A performance by Indian classical dance company Pagrav Dance along with a curry night in Solva Memorial Hall on 12 April, marked the end of an era for an individual who has been responsible for organising dozens of performances by artists from all over the world in the village of Solva, through Arts Council of Wales’ Night Out Scheme.

Carol Ann Jones, who moved to the village 30 years ago has decided that the time is right to hand over the baton, although she promises to continue to be involved both as a committee and audience member.

At 88, Carol Ann says that the increased use of digital methods of marketing and communication on email and social media means that she’s now happy to take a step back, after 20 years of working with the committee to bring shows to the village in Pembrokeshire.

Carol Ann said, “I’m handing over to a lady who has bags of oomph, much more than I ever had I think, and she’s great on the technology and the cooking, so she’s going to be fantastic, I know she is.”

Back to where it all began

Carol Ann started to organise Night Out events around the time the hall was refurbished in 2005, when improvements were made, including putting down a new floor and changing the toilets. The hall had organised events such as dances and plays in the past, but at the time they were thinking of fresh ideas for bringing the community together.

“It’s an elderly hall and it’s a hundred years old, but I just love it,” explains Carol Ann. “I’ve been living here for 30 years and visiting for 63 years, and I love Solva - it’s such a lovely community. The first time I started thinking about organising something in our little village, I was in a farm shop nearby, and saw a poster for the Mellstock Band. I’m a great fan of Thomas Hardy as a former teacher, and the word Mellstock grabbed me! I went to see it in a little chapel down in South Pembrokeshire, and I thought, ‘I think WE could do that’, and they were our very first ones. 

“Since then, we’ve just had a couple of acts through Night Out a year. One of our firm favourites must be the Farnham Maltings theatre company – I think we must have had them about 8 to 10 times. If they said they had a new show I’d say, ‘right, we’ll have it’, I didn’t even need to know what it was going to be about because they were always so good. They usually did a play that was written by the director of the group – sometimes they did adaptations like Miracle on 34th Street or It’s a Wonderful Life, but mostly their own original work. Very thought-provoking, and very good indeed.

“What I’ve tried to do is to get a variety of things – one thing that was a real turning point was when Peter and Hilary from the Arts Council of Wales invited me to the Rural Touring Conference at Caerleon - that was an eye-opener really. It made me realise the breadth of the work available by showcasing little snippets of acts, and two of those acts came down to Solva after that. One was Mabon, which was a Cardiff group which came to us three times. People would start saying to me ‘Have you got Farnham Maltings?’ ‘Have you got Mabon again?’ They got to know and follow them. Some people come to everything, they just support us. Other people decide what they’d like.”

Getting to know the acts

Over time, Carol Ann and her fellow volunteers have developed strong relationships with some of the more regular acts:

“We get to know the acts and that is lovely. We’ve had some super evenings with Kevin Tomlinson of Kepow Theatre who asks the audience to help him write a musical, with everyone writing songs on a piece of paper. After the Covid pandemic, I chose him as the first one to come back because I knew that everyone liked him and it would be a fun night. They’re all good, we’ve had musicians, we’ve had somebody from France. They do such a hard job really, to get it all in and all up I think it’s amazing.”

Over the years, Carol Ann has learnt a lot about programming and how it isn’t always an exact science.

“I like what I like and I like what I think other people will like, but of course the audience is changing all the time. Some people leave it until the last minute to buy tickets which I have to admit has given me a few sleepless nights over the years, but I’m a person who books early, I realise not everyone is the same.”

Constantly evolving

Looking back, Carol Ann is keen to emphasise how energetic people are at the heart of village communities.

“I think with the Solva Amateur Dramatics Society (SADS) and Young SADS, the Film Club and Night Out, we’ve been able to pull together and bring theatre and a bit of culture into the village really.  

“Night Out have been fantastic. Honestly, I couldn’t rate them higher. They are so helpful and I’ve always tried to get as much money as I can from the ticket sales so we could pay them back so they can pass that on for other communities to give it a go.

Schemes such as Night Out are essential for village life in my opinion.  We have the Torch Theatre here in Pembrokeshire, which is wonderful but a lot of people are retired and you don’t want to go miles at night. However, that doesn’t mean people don’t want to do anything, they just want to do it nearer to home and Night Out works very well for that.

The future 

“People worry that there won’t be committee members in the future, but I don’t. I think when you get older and retire, you have a look around for things to do, and I think that will continue. You have the time, unlike working people, and you have the energy.

"Another thing that’s an improvement with some of our new team is that we have a bar now, and that’s making a lot of difference. Recently we did cocktails for two at Christmas and it was such an enjoyable evening, with a local big band singer, Tony Jacobs. 

“I think people are coming along like I did 30 years ago – coming into a community, finding it’s buzzing, and enjoying it really. I’m very hopeful for the future.”

To learn more about the Night Out scheme, visit https://www.nightout.org.uk/