Here is your Tuesday update, covering:
- New funding available to forge community cohesion
- ‘No mow' until September for grass at 33 new sites across Cardiff to support nature
- Leftfield and Orbital to play Cardiff Music City Festival
New funding available to forge community cohesion
Cardiff Council is once again inviting applications from community groups and third sector organisations across the city for grant funding available to help build cohesive and resilient communities.
Small grants of up to £2,000 are available to support projects and initiatives that highlight and celebrate the diversity of communities in the city. Funding can be used for a range of purposes, including holding events and activities, producing supportive literature, or building capacity within a community.
Applications must meet at least one of the following objectives:
- Celebrating diversity
- Hate crime awareness
- Countering harmful / hateful narratives
- Reducing community tensions
- Community capacity building
- Communities working together to support community cohesion
- Promoting equality across all protected characteristics within the Equality Act 2010
- Promoting community cohesion as outlined in the Future Generations Act (A Wales of cohesive communities - Attractive, viable, safe, and well-connected communities)
- Links to significant equality event (e.g. Black History Month, Hate Crime Awareness Month)
Applications are invited from constituted and established voluntary organisation or community groups that have a bank or building society account in the name of the organisation.
Collaboration between groups/organisations applying for the funding is strongly encouraged. In exceptional circumstances, partnership applications (more than two groups working together on a project) of up to £5,000 will be considered.
Exclusions apply to how the funding can be used and applicants are encouraged to read the eligibility criteria in the application form carefully before applying.
Each application will be assessed, and final decisions made by panel. Projects will need to be finalised by March 2025.
For further information and to request an application form for funding, please email:
The deadline for applications to be submitted is May 14, 2024.
‘No mow' until September for grass at 33 new sites across Cardiff to support nature
Nature friendly ‘one cut' mowing regimes, where the grass is not cut until September, are due to be introduced at 33 new sites in Cardiff this year.
Covering approximately 8 hectares of parkland and highway verges, the new sites mean that in total 122.24 hectares of land - the equivalent to 272 football pitches - across 144 different sites will be managed for the benefit of nature, including important pollinators such as bees, butterflies that our food chains rely on.
Switching to ‘one cut' per year has resulted in significant gains for biodiversity when compared to other areas of Cardiff where the grass is cut more frequently.
Biodiversity monitoring work carried out in Cardiff, with help of volunteers from Cardiff Local Nature Partnership, showed that 89% of ‘no mow' sites surveyed were home to more than 11 different species, compared to just 11% of more frequently mown areas.
Leftfield and Orbital to play Cardiff Music City Festival
Electronic music pioneers Leftfield and Orbital will open the recently announced Cardiff Music City Festival on September 27th at Utilita Arena Cardiff, signalling the start of three glorious weeks of gigs, immersive music happenings, secret shows, unusual residencies, industry sessions, installations and inventive pop-ups in the Welsh capital.
Still pushing boundaries 30 years after their generation-defining headline show at Glastonbury 1994, Orbital's most recent album Optical Delusion welds the Hartnoll brother's trademark modulated synths to the striking vocals of Anna B Savage and the punk-politics of Sleaford Mods. Time hasn't softened their relentless live shows either - currently in the USA for a headline slot at Coachella Festival, the brother's famous twin-torch headsets will be joined on stage by a barrage of pulsating visual projections that lift the live experience to an even higher plane.
Renowned for the masonry-shaking sonic power of their live shows, one listen to Leftfield's most recent album, This is What We Do, is proof the influential electronic act haven't mellowed since Sex Pistol John Lydon demanded that we "Open Up" back on their seminal and wantonly eclectic 1995 album, Leftism. Mixing up box-fresh tracks with classic cuts to create an immersive, pulsating juggernaut of sound overlayed with repeated motifs and kaleidoscopic visuals, recent live shows have confirmed Leftfield remain at the very top of their game.
Supported by Welsh Government and Cardiff Council, the Cardiff Music City Festival aims to attract 20,000 in its first year. Encompassing renowned new music festival Sŵn and Wales Millennium Centre's international arts weekend, Llais, the festival will spread music throughout the city, challenging, exciting and inspiring fans across generations and genres.