2025 is the 38th annual Radyr & Morganstown Festival and is being held in aid of St John Ambulance Cymru.
The Festival started as usual with the Fete. This year it was held in the grounds of Radyr Primary School. The weather was excellent and better weather allowed the event to happen on the school’s fields. We were entertained by the children of both local Primary Schools. As usual the Bar and BBQ were well frequented and a great day was had by all.
The evening saw the first concert of the Festival, organised by Cardiff West Rotary featuring the Castell Coch Choral Society.
Sunday saw the Festival walk, this time a walk around Llantrisant and led by Janet Sully on behalf of the R&M Local History Society. This was followed in the evening by the Civic Service in Christ Church followed by a reception arranged by the Community Council. This was attended by Helen Lloyd-Jones in her official capacity as the Lord Mayor of Cardiff, Alex Barros-Curtis MP, our local Member of Parliament and Mark Drakeford MS who represents the Cardiff West Constituency in the Senedd.
On Wednesday evening we had our third Wine and Cheese evening with Tom Pinder of the Welsh Cheese Company. After the tastings of 6 cheeses, Tom this year was selling some of his products which was very popular with the audience.
Thursday evening saw the traditional Tenovus Quiz.
Friday saw the first lunchtime concert and this was a great opportunity to showcase what the new organ at Christ Church can do. In the evening we had a Science with a Pint in the OCR. There were very many questions from the audience who thoroughly enjoyed the evening.
Saturday heralded our Party in the Park. The weather was fantastic again and whilst we were competing with a number of events around Cardiff for our crowd, those who turned out to heard the bands, drank the real Ale from the bar, ate from the BBQ and/or had their own picnics.
Sunday saw our Open Gardens event. This time we had more gardens open than ever and more visitors. The plant stall was a resounding success and refreshments flowed in the Old Church Rooms.
On Thursday 15th we had a new event which was held at the tennis club called Boozy Bards. Organised by Allan Cook and Gill Evans it was an evening of poems, songs and monologues. After the sessions from invited performers it was thrown open to the audience to perform anything they wanted. Hopefully this event will start to grow in future years.
Friday 16th saw two events. There was a lunchtime concert in the Methodist Hall followed in the evening by an ever popular Jazz Night with the Jazz Group Cube.
On Saturday the Hub was packed for a show for the very young called Mali a’r Mor, Mail and the sea. This was bilingual and included songs, puppetry and tales of wonder for the youngsters. There were two performances and the first was a sell out with the second in the afternoon being almost full.
The Festival ended on Sunday 18th with a concert by Cor Y Gleision at Christ Church in aid of our charity which was thoroughly enjoyed by all..