exhibition space in the Queens arcade. taking residencey with his automonmous electronic friends opposite a temporary electronic salvage ‘Dynamo Wreckshop’ – a space where discarded electronic goods are dismantledand reconfigured into new configurations. the room is sprawling with the innards of old scanners, printers, VCR’s and computer parts, there’s certainly a lot of dissection going on, and I was assured that plenty of new hybrid experiments are being created daily.

Weekends like this are what makes living in Cardiff such a delight. It’s small size means you can cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time, and you still won’t get to see everything. The city feels buzzing and creativity feels like it’s seeping out of the cracks in the pavement.

The fun still isn’t over either. There’s the Darkened Room screening of ET at g39 to look forward to followed by the now annual Roath nocturnal walk finishing up at Milgi for a Made in Roath closing party Thursday evening.