Crowds turned up in their thousands over the weekend in sunny Cardiff for the Roald Dahl festival, and I was in amongst all the action.
I don’t think the organisers themselves anticipated the sheer volume of people that would turn up on the day, despite the event being heavily publicised. The weather definitely attracted more people too, and thank goodness it was fine.
The event itself had taken two years to put together. The sheer amount of detail was insane and it definitely took a lot of planning to cover such a vast area of the city. There was so much going on, with various pop up performances they had dotted around the place. As it was all so spread out and people wern’t 100% where they were going, it did get quite chaotic at one point.
Although the event organisers had created an app (which was supposed to update you with all the info) it crashed. Typical right? More than likely due to the sheer volume on people trying to access it. That aside, there were so many wow moments, too many to mention really but here’s just a few.
Roald Dahl Festival Highlights
The parade
The parade itself consisted of a few things. From old fashioned cars, dancing umbrellas at the NCP car park, brass bands and more. In amongst it all there was a protest, engaging crowds to chant and get involved to ‘save our peach’, followed obviously by the peach itself.
The giant peach
I anticipated that it would be a big peach, after all the word ‘giant’ gives you a bit of a clue. But OMG, I honestly was not expecting this. I have no idea how they created this beast of a thing, but it was very impressive. I couldn’t believe that there were people actually carrying it down Westgate Street towards the castle. It must have weighed a ton. It looks huge in the photos but I really don’t think you can really gauge the size of it unless you saw it for real.
Acrobatic Foxes
This event was supposed to follow after the castle show, but due to the sheer amount of people that were stood under the tight rope they had to cancel. This left quite a few people pissed off as they’d been stood there for over an hour to see it. I understand how frustrating this must have been, but it wasn’t safe for the performance to go ahead. The area beneath the tight rope needed to be kept clear! After crowds moved to various other shows around the city, there was enough clearance for the performance to go ahead. Unfortunately, I missed this happening but the photos look pretty impressive.
Castle wall creatures
If you ever come to Cardiff, it’s worth checking out the famous animal wall. Usually there are 15 wild beast sculptures that appear to be climbing from the interior of Bute Park onto the street. Only this time, they had company. The photo above is just one of the many creatures they had on display. What made them even more amazing was that the majority of them were infact puppets that moved. The sloth was one of my faves, I love sloths – they’re so cute!
Night Show
Watch Cardiff’s City Hall transform into a giant chocolate factory. #UnexpectedCity @visitwales @VisitCardiff pic.twitter.com/vXPwvXKuiE
— discoverbritainmag (@We_love_Britain) September 19, 2016
Later on in the evening outside City Hall, audiences gathered outside to witness the wedding of Miss Ladybird and Mr Fireman. This was then followed by a light projection show that covered the face of the building. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, James floated across the crowd whilst being suspended by the giant peach. The evening came to a close with a spectacular firework display.
The celebrations continued into Sunday, and the weather continued to be glorious. All events were held in the Bute Park area of the city where there was plenty to see any do.
Pyjama Picnic
This was my idea of heaven. Food + pyjamas = day made! Everyone was welcome to come along and bring their own picnic and wear pyjamas. Absolutely Dahl-icious!
Pillow Fights
The aftermath of the Pillow Fight / Canlyniad yr Ymladdfa Glustodau #UnexpectedCity pic.twitter.com/Vf0C0eLjpj
— CityOfTheUnexpected (@cityunexpected) September 18, 2016
Around 1,200 people got involved in a massive pillow fight whilst wearing their pyjamas. Dream.Come.True!
Celebrity Readings
If you wanted to listen to the readings you had to get tickets, and unfortunately I missed out on this. Tickets sold out incredibly fast. Those who did manage to get in on the action were treated numerous readings. One of which was held by ‘Game Of Thrones‘ actress Gemma Whelan who read ‘The Twits’.
If you missed out on any of the action and happen to be in the Cardiff area, don’t forget to visit ‘The Enormous Crocodile’ on the barrage between Cardiff Bay and Penarth. It really is enormous!
Did you go to the Roald Dahl festival over the weekend? Let me know what your favourite part was in the comment box below.
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