Briffio Mis Mai // May 2024
Our merry monthly briefing, connecting communities across Cymru – recommending books on music, roads, rugby and poverty; daytime discos; festivals of literature, Irish pipes, Star Wars and seaweed
Dear friends
Welcome to the fourth edition of our monthly newsletter. Calan Mai, the Welsh celebration of May Day, is also Calan Haf, the first day of summer.
Traditionally it involved festivities around bonfires, maypoles and carol singing, having much in common with similar traditions of Celtic origin right across Europe. Nowadays, the month of May marks the beginning of the modern festival season. And what an eclectic mix of events we have happening across Wales this month. Scroll down for news of what’s on, and what’s coming from Cwlwm.
Mewn // In
Here at Cwlwm, we are borderline obsessed with the A470, the ridiculous route running right through the middle of our beloved country, and so we’re excessively excited to read The Long Unwinding Road: A Journey Through the Heart of Wales by Marc P. Jones, a book that adds to the growing cultural archive documenting Cymru’s favourite 300km strip of tarmac. We’re also looking forward to Wales: 100 Records, out on 25 May and available to preorder now from Y Lolfa, in which Huw Stephens casts his expert eye over some of the most notable pieces of vinyl from the Land of Song.
How Black Was My Valley by Brad Evans is also out, from Repeater Books – a publisher admirably committed to engaged and authentic works from Wales. Born into poverty in the Rhondda, Evans is a political philosopher and critical theorist whose work specialises in the problem of violence – and despite authoring and editing over twenty previous volumes, he says himself he will never write a better book. Meanwhile, Liberation Economics by Guy Wildwood promises ‘to look at the cultural context in which economic decisions are taken in the West… consider[ing] how economic activity may be made increasingly proportionate, sustainable and fairer by more openly involving a spiritual dimension, whether Christian or from other traditions.’
If you’re looking for more of a summer read, Unspeakable Beauty, the much anticipated debut novel from Swansea’s Georgia Carys Williams is out from Parthian. And finally we recommend the latest in Broga Books’ Welsh Wonders series. Jessica Dunrod’s story of Billy Boston’s powerful life of code-breaking (in more ways than one) is available in English and Cymraeg, and can be enjoyed by children and adults alike.
Allan // Out
It seems the middle aged trend for daytime discos is particularly popular in south east Wales. 25 May sees the UK tour of Day Fever arrive at Depot in Cardiff. Billed as ‘the daytime disco that won’t ruin Sunday’, filmmaker Jonny Owen describes it as ‘a nightclub in the afternoon for people of a certain age.’ And if you can’t wait until then, Graham the Bear from Goldie Lookin’ Chain hosts ‘the best of 80s, 90s and 00s indie’ at Newport’s newest mid-sized gig venue The Corn Exchange on Sunday 5 May, at the absolutely more than reasonable time of 3–7pm.
For those still able to hack it later into the evening, the Focus Wales international showcase festival in Wrexham runs 9–11 May, with more than 250 artists performing across 20 stages, together with industry sessions, arts events, and film screenings. Headliners include local lads The Royston Club, together with Carmarthen’s finest Adwaith, Machynlleth multi-instrumentalist Cerys Hafana, and self-described ‘London/Cardiff creatures’ Melin Melyn.
O gwmpas // Around
As the sun shines and the evenings lengthen, there are plenty of opportunities to get out and about around Wales this month. Whitsun half term sees the Urdd Eisteddfod return to Maldwyn (Montgomeryshire) for the first time since 1988, the year the Hay Festival began. Hay is back on home turf for the first time since its rebrand as Hay Global, and its Wales-related highlights include Mererid Hopwood and Jenny Mathers talking to Betsan Powys about the remarkable story of the Welsh Women’s Peace Petition – something we’ll be covering in Cwlwm this month too.
Further down the course of the UK’s fourth longest river, the Wye Valley River Festival promises a range of events including Merry Monmouth Day on 4 May, and Nia Wyn live in Llandogo on 6 May, as well as ‘Wye Wonderment’, a photographic exhibition by Esther May Campbell at the Old Station in Tintern (3–12 May).
Meanwhile, there are some pretty niche activities happening in the south west: from 16–19 May, St David’s hosts the Wales Festival of Seaweed // Gwyl Gwymon Cymru, while the same weekend sees Gŵyl Uilleann Glanyfferi come to Ferryside – ‘a big Irish piping festival in a little Welsh village’. And on 27 May Star Wars fans will descend on Pembroke Dock Heritage Centre for an annual fun day celebrating the story of how the original Millennium Falcon was built in the town in 1979.
Further north, Y Wal Goch Festival returns to Wrexham, ‘the spiritual home of Welsh football’, for its fourth edition, running 31 May - 2 June, promising a range of football-themed cultural events, while in the capital the Senedd hosts a major exhibition of Kurdish art, with the work of twenty painters and sculptors on display.
And our Briffio newsletter wouldn’t be complete without recommending an event that illustrates the way Wales’ diverse communities are knotted together like a Welsh blanket. This time it’s the Treorchy Male Voice Choir bringing the world-famous sound of the Rhondda to the China Street Chapel in Llanidloes, Powys.
And finally…
Thank you to all our loyal subscribers, especially to those who have also pledged a paid subscription for the future, and croeso mawr to all our new subscribers. There are now more than 500 of you. Please continue to share individual Cwlwm stories with your friends and social networks.
And remember you can access the whole of our archive on our website as well as receiving our regular emails. If you think there’s something happening near you that we should be talking about, please get in touch.
Cofion cynnes,
Dylan Moore – dylan@cwlwm.org | Merlin Gable – merlin@cwlwm.org