Following the inaugural festival in 2010, the Cardiff Mardi Gras Arts Festival is back for 2011, celebrating the best of Cardiff’s vibrant arts scene. This year the festival features a full week of events in the run-up to the main Mardi Gras event at Coopers Field on Saturday 3 September.
Nofit State and Jukebox Juniors
Friday 26 August 7.30pm
The Nofit State Circus, John St, Cardiff
A night of Fire, Fun and Fantastic dancing, courtesy of Nofit State and Jukebox Juniors. Nofit State’s next generation will be premiering two new productions:
Spark - A joint venture with the fantastic Jukebox Juniors, featuring urban dance combined with Nofit State’s top fire performers.
Firelight - Directed by Denni Dennis, featuring tightwire, juggling, trapeze and the talents of Nofit State’s youth circus.
Tickets: £5 / £3
Box Office: 029 2022 1330
Craft Workshops
Saturday 27 August 12.00 – 3.00pm
Cardiff Central Library, The Hayes, Cardiff
In collaboration with Makers Guild in Wales and Cardiff Central Library, Cardiff-Wales Mardi Gras are pleased to offer you a chance to have a go at being creative with workshops in feltmaking and jewellery.
Craft in the Bay is the retail venue for contemporary craft made by members of the Makers Guild in Wales. A charitable organisation, it offers the public with opportunities to participate in craft workshops, visit exhibitions and meet the makers at craft demonstrations. Find out more here.
Tickets: £20
South Wales Gay Men’s Chorus Concert
Sunday 28 August 1.00pm – 4.00pm
Norwegian Church Arts Centre, Cardiff Bay
South Wales Gay Men’s Chorus present an afternoon of music, fun and a few surprises in support of Cardiff Wales LGBT Mardi Gras.
Tickets: Free
Mardi Gras does Clwb Ifor Bach
Monday 29 August 8.00pm
Clwb Ifor Bach, Womanby Street, Cardiff
An evening celebrating the best the Welsh-language music scene has to offer, featuring Clinigol and JJ Sneed with Radio Cymru’s Nia Medi on the decks.
Clinigol
There was a time when pop music was embraced only after too many double-Vodkas in Walkabout on a Saturday night. But recently, music of the super-happy sing-a-long variety have burst free of peoples’ ‘guilty pleasures’ playlist and found themselves as the scenesters’ tunes of choice.
“Slick producers and downright bonkers front-men have helped put the ‘popular’ back into pop – and Cardiff-based Clinigol are no exception” – Buzz Magazine
JJ Sneed
Valleys-born “JJ Sneed” is a DJ/Singer/Producer/Songwriter with a passion for music and culture. Releasing his music through Kissan Records: the home of Cartin Finch, Ryland Tefi, Rusty Shackle and many more. Over the last year he has been preparing his up and coming album which is still to be named and can’t wait to finish at the acapela studio in Pentyrch with owner and producer Hywel Wigley.
With his first single Gobaith/Hope reaching the UK top 100 on 16th December the hype is getting bigger on the internet by the day. His music is an elaborate mixture of Alternative/Ambient/Electro and with his amazing Rock Style vocal ability makes him not only current, but a voice for the future that will continue to amaze his fans.
JJ Sneed has also been named as ‘one to watch for 2011’ by S4C’s Wedi7, a popular channel within the Welsh Community, and is often played on Radio Cymru’s C2 Programme and BBC Radio1 Introducing.
Tickets: £4.00
Pay on the door
Stevenage
Tuesday 30 August 7.00pm
Chapter Arts Centre, Canton, Cardiff
“In August of 1968 a young man wearing a brown corduroy suit travelled from his home in the Midlands and ran away to Stevenage New Town. Something happened there, or didn’t happen, and what happened because of what didn’t happen is what you are paying to have me tell you. Well, that’s not entirely true. I invited you. But you must have been interested enough to come. And it means that I must have a stake in all this. Putting things straight. Getting it all out in the open…”
Stevenage is a multi-media solo performance by Mandy Romero, transgender artist. Stevenage – the first English New Town – is an unlikely subject for a performance. But it’s a performance which beautifully explores many interlinked lives – the “young man in the brown corduroy suit”, an English pastoral poet, a young woman who moved south in the early years of the 20th century, a young film actor, a town, two villages and the lives of a post-war generation – to the very present day. Conceived and created by Mandy Romero. Directed by Cathy Butterworth.
Tickets: £10 / £8 / £6
Jazz & Cocktails
Wednesday 31 August 7.00pm
Cardiff Central Library, The Hayes, Cardiff
Entertainment provided by:
Arcomis
An exclusive set performed by The Butler in the Billiard Room to include world premieres of some new works commissioned through Arcomis (Arts Commissioning) – an organisation that specialises in enabling individuals and businesses to commission new music.
Jenny Bradley’s Occasional Brass Ensemble
The Occasional Brass Ensemble recreates the acoustic street band sound of New Orleans with fewer players but without missing a beat.
With intense swing rhymes, the collectively generated heat of group improvisation and the incorporation of elements of modern jazz and pop into its New Orleans Mardi Gras style. The Occasional Brass Ensemble is the ideal companion to any occasion for celebration.
Tickets £4.00 (pay on the door)
Cardiff Mardi Gras Cabaret Night
Thursday 1 September 7.00pm
L3 Lounge, St David’s Hall
The Mardi Gras Arts Festival is proud to bring you a taste of the city’s best-loved cabaret performance. Compered by Tina Sparkle.
Cabaret Whales: The Comeback Tour
Following a five-year hiatus, four children, three husbands, two court sentences, and one parasite, Cabaret Whales are back!
Desperately seeking stardom, Cabaret Whales return to the Cardiff Mardi Gras with a unique blend of comedy and pop. Taking to the stage with stories, stand-up and reworked versions of classic hits, Cabaret Whales will give you the biggest bang of the summer.
(Poppers not included)
Starring Sara Lloyd & Llinos Mai. Written by Roger Williams.
Sue Timms
From the Total Theatre Award-winning cult smash My Name is Sue, the piano-wielding prophet from Wales returns to Cardiff after a self-induced hibernation, for one night only, to perform some of her favourite songs.
Accompanied by her backing musicians on violin, cello and drums, she’ll combine virtuosic piano playing with a soaring falsetto, apocalyptic visions and songs about everything from economic bus travel to the work of Julia Roberts.
“bizarre but brilliant…hysterically funny and beautifully played” **** Time Out
Written by Ben Lewis and Dafydd James and starring Sue Timms & The Three Sues.
Tickets: £8.00
‘Literature doesn’t have to be boring!’ workshops by Jane Blank
Friday 2 September
Cardiff Central Library, The Hayes, Cardiff
Poetry Workshop 10.00am – 12 noon
Monologues Workshop 1.00pm – 3.00pm
Jane Blank is a qualified teacher of English and Drama with extensive experience of teaching both adults and young people. She holds an MA (Dist.) from Cardiff University in the Teaching and Practice of Creative Writing and has been published in a range of genres. At present she teaches in a Welsh language secondary school and continues to devise and run weekend ARCA courses on many aspects of writing and literature. She has worked for Farncombe Estate Centre in the Cotswolds and The Hill college in Abergavenny.
Jane’s work has won prizes and awards, and been featured in numerous magazines and anthologies including Planet, New Welsh Review, Poetry Wales, Poetry Quarterly Review, The Western Mail, Big Issue, Observer Magazine and The Independent. In 2003 she launched her first collection of Poetry, Naked Playing the Cello with The Collective Press in Berlin. More recent publication includes an autobiographical piece for Honno Press’ award winning anthology Laughing Not Laughing. Her first novel, The Geometry of Love for Y Lolfa has attracted a lot of media attention. Set in 1980s Sheffield and the Muslim community of Lille, Northern France, it is selling well.
As a performer Jane works mostly with classical music, poetry and theatre, enjoying in particular contemporary and Jacobean drama. Recent projects include directing and acting in productions of Purcell’s ‘Arthur’ and Gilbert and Sullivan’s ‘Trial by Jury’. Jane is a Member of Academi.
Jane’s recent work includes ‘Nanteos’ script and the dramatisation of her novel ‘The Geometry of Love’.
Both workshops are open to anyone over the age of 16. Admission is free but spaces are limited. Email Hywel@cardiffmardigras.co.uk to reserve your place.
Hell’s Bent vs Femme Fatale
Friday 2 September 10.00pm
The Globe, Albany Road, Cardiff
Join us at the official Cardiff Mardi Gras Arts Festival after party, in association with Hell’s Bent and Femme Fatale.