Made in Roath 2017 is fast approaching. The festival this year kicks off on the 15th of October and runs until the 22nd. We’ll have the usual seven days of art, poetry, stage, film, photography, workshops, unexpected street chess, random flag parades and loads, loads more filling the streets and homes of Roath.
The theme of this years festival is “When you have more than you need, build a longer table, not a higher fence”. This is a global comment on the state of the world and a reflection on how lucky we are to live where we do in such a rich, warm, welcoming, creative community.
We see examples of this goodness every year when we put on the festival. Made in Roath couldn’t happen without the generosity and kindness people show in helping, running or volunteering their time or space for the festival. The perfect example of this is in ‘Open Houses’. The fact that people open up their homes, turning them into art galleries for the enjoyment of others is the personification of this philanthropy.
We see it too in the creativity. It is always amazing to see the brilliantly creative, imaginative and inventive projects that are submitted to us. It’s fantastic to see these submissions come to life and jump from the page into reality for the seven days of the festival.
There will be tonnes going on each day. We’ll be holding a special pre-festival event on Saturday the 14th in the Gate Art centre as Wonderbrass celebrates 25 years of music making. Then on Sunday the 15th we are especially thrilled to be launching this years festival with a special parade through Roath. “By my side, Come rain or shine” is a project designed to celebrate the diverse communities, locations, friends and families that make Roath a very special place to be.
Our CREATE coordinator Pip Tudor has been working with artist James Cocks and community groups over the last seven months, to make a series of postcards and flags representing each group. We’ll be walking these flags through Roath finishing at the Inkspot Arts space with Congregation, an evening of music, entertainment and refreshments.
We’ll be posting a new blog post featuring a certain aspect of the festival over the next few days but if you can’t wait then do check out the online brochure.
As always thanks for reading, see you in Roath.