Music, sunshine, and community spirit

A guest blog post by Dominique Behn.

On a Sunday in June we celebrated the second Shelley Gardens Community Food Festival, a beautiful eclectic community gathering initiated by Green City Events and Cynefin Cardiff with a mix of sustainable living workshops, tasty local food, and talented Cardiff musicians.

I had just moved to the Plasnewydd area when I visited the first Shelley Gardens community festival last year with friends. We had a great day basking in the good weather and the amazing variety of food that was on offer. I couldn’t wait for it to take place again and jumped at the chance to actually get involved!

Video by Defy Designs

This year, I volunteered to help out with the festival and ended up looking after the workshop tent and listening in to the great talks on food waste, composting, bees and a dolma wrapping demo. The Plasnewydd Community Garden also opened its gates for gardening tips, tea and cake, and some beautiful chickens that I got to hold. I met a lot of really friendly and interesting people and found out a few sustainable living tips I didn’t know before!
Alongside volunteering I ate my fill of the amazing variety of food and flavours on offer. The local cafes, restaurants and delis were out in force with Frankie’s Italian, Cypriot-inspired food from Lia’s Kitchen, vegetarian and vegan offerings from Anna Loka and the MADE cafe, Lebanese food from Mezza Luna, Portuguese baked goodies from Nata Bakery and many more!

It’s not all about the food and sustainable living though. You could tell that little kids and big kids loved the entertainment on offer, from the circus workshops and live music to the pedal-powered art drum and bubble machine. There was colourful art hanging to dry everywhere and I didn’t once see a hula hoop touch the ground for a rest!
Attending the festival, and especially volunteering, has helped me to meet more like-minded people in the community who I would never have got in touch with otherwise and it’s leading me to other exciting volunteering opportunities. Bringing everyone from the community together regardless of their age, race or income – especially in these austerity-driven times - is a really positive thing and this festival does it brilliantly.
Music, sunshine, and community spirit… I couldn’t think of a better way to spend a Sunday!