Roots and Froots

It's Sunday afternoon, two days after the third Roots and Froots Food Fair (the second time it's featured as part of the D Festival), and now that the fatigue and relief have subsided, I am able to reflect on the huge sense of pride, camaraderie and belonging that I am feeling.

Friday's activities not only included the throughly wonderful Roots and Froots, its wonderfulness I shall explain shortly, but also our "Decade of Change" photographic exhibition and the valley heritage tour, conducted by our inimitable historian and venerable social animator, Tom Marston.

The Roots and Froots Food Fair was once again a masterclass in local trade and sustainability, with stall holders as diverse as handcrafted jewellery, Indian saris and cuisine, and meats and cheese as fresh as you can get. For the second time it was held at the Sarn Helen Community Garden, an idea that has proved to be inspired, although there was an almost audible sigh of relief at the distinct lack of precipitation this year! The level of localism on display was commendable and unique; the Sarn Helen Garden Team work hard all year to espouse and foster the principles of sustainability, and it has become a mantra to talk about food 'feet' rather than food miles. These principles are never better demonstrated than during such a community-focused event, during which residents were able to purchase high quality, affordable produce, the least local of which had travelled all the way from the farthest reaches of exotic Llandeilo. A special mention must also go to the staff and children of Maesmarchog Primary School and their enterprise club, who, during their summer holidays, spent the whole day supplying fresh and delicious smoothies; I hope they managed to turn a profit!

The biggest success of the day, in my humble opinion, was the solidarity and flow between staff, volunteers and attendees alike. The event, including the history tour and photographic display, was organised and executed by several different organisations, and a difficult feat at best. Nowadays, this is often called partnership working, and whilst it is indeed an honourable pursuit, variable factors like personalities, egos and different organisational structures and policies, often make a recipe for disaster. However, I believe we like to do things differently in the Dulais Valley, and Friday's activities were delivered with exceptional professionalism and textbook 'partnership working'. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all those who helped make it what it was, including the stall holders and volunteers and community, but particularly the staff of Dove Workshop and Cwmdulais Uchaf Communities First, doing, as always, whatever it takes to make things work.

DC

D Festival '11

With the second annual D Festival looming, I return from my summer holidays pondering what a community festival means to a community. Historically the south Wales Valleys have been the home of village carnivals and meccas to jazz bands and fancy-dressers alike. However, the post-industrial years of the 80s and 90s saw a decline in these types of carnivals, and the Dulais Valley was no different. The patronage and interest dwindled, insurance costs and bureaucracy created no end of barriers, and as a result volunteers and the yearly events became sporadic, small-scale and poorly attended.

Despite all this, a strong, often changing, cohort of Dulais Valley citizens have managed, one way or another, to keep things going over the years and we should be proud of this. However, the Dulais Valley Festival, an effort to run a valley-wide carnival if you will, came and went (for many reasons), and the modern day Seven Sisters Carnival and Banwenbury are in the main highly localised occasions that have failed to achieve that elusive valley cohesion.

So, as we fast approach this year's D Festival, a three day occasion with a mix of events spread across the valley, I am compelled to ask myself what the point is? The details, for what they are, is that the D Festival consists of Dove Workshop's Roots and Froots Food Fair on the Friday, accompanied by a heritage trail and a photographic exhibition; a vintage fair at Cefn Coed Colliery Museum on Saturday, and a day of music at Seven Sisters Bandstand on Sunday afternoon. This is very different to the carnivals of old, as described above, but in many ways the D Festival feels better for it; contemporary, different, interesting.

However, one unfortunate similarity exists, and yet again the success of a valley wide event depends on the efforts of a hardcore (but very small) band of committed organisers, and I'm left to hope that it's not an indicator of the level of interest we're going to have next weekend. Last year's D Festival was held on quite possibly the wettest weekend since records began, and so if it wasn't as populated as we'd have liked it to be, well, we could always blame the rain...

So, if the sun decides to put its hat on next weekend, will we see the people come in their thousands? Well, I doubt it. But, whilst we are yet to find out, we'd settle for a few hundred, and that, I'm pleased to say, is a figure we're optimistically aiming for.

The future of the D Festival, or any other valley-wide community event, is unknown. But I like to keep faith in the fact that whilst there are people prepared to turn up, there'll be people prepared to put the hard work into organising them, no matter how small that small but committed group might be.

DC

For more info go to dfestival.org

Communities First - The Future

Two days ago, Carl Sargeant AM, Minister for Local Government and Communities, launched a consultation on the future of Communities First post-2012. A document has been published which outlines the Welsh Government's proposals for changes to the programme, and that document can be found at http://wales.gov.uk/consultations/housingcommunity/futurecommfirst/?lang=en. We are currently having local discussions about the proposals, and what they mean for our communities, and we shall be making posting our thoughts in the coming weeks. Your veiws and comments are welcomed.