Author: Rhys Gregory

Christmas at Bute Park is back next month for its fifth year, with a brand-new route, dazzling new displays and street food traders serving tempting festive treats. With more than 104,000 tickets sold in 2024, Christmas at Bute Park will be returning to Cardiff city centre from Friday November 21st through to December 31st, 2025, bringing more than five weeks of festive magic with it. A key addition to this year’s lineup is Water Willow, an installation combining synchronised light and sound effects. It features three large tree structures illuminated with thousands of LEDs. The lights pulse vertically along the…

Musician and producer Cian Ciarán is set to bring a unique composition featuring two self-playing pianos to Japan. The Super Furry Animals’ keyboard player will return to Japan as one of 21 artists and companies showing the breadth of Wales’ creativity and its contemporary expression as part of the Year of Wales and Japan 2025. It comes after the Super Furry Animals announced their return to stages in 2026 marking 25 years since the release of Rings Around the World. Cian will premiere his reinterpretation of the classic folkloric tale of Rhys a Meinir at teamLab Borderless in Tokyo on…

Anna Lloyd, founder of fermented foods brand Bwblin, has been named one of 14 entrepreneurs selected as the British Business Bank’s Start Up Loans Ambassadors for 2025. Based in Anglesey, Bwblin is a vegan, organic and carbon-neutral fermented food brand specialising in small-batch sauerkraut, kimchi and miso – all handmade using locally sourced ingredients and seasonal British produce. As demand for Bwblin’s products quickly outgrew Anna’s kitchen, she applied for a £5,000 Start Up Loan with support from The King’s Trust, one of the Start Up Loans programme’s Business Support Partners. The funding enabled her to invest in professional equipment,…

A housebuilder has helped to revitalise a community’s War Memorial ahead of Remembrance Day following a plea from a local resident. Govilon resident Ivan Beatty has been helping to maintaining the village’s War Memorial for the last 25 years along with his wife Sue. Earlier this year, Mr Beatty, aged 78, reached out to South Wales housebuilder Llanmoor Homes, which is building 51 homes on its Rossers Field development near the village, to see if the business could help spruce up the memorial. Mr Beatty, who served in the Army Catering Corps for 30 years and later worked for the…

Back by popular demand, music legend and TV personality Martin Kemp is returning to South Wales this October with not one, but two massive 80s-themed shows. Following a string of sold-out appearances across the UK, the Spandau Ballet star will bring his ‘80s Gold! The Ultimate 80s DJ Set’ to Swansea’s Patti Pavilion on Thursday 17 October, before heading to Tenby’s De Valence Pavilion on Friday 18 October. Fans can expect an unforgettable night packed with the biggest hits of the decade, as Martin takes to the decks for a high-energy celebration of all things 80s. From Duran Duran and…

The Wales Millennium Centre (WMC) has officially welcomed its very own on-site hive of native Welsh honeybees as part of an innovative Sustainability Programme developed in partnership with Welsh company Bee1. The initiative aims to promote biodiversity, support local pollinators and celebrate the role of bees in Welsh culture and heritage. The hive, located on-site at the iconic Cardiff Bay venue, will be home to a thriving colony of honeybees cared for by trained staff and volunteers. As part of the programme, participants are undertaking beekeeper training designed not only to enhance environmental awareness but also to support health and…

This Halloween, Scream Time, a spooktacular fright fest lands at Margam Country Park ready to give visitors goosebumps and the event organisers have worked closely with the ecologist to make sure that they do not disturb the hundreds of resident bats. Margam Country Park in Port Talbot Wales provides a home to one of the largest variety of species of bats in the UK alongside other wildlife including barn owls. The country estate has recorded species of the three different types of Pipistrelles, Brown Long-Eared bats and Lesser Horseshoe bats, which are named because of the horseshoe shape on their noses which…

If Wednesday Addams ever decided to relocate to Wales, we think we’ve found her dream home. Maes Y Bryn, a vacant 20-bedroom former care home in Port Talbot, is giving serious haunted-house energy — think creaking floorboards, endless corridors, and enough empty rooms to make even the bravest estate agent glance over their shoulder. With peeling paint, gothic-style detailing, and that eerie stillness that only truly old properties can pull off, this grand building could easily double as a film set for a Halloween special. And the best part? You could own it. It’s going under the hammer with Auction…

This Halloween, something wickedly good is heading to Llandovery as the community cinema hosts a special screening of the critically acclaimed Welsh-language horror Gwledd (The Feast). The event takes place on Friday 31 October at Rhys Prichard Memorial Hall, promising an evening filled with horror, community spirit and Welsh culture. Doors open at 5.30pm, with a community meal at 6pm included in the ticket price (or you can bring your own), followed by the film screening at 7pm. Thanks to funding from Ffilm Cymru, Llandovery Community Cinema is showcasing a range of Welsh-language and environmentally themed films throughout the year,…

A man from Neath Port Talbot has been jailed after pleading guilty to possessing indecent images of children. 26-year-old Darren Rogers, from Alltwen, uploaded one Category A indecent video of a child to his Snapchat account in January 2024. Officers arrested Rogers at his home address, before further child sexual abuse material was found on devices belonging to him. Rogers pleaded guilty to four counts of possessing an indecent photograph of a child, one count of possessing a prohibited image of a child, and one count of possessing an extreme pornographic image showing sexual activity involving an animal. He also…