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Home > Events in Cardiff > Cardiff Summer Festival

Cardiff Summer FestivalCardiff Festival

Cardiff festival is back and it is even bigger than before with 16 events over 53 days . The festival with mostly free events will run throughout the whole of July and August. There will be the return of the increasingly popular Cardiff International Food & Drink Festival and Admiral Cardiff Big Weekend plus we have some fantastic events for 2009 including WOW on the Waterfront which this year will be an exciting aerial show in Cardiff Bay and the Grand Medieval Melee in Cardiff Castle. The Cardiff Harbour Festival will bring the summer to a close in great style between 29-31st August. Visit www.cardiff-festival.com for more details. 
 
 

Cardiff Castle Open Air Theatre - Cardiff Castle (2 – 3 July)

A perfect summer’s evening couldn’t get any better than settling down in the grounds of historic Cardiff Castle to watch one of Shakespeare’s most popular works. Returning to Cardiff is the Lord Chamberlain’s Men perform Twelfth Night, a masterpiece of disguise, deception and desire.
 

Tickets:   029 2087 8100. Adults £14 / Children £10


 

Everyman Open Air Theatre Festival - National History Museum, St Fagans (8 July – 1 August)

Cardiff's renowned Everyman Theatre Company presents its Open Air Festival at the Museum of Welsh Life - now in its 27th year. This year's bold programme offers something for everyone this summer:
The Gondoliers by WS Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan 8-18 July - Tickets: £13-15
King Lear by William Shakespeare 22 July-1 August - Tickets: £11 - £15
Toad of Toad Hall by AA Milne based on Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows 25 July-1 August - Tickets: £7 each or £25 for four person family ticket
 
Box Office 0844 8700887 or online everymanfestival.co.uk. All seats are numbered and undercover.
 

Welsh Proms - St David’s Hall (9– 25 July)

Enter in to the spirit of the Welsh proms for 2009 with music from Bollywood to Beethoven and from Samba to Saint Saëns.
The Proms are conducted by their artistic Director Owain Arwel Hughes CBE who brings a combination of wonderful music –making and a festive party atmosphere.
 
With 19 events from top quality orchestras, conductors, soloists, performers and artists and both daytime and evening concerts, there will be something to suit everyone.
 
Plus the Children's Prom and Tiddly Prom are designed for the younger members of the family.  In the Children's Prom children 6 years and up can don their cowboy boots for a visit to the Wild West!  Pre school children can make a trip to Bert’s magical kitchen in Tiddly Prom which is back by popular demand.


Tickets:  029 2087 8444. £5.50 - £24.50

Cardiff International Food & Drink Festival - Roald Dahl Plas, Cardiff Bay (10 – 12 July)Cardiff International Food & Drink Festival

Free Event (some activities ticketed)
Ice-cream workshops at the Norwegian Church (ticketed)
Wine Tasting at the Cardiff Bay Visitors Centre (ticketed)

Let us titillate your taste buds and quench your thirst at the food event of the year, bursting with the very best in farmhouse cheeses, handmade cakes, fresh meat and fish, mouth watering chocolates, speciality liqueurs and much, much more.
Prepare to shop your way around the Food Piazza, Producers Fayre, Craft Market and extended Farmer’s Market before relaxing with a cool drink and catching some of the free entertainment. 
Entertainment - walkabout characters and music with swing jazz, world vibes and celtic all on the menu.
Demonstration Area – with sessions for both children and adults creating exciting dishes from local produce


Blysh - Millennium Centre (17-26 July)

Put some colour in your cheeks this summer with Blysh, a 10-day festival bazaar of carnival delights at Wales Millennium Centre.

Select from a stunning programme of ticketed first-class performances in the Weston Studio – a world of circus and vaudeville.  With all this, plus a host of free street circus and theatre performances and events in and around the Centre, the hardest decision will be deciding what to miss!


Tel: Tickets and Information 08700 402000

Wet Sounds - Splott Pool, Cardiff (20 July)

Come along and be part of the UK’s only underwater sound festival!!
Wet Sounds is a mobile gallery for sound art, it is curated by Joel Cahen each year from work submitted by artists worldwide.
With only 13 dates across the country, Wet Sounds is proud to be part of the Cardiff Festival and has chosen Splott Pool as it’s destination in Wales.
You are invited to dive in the pool and float in the water immersed in sounds and music. The session includes work by international sound artists. You will hear sounds which are composed for listening and for your imagination.
This truly is a unique experience and an opportunity to go to an art show in your bathing costume! 
Regular pool admission – no need to book!!!!!!

 

The Fringe at Cardiff Festival - Bute Theatre, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (28-29 July)

The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama returns this year to present The Fringe at Cardiff Festival. Your only chance to see this preview showcase of 4 shows before it transfers to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival later this summer.


Tues 28 July

7.30pm: Science made Simple presents "Visualise : reloaded" Written by Debbie Syrop
8.30pm: Miles Productions presents "Burton" Written by Gwynne Edwards Burton

 

Weds 29 July

7.30pm: Lisa Wells Turner presents "The Opposite of Waiting"
9.00pm: Found Reality presents "Soft Murders"


Tickets £5. Box office 029 2039 1391 boxoffice@rwcmd.ac.uk
 

WOW on the Waterfront - Roald Dahl Plass, Cardiff Bay (24-25 July)WOW on the Waterfront

Free Event

European street theatre hits dizzying heights during Cardiff Festival. The internationally acclaimed French theatre company Transe Express provide this year’s WOW on the Waterfront, presenting Maudits Sonnants, a large scale, baroque, aerial performance in its Welsh Premiere

One by one the musicians arrive each dreaming on their own tiny stage. Somewhere a bell tolls. The musicians are gradually drawn together by the sound until finally a breathtaking musical chandelier is suspended in the night sky playing music that will evoke childhood memories of both a secret musical box and the dazzling vertigo of the fairground.


Pre-show entertainment from 9pm. Food & Bar facilities available on site

Entertainment from 9pm. Performance 9.30pm. Firework finish 10.30pm

The Sound of Music - Wales Millennium Centre (26 July – 29 August)

Connie Fisher returns as Maria in the world’s bestloved musical, The Sound of Music along with Michael Praed ( Robin in the 1980’s tv series Robin of Sherwood) who will co-star as Captain Von Trapp. This lavish and critically acclaimed production, direct from the London Palladium, tells the story of the Von Trapp family’s flight across the mountains and works its magic once again, for young and old alike.


Tel: Ticket and Information 08700402000


PLEASE NOTE: Connie Fisher is currently scheduled to appear in all performances apart from Sat 8 Aug, Tue eves and Thur mats - with the exception of Tue 4 and Thu 6 Aug. 

The Red Dragon Centre Family Festival - The Red Dragon Centre (26 July)
Free Event

The Red Dragon Centre, Cardiff’s premier entertainment destination, will be entering into the spirit of the Cardiff Festival this year with a ‘Potty about Harry’ event to celebrate this summer’s most anticipated blockbuster, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
 
If you’re Potty about Harry Potter then a magical time is guaranteed for the whole family with a whole host of free activities to keep mini muggles enchanted and thrilled throughout the afternoon.
There will be look-a-like appearances from Harry Potter, Hagrid, Dumbledore, Mad-Eye Moody and Lucius Malfoy, a mystical hall of mirrors, a chance for little ones to try on the magical sorting hat and meet real life owls, as well as a fancy dress competition at 3pm.


12- 5pm. Tel: 029 2025 6261

Horrid Henry - The New Theatre (30 July – 2 August)

Based on the books by Francesca Simon and for the first time ever on stage, Henry takes his rightful place in the spotlight! Along with Mum, Dad, Perfect Peter, Moody Margaret, Rude Ralph and all your favourite Characters. Only they’re not going to be in the spotlight, of course, not if Henry’s got anything to do with it.
Show times Thursday 11.00am &2.30pm; Friday & Saturday 2.30pm & 6.00pm; Sunday 1.00pm & 4.30pm

Tickets from £6
Box office number 029 2087 8889
Online bookings carry a small additional transaction charge

Admiral Cardiff Big Weekend - Civic Centre (31 July – 2 August)

Free Event
 

Admiral Cardiff Big Weekend gets better and better with some of the summer’s top festival acts lining up over three days on the FREE live music stage and the UK’s largest travelling funfair filling Cardiff's civic centre with traditional family attractions and mind-blowing white knuckle rides.
We’ve got three incredible headline acts with Kids in Glass Houses, Third World and The Zutons and the ladies are also firmly centre stage this year with dazzling performances from Camera Obscura, Ebony Bones, Karima Francis and the award winning Imelda May.

Cardiff MAS Carnival - Civic Centre (1 Aug)Cardiff MAS Carnival

Free Event

It’s the 20th ANNIVERSARY of the annual Cardiff MAS Carnival which brings Cardiff City Centre alive with hundreds of flamboyant costumes and carnival creations, masks and headpieces, giant puppets on backpacks and mobile sculptures – all dancing dynamically through the streets of Cardiff with a finale presentation at The Big Weekend on City Hall lawn.
Plus NEW for 2009 : join the reveller up close for Cardiff’s first ever STREET JAM in St Mary’s Street as the parade stops for a half hour of high-energy street performances.

Saturday 1st August – Cardiff MAS Carnival 2009 City Centre Parade.
Leaves Canal Path Park in Butetown at 12 noon, parading up Bute Street , St Mary’s Street and Castle Street and on to The Admiral Cardiff Big Weekend on City Hall lawn by 2pm

Classic Motorboat and Car Rally - Cardiff Bay (Sunday 16 Aug)

The increasingly popular Classic Car and Motorboat Rally is back and part of the Cardiff Festival this year featuring vintage cars and boats.

Enthusiasts will welcome visitors to view their vintage boats and cars from across the ages, when they will be sited in Oval Basin and the Inner Harbour. 12 – 4pm
 

Grand Medieval Melee - Cardiff Castle (15-16 August)

Enter the magical setting of Cardiff Castle for some serious time-travelling, in fact 700 years !

Stroll around the colourful encampment on the Castle Green and enter a medieval world - a world of sword fighting, archery, field and table games and soldier’s drills.
10.30am – 5.30pm
Special event ticket*: Adults £3.50; Seniors £2.75; Children £2.00
* This ticket allows you access to the grounds of the Castle to view the Medieval Mêlée only

Cardiff Harbour Festival - Cardiff Bay (29-31 Aug)Cardiff Harbour Festival

Free Event – some activities may involve charges
 
What better way to celebrate the end of the Summer with “Fish n Ships” in Cardiff Bay, a long bank holiday weekend of nautical entertainment for all the family.
With spectacular aerial and water displays,Tall ships including the Tangaroa, the Ruth and the Matthew, sea craft displays, sea shanty singers, walkabout entertainers, a continental market plus a superb music- line-up.
Plus come along and be amazed at the British Fish Craft Championships being held for the first time in Cardiff plus fish displays, tips on preparing and cooking and selling fish plus the ‘Welsh Oyster Opening Championships’.
 

For more information on Cardiff Festival, click here

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