Green Fayre success despite the weather!

This was the first Green Fayre for Neath Port Talbot Fairtrade Forum and it attracted close to 100 people over the two days. Stalls included, the Unusual Food Company, the Energy Saving Trust, RSPB, Sanburu Wales Aid, Jumble Tumble and Dee Emy Designs. The Riverside Centre at Glantawe Riverside Park proved to be the perfect setting. It was beautifully decorated to fit the season and had a warm intimate feel to it. Coupled with excellent facilities, I would whole heartedly recommend the venue to anyone looking for a cosy and friendly location. The staff were at hand to help if needed and they made us feel very welcome. Chris Quinn, Neath Port Talbot Fair Trade Forum.

Christmas Treats at the Riverside Centre

Thank you to all who came to our Christmas Carol Evening last Friday 10th and made it such a special night. Thanks to June Ashton-Mears who turned up with friends and family in superb Victorian costume and who also kitted out our staff in similar attire. Music was provided by the talented String Button Band who played much older versions of our traditional carols and children and adults alike all joined in with singing carols throughout the evening.





Yes Y Fari did appear to cause mischief and mayhem at one stage in the evening which certainly woke some of the young people up! A really lovely, warm and light filled evening and all of us at the Riverside Centre wish everyone an Merry Christmas and much happiness in the New Year.

Many thanks to Tesco Pontarawe for donating £20 towards the refreshments.

Riverside Lanterns at WinterFest

The Riverside group took part in the Pontardawe WinterFest parade on Friday 3rd December. The parade, which is organised by Neath Port Talbot Council, was filled with people in fantastic costumes and there was fire juggling and huge stilt characters. People who came to our lantern making workshops had their own place and we did our bit to light up the streets of Pontardawe.

The parade ended at the Arts Centre and people then stayed on for an evening of great entertainment at the WinterFest. Thanks to all who braved the freezing conditions and the sleet as you made the parade such a special and magical event.

The WinterFest is organised by the Pontardawe Chamber of Trade who runs regular festivals throughout the year www.pontardawe.org/web

Best Riding Club of Great Britain!

All at Arena Pontardawe extend their congratulations to our one of our partner groups - Cwmamman Riding Club, who are now officially the 'Best Riding Club of Great Britain', beating all UK riding clubs by an amazing 63 points!! - we wish them a very happy Christmas and another successful year to come.

Victorian Chirstmas Carols Friday 10th December

It's that time of year again and the Riverside will be holding an evening of Christmas carols and seasonal festivities on Friday 10th December from 7pm - 9.30pm. The evening will have a Victorian theme with old style decorations, carols ancient and modern and music all evening. You can have a go at making pomanders and Calennigs and learn about this old Welsh New Years tradition.

A great thanks to June Ashton-Mears Costumes (jam2910@btinternet.com 07960 637800) who will be turning up in their Victorian costumes and have also dressed our staff up as well (see picture!). It will be £3 per person and this will include a glass of mulled wine/soft drink and mince pies. Y Fari Lwyd may also make an appearance so you have been warned.

Riverside plays host to the Perfect Pets dog training club

Riverside plays host to the Perfect Pets dog training club twice a week. Kennel Club listed trainer, Linda Reynolds takes dogs from basic puppy training right through to bronze, silver and gold level Kennel Club Good Citizen Dog scheme. Linda can also assist with problem dogs on a one to one basis.

If you're interested, give Linda a call on 07546 520696

The dogs pictured are some of the advanced class working towards their golds.

Mask Making

Thanks for everyone who came to the mask making workshop last Saturday. Everyone had a really good time and we now have a good group of us for the WinterFest procession on Friday 3rd December. Remember your sparkly masks and lanterns! We will have hand-made lanterns for sale on that evening for anyone else who wants to join us but couldn't make the workshop.

PLEASE NOTE: due to unforeseen circumstances the second mask workshop on Sat 27th November has been cancelled.

NPT's Green Fayre - 11th & 12th Dec Riverside Centre

Neath Port Talbot are holding their Green Fayre for the Christmas season at the Riverside Centre on Sat 11th and Sun 12th December.

Visit the Fairtrade Santa, sample delicious fair trade products, visit stalls, discover local produce and much, much more!

FREE ENTRY

For further info contact Climate Change unit 01639 686527 greener@npt.gov.uk

Click on the thumbnail image to see the full size poster.

Lantern Making Workshop

The first of the workshops to make lanterns and masks for the WinterFest parade on 3rd December took place last Saturday 13th November. Viv Rhule helped everyone make lanterns of all shapes and sizes and it was magical to see them all lit up as the afternoon became darker. Everyone really enjoyed themselves and quite a few spare lanterns have been made so if you still want to join in the parade but don’t have a lantern we will be selling some of them just before the parade.

The parade will start at 6pm on the 3rd December at Pontardawe Football Club and will end outside the Arts Centre. If you want to join us with your lanterns and masks then please be at the Football Club at by 5.30 and say that you are part of the Riverside Lantern Bearers group. Next workshop will take place this Saturday 20th Nov from 10am - 3pm where we will be making our masks. This is a drop in workshop and it costs £3 per participant.

Halloween Shadow Puppets and Stories

Over 40 young people and adults braved the dark time of Halloween to come to the Riverside Centre to listen to scary stories and make shadow puppets. Helyn Latimer from Puppet Theatre Wales led the sessions and people made their own puppets and performed with them with added scary sound effects. The hall was filled with witches and ghosts, a warewolf and lots of strange other worldly beings.

There are certainly a lot of creative people around here and children and adults alike were drawn into the magic of the shadow puppet theatre. From the positive responses we have got from this session we will be organising other creative workshops for children and adults in the near future.

Invertebrate Habitat - (Insect hotel - bug beds) by Maggie Cornelius, R.S.P.B.

Insects and invertebrates are important to all aspects of biodiversity from pollinating flowers, decomposing vegetation and being part of the food chain.

To help with this we attended a family event at the re-opened Riverside Centre, where we decided to make insect homes with the children, these they could take home. Also building a habitat area that would stay on site and hopefully provide an education area for future school groups.

How do you build a bug hotel? You need to provide small areas with lots of different environments. The basic structure can be made from old pallets but we managed to obtain recycled wood and had to build a structure. We filled the gaps with dead wood for beetles, ladybirds and centipedes and drilled holes in the frame for solitary bees and rolled up corrugated cardboard for lacewings. Pieces of bark nailed to the frame provide home for spiders, woodlice and millipedes. We also used broken china to provide hedgehog or toad areas. Bricks, leaves and dried grass also provide other areas.

The children had an amazing time helping with the building work and learnt a lot about insects and snails, but more importantly they were able to safely use tools - hacksaws, secateurs, screwdrivers, hammers and drills.We had a great day and hopefully when we revisit we will see lots of bugs enjoying living in their new homes.

Organised Kaos at Riverside

Last weekend saw Organised Kaos run a residential course at the Riverside Centre. Young people camped at the centre and spent the weekend learning many different types of circus skills including some fire work in the evenings. The centre has been perfect for this workshop having a good indoor space and large outside area where the young people can really have fun.

More info at www.organisedkaos.org.uk

Riverside Centre Open Days

Welcome to the Arena Pontardawe and Riverside Centre Blog!

We've had a great two open days at the end of last week with over 35 people attending on the Friday afternoon and over 25 people on the Saturday. Thanks to everyone who made it and it was great to have a chance to meet you all and let you know of the exciting activities and events planned for the coming months.


Hope to see you at the Halloween event on the 31st October with some scary stories and a chance to make shadow puppets and create your own show. Children (accompanied) 5 - 11yrs 2 - 5pm and young people and adults (because adults really love scary stories!!) 7 - 10pm. £3 per person.