Arts Council of Wales supports thousands of arts activities and projects throughout the year. From our village halls, to our major festivals, Arts Council of Wales makes sure that the arts reaches all corners of Wales.
This summer we’ll be giving you a taste of just some of the vibrant and diverse arts activities taking place with our support, through our Night Out scheme, and with support from the players of The National Lottery. So whether it’s rain or shine, the arts this summer is bound to make you smile!
The African arts and culture festival is hosted in north and south Wales, with the first part held at Neuadd Ogwen, Bethesda from 1 to 3 June, and the second part at the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff on the weekend of 10 and 11 June.
Both weekends are jam-packed with live music, dance, music and spoken-word workshops, as well as art and photography exhibitions; the Wales Africa Celebration is a great opportunity to experience the richness and diversity of African culture.
“The Celebration is an opportunity to discover something new, and to enjoy performances of the highest standard,” says Cathryn McShane-Kouyaté, a member of the Successors of the Mandingue who have organised the Celebration in partnership with Neuadd Ogwen, Butetown Arts & Culture Association and Rahim El Habachi.
“Many of these artists travel the world performing and they’re renowned internationally for a reason – they are so, so good.”
The festival showcases bands who have travelled from African countries and African artists who are based in Wales and the UK. Two of those stepping to the stage at the Wales Millennium Centre this weekend are Rasha, a Sudanese singer song-writer, and the Congolese star known as The King of Soukous, the Kanda Bongo Man.
Also performing at the festival is N’famady Kouyaté, a musician and singer from Guinea, who now calls Cardiff his home.
“Having lived in Wales for over five years now, and seeing how people in Wales have responded to my music and my culture, it’s really exciting to be able to bring something beyond that to the Welsh audience,” he says. “It was an amazing experience in Neuadd Ogwen. It was so great to see people’s reactions and the energy was amazing. I can’t wait for Cardiff now!”
As part of the Celebration N’famady has worked with Welsh singer Eve Goodman, and two other creative partnerships were also established; singer Dafydd Iwan was teamed up with Ali Goolyad from Butetown in Cardiff, born in Somaliland, and dancers Krystal Lowe who lived in Newport but is originally from Bermuda and Aida Diop who lives in Swansea but is originally from Senegal also joined forces.
“A gig with N’famady was one of the first things we put on after Covid,” says Dilwyn Llwyd, manager at Neuadd Ogwen. “Discussions about the Celebration have continued since then so it’s great that it’s finally happening. All the performances over the weekend were fantastic, and there was a great audience right from the start.
“One of the main things for me is to showcase Welsh and international acts side-by -side, then you get people mixing, people from different cultures. Historically, you would have had two separate audiences for those events, an audience for world music and a different audience for Welsh language music, but we’re seeing them mix a lot more these days and that’s what I want, to make sure that that mixing is happening.”
“Without the Arts Council’s support, without the funding it just wouldn’t be possible. We couldn’t start something new like this, with artists of this standard, international artists.”
Cathryn McShane-Kouyaté, Successors of the Mandingue.
Singer and guitarist Josh Whyte who goes by the stage name Blank Face, originally from Nigeria and living in Cardiff, also attended the Celebration as part of an ‘early career’ programme. He said of the opening weekend in Bethesda: “It was a lot of fun, a very scenic weekend. I really enjoyed meeting the locals and creating memories that would last a lifetime.”
If you would like to experience something new and create memories that will last a lifetime, head over to the Wales Millennium Centre website to order your tickets for the second weekend of the Wales Africa Celebration: https://www.wmc.org.uk/en/whats-on/2023/dathliad-cymru-affrica-festival
Dathliad Cymru Affrica Festival was organised by The Successors of the Mandingue, Neuadd Ogwen, Butetown Arts & Culture Association (BACA) and Rahim El Habachi.