by Sucheta | Apr 17, 2024 | Blog, Food and drink, Local Stories, Swan food, Swansea Today, SwanTV, SwanTV Art & Crafts, SwanTV Business, SwanTV Top Stories, Uncategorized
Swansea is a happening place buzzing with a lot of activities for its locals and tourists. It has a lot of fun events upcoming this summer for individuals and families.
They include major performances in Singleton Park, art gallery displays, breathtaking parks and beaches, and places like the LC and Plantasia.
The Wales Airshow and IRONMAN 70.3 Swansea are major highlights that people are looking forward to.
Picture: https://www.ironman.com/im-world-championship
See the video for The Wales Airshow: https://youtu.be/bqqhpH5CK6g
The Swansea Council’s Enjoy Swansea Bay team, along with several other businesses and organisations including restaurants, hotels, and bars, are organising various events.
Council cabinet member Robert Francis-Davies remarked: “The council and many others are preparing to offer people a lot more fun indoors and outdoors.
“I applaud the work of all those in the cultural and tourism sector who do so much to make Swansea a great place to visit and in which to live.”
Dylan Thomas Centre, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea Grand Theatre, Brangwyn Hall, Swansea Museum and libraries are some of the council-run venues offering such fun events.
Council-run attractions include:
- Blackpill Lido – open from May 4
- Crazy golf at Southend Gardens and Singleton Park – open now
- Oystermouth Castle – open now and with live theatre planned
- Singleton Boating Lake pedalos – operating now
- Swansea Bay Rider Land Train – operating now
Forthcoming events with council support include:
Picture from the iron man 2024 swansea
- Enigma Variations, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Brangwyn Hall – April 12
- Swansea International Jazz Festival – June 13-17
- World Triathlon Para Series Swansea – June 22
- Wales Airshow – July 6-7
- IRONMAN 70.3 Swansea – July 14
- James Arthur, Singleton Park – July 18
- Classic Ibiza, Singleton Park – July 19
- Let’s Rock Wales, Singleton Park – July 20
- Peter Pan, outdoor theatre, Oystermouth Castle – August 7
- Romeo and Juliet, outdoor theatre, Oystermouth Castle – August 8
- Admiral Swansea Bay 10k – September 15
It is time to make the most of the warmer days. both inside and outside!
Cover Photo: From Wales National Airshow.
by Mike Leahy | Jun 26, 2023 | Blog
Hi Swantv Viewers
Swansea & Gower are now a UK destination for both long and short vacations. Living in the UK? You can get to Swansea in less than 3 hours from London, Birmingham and Manchester, perfect for a short break. And train or coach allows you to relax en route, rather than have the hastle and costs of motoring. Swansea is compact and you can enjoy beaches, countryside and nightlife either walking or by public transport. Bikes can be hired too. And Swansea has been the driest place in the UK since the beginning of May with glorious blue skies and sun drenched beaches.
We have all seen video or pictures of packed beaches, not just on the Costa del Sol but also in the UK, for example at Blackpool during the heatwaves this year. And this might be your heaven but the contrast with Swansea and Gower beaches could not be more different.
You may enjoy being on your own square metre of sand, jostling your way into the sea,queuing for that ice-cream or, if you are out of the country, longing for a Britsh cup of tea. It might be very hot (although summers here are getting longer and hotter) and the food may be different, although I hear of visitors abroad who look for english food and beer. You may have had long delays or even cancellations at the airport or ferry.
But wouldn’t it be nice to arrive refreshed after a reasonably short journey with no worry about long-term parking, being 2 hours ahead of a flight, worrying that the flight may be delayed or cancelled, sitting in a crowded plane? South Wales is just a car drive, coach or train journey away. So no passports, medical documents, no language difficulties. And if you arrive by coach or train Swansea is a waterfront city where you can walk to the beach in minutes from the city centre. For a really relaxing vacation there are buses to take you around the Gower and bikes are readily available to hire.
There are now numerous hotels from the national chains to the more intimate private hotels where a real Welsh welcome awaits with real Welsh menus of delicious mouth watering locally produced food. And the guest houses, camp sites and caravan parks offer a huge selection of accommodation to suit every pocket.
Whether using public transport or driving, just pack up a hamper which you can make yourself if in self catering, pick up sandwiches, prepared salads and drinks and off you go. Find a quiet beach ( and there are many) park up and spend a family day. Don’t want to take a hamper? There are many places to eat, great restaurants and pubs serving delicious food made with local produce.
And the beaches! You want some fun as a couple or family or just alone. There are desserted beaches, vast arrays of soft golden sand and clear safe water. Many beaches have top awards for clean water and litter free. The catch? It’s simple, many beaches are a short walk from parking and for many that’s more than enough. But isn’t it worth a 5 minute walk to be in such a haven!
It is becoming more common to have a number of shorter breaks too. So coming to Swansea for 3-4 days plus a weekend a few times might be a good way to make the most of the more days we all have from work now. For the holiday maker there is so much to see and do here from sitting on the beach, walking around the marina or cliff-top routes, seeing local cheeses, chocolate, pastries and other specialities being produced, visiting the many castles and other heritage sites, having a Joe’s ice-cream or being in Wales’s largest indoor market (and voted best indoor market in the British Isles) and tasting local cockles or a pastry. Joe’s ice-cream is iconic and known across the globe, and once tasted never forgotten. There’s also the Heritage Centre, archery, horse-riding and many other activities to enjoy.
And for entertainment there are the usual cinemas and don’t forget the Grand theatre with it’s varied productions, the Little Theatre and Taliesen Theatre on the Singleton University campus. And now the new Arena with a great line-up of shows. There are art galleries and museums.
Swansea, the waterfront city offers so much. And because the city has a small foot-print you don’t need a car, walking anywhere from the beach, marina or city centre is just a stone’s throw. And now with the network of cycle pathways and the ease of hiring bikes you can enjoy a relaxed time.
So if you live locally explore those places you’ve not visited before or try those activities for new experiences. If you live away why not make Swansea a holiday destination next year. We’d love to see you.
Mike Leahy
by Mike Leahy | Jun 25, 2023 | Blog, Uncategorized
Hi Viewers
We are picking up some speed now at SwanTV with some very interesting shows scheduled in for the coming weeks. My aim is to have a comprehensive local station offering a range of programmes and interests for you together with day-to-day “What’s On” information so we plan to bring you daily events that are often free and running in the Swansea Bay area. We will put this up on our website but also initially on Facebook so watch out on our pages.
So we have a Showtime programme with Keith Milward, probably the most well known local showbiz pundit. Keith has radio shows in Swansea and Cardiff and has experience in so many aspects of theatre, solo and choir singing, acting and through to panto dame. Keith is a bundle of energy and we are delighted he has joined us. After a couple of pilot shows you can expect a regular programme now with Keith.
We welcome Lee Ellery who will be hosting “In the Spotlight” talking to disabled people about their successes, ambitions and the obstacles they have had to overcome. Lee will also be looking at current disability issues and welcomes everyone to contact him who is interested in telling their story.
Becky Lowe, author and poet will be hosting “Off the Page”, a selection of spoken words from local writers and poets and like-minded folk. She hosts Tallisman at the Elysium Arts Centre in the High Street, Swansea and is a well known and trusted figure in local literary circles.
There is much more to come so watch this space.
Stay safe, live life.
Mike Leahy
by Mike Leahy | Mar 27, 2023 | Blog
Hi Swantv Viewer
Here is Swansea we have UK news from several sources, the BBC, ITV, Sky being some. And we have the Regional news mainly broadcast from Cardiff but we have not had local, local news centering on the Swansea Bay Area broadcast direct from the centre of Swansea until now.
There was Bay TV which was one of the 22 regional stations funded by the government and supported by the BBC but this lasted for a short time and didn’t really live up to expectations. The station has been taken over by That TV.
“That’s TV” is a television company with about 10 local stations, broadcasting via Sky, Freesat and Freeview and even though regional news can still be found via these services, these channels simulacast the classic hits and television schedule of the national That’s TV channel for most of the day. That’s Television Ltd is owned by That’s Media Ltd, which is based in the north of England and as far as we can see local news is usually in the form of zoom interviews.
SwanTV by contrast is managed by Swansea Business people with a tv studio in the heart of the city in Orchard Street. Our videographers are fully trained and using the latest equipment to produce broadcast quality video. Programmes are produced in the studio or outside and none are zoom interviews accept in exceptional cases. SwanTV believe in working with local individuals, businesses and community groups to produce the best local material.
We are looking for presenters, interviewers, videographers, writers and performers and we can offer experience and exposure but currently have no funds for wages. So if you want experience, whether 5 or 50 hours a month then we should be your first stop. Come and join us, we work in a relaxed and enjoyable environment.
Currently SwanTV is available online through any device with a free app available on both Google Play or Apple Store for your smartphone, but we expect to be able to broadcast through Amazon and Roku in due course.
We are now producing a weekly chat show together with interesting videos on anything local and we seek out stories and peoiple who can join us on the sofa to talk about their story. We aim to start producing other programmes over the coming months including sport, cooking, motoring and the cost-of-living.
We plan to have a weekly local news roundup and believe we will be in a position to start this before the Autumn. We will be seeking out presenters and if you think you are a future Fiona Bruce, Huw Edwards, Sian Lloyd or Nick Servini then contact us. You don’t need experience, just a positive personality, we can teach you and we have tele-prompters to help you be professional.
The service we offer is free but we look to sponsors and advertisers to help cover the salary for our production team, studio and running cost which we beleive will be about £100,000 for the first year. You can also become a sponsor on our Patreon site for from as little as £3 a month, little more than the cost of a coffee today. With just 1000 sponsors then a third of our costs would be covered to bring you a continuing and improving service with programmes that you will enjoy. We will start this month to have additional material on the Patreon site to give you even better value. See us at https://www.patreon.com/swantv.
Remember, we are a not for profit organisation, unlike other media companies, owned by Swansea business people and nothing is paid to share-holders, all profits will be ploughed back into running the Station, investing in new equipment and support local community groups.
Look at the SwanTV website and you will see we are already making it happen. And thanks to your support, we will grow every month both in audience and content. So if you can help in any way please do so as advertiser, sponsor or supporter. Help us inspire the local community with our up-and-coming programmes.
Enjoy viewing SwanTV
Mike Leahy
