It’s been a really busy for us here at TVConwy with new volunteers joining, old volunteers popping back from college and helping out, some new challenges and lots and lots of new friends. Here’s just as taste of what we got up to this year..
A crew of our youngest volunteers worked extremely hard filming and taking photographs at the wonderful takepART at Venue Cymru – it was a weekend packed with fun – with non-stop workshops and activities for all ages – a brilliant, free event which we love being a part of.
We also attended the opening night of the Wagstaff Exhibition in Llandudno’s MOSTYN https://www.mostyn.org/ and the first of the year Cyffordd Llandudno Junction Talk Busking Festival’s http://hkjroberts.wixsite.com/trakz” Trakz Talks ” – this one was an insight into the fascinating world of Bees and Beekeeping where volunteer Sandra Phillips took photos and helped promote the event.
We started working with the Fusion project and created a series of promotional pieces about the various workshops and activities.
Although we had big production plans for the Cambrian Rally http://cambrianrally.co.uk/this year working in conjunction with local team Rory Jones and Tom Hughes, sadly the event was cancelled due to adverse weather – however, it was a good exercise in collaborative work and volunteer Stuart Brookes-Norrie showed great production skills in pulling the project together.
We continued to work with Fusion and had the pleasure of being part of the inter -generational event at Ty Llywelyn Community Centre in Llandudno where young people from the youth club combined forces with their neighbours at Tan-Y-Fron extra care Housing Association, and the local community to enjoy a Sixties afternoon which was a a total delight!
Glasdir Business Centre was the venue of the Rural Jobs Fair where we met a wide selection of local business and training organisations and even got the chance to get up close to the
It was really wonderful to yet again be part of the Cyffordd Llandudno Trakz Busking Festival – with a great group of volunteers helping with the big red gazebo, talking to members of the public and promoting what we do. Our volunteers, of course, were also part of the crew who were out filming and taking photos both at the opening night with all the wonderful singers and musicians and the incredible Kate Lawrence and her Vertical Dance team http://www.verticaldancekatelawrence.com/ who put on their usual beautiful performance.
We had an absolute blast in May being a part of the Conwy Pirate Weekend where we got to meet up with some old friends as well as meeting many new ones. Thanks again to the volunteers who helped ” pirate ” the big red gazebo and helped filming and taking photos.
May saw the return of the annual Llandudno Victorian Extravaganza and once again TVConwy were delighted to be a part of it. As last year, one of TVConwy’s youngest volunteers Alfie Heane made a special trip to be part of the crew and had a wonderful day working as a camera assistant and presenter with camera operator Kieran Ashton-Jones. Later in the year, Alfie came back to Wales and became our youngest ever editor, creating two brilliant promos focusing on the Linzi Grace dancers and an interview he carried out with Professor Jon’s Flea Circus.
Volunteer Stuart Brookes-Norrie attended the Colwyn Bay Forties Festival on our behalf and was privileged to be part of the battle re-enactment at Eirias Park as well as the main event in the centre of town.
Paul Cameron continued to develop his sports camera skills and found a love of the water as part of our involvement with the RYA All Afloat project where we met some delightful young people getting their first taste of sailing.
Volunteers Kieran Ashton-Jones, Rhianna Braden and Ellen Jones-Davies helped support the Venue Cymru’s promotion of the annual takepART event – we covered two of the Inspire Days delivering fun and creative activities to the community of Conwy.
We were delighted to be able to work with the young people who are part of Pearl Shaw filming their musical evening – A Mish Mash of Musicals at Theatr Colwyn.
As part of our on-going great relationship with Llandudno Town Council we covered both the Llandudno in Bloom and Britain in Bloom judging days with volunteer Gerrit Forrester taking some lovely photographs of the beautiful gardens and public spaces featured.
Llandudno’s Venue Cymru was a hive of activity during one busy weekend in August were the Rawffest Youth Creative Weekend https://www.rawffest.wales/was going on. A large team of us worked closely with the organisers, delivering workshops and helping to promote the event. Young volunteer Bethany Hughes was a major part of the crew, helping editing, filming and carrying out interviews.
One of our busiest volunteers Clare Forrester was honoured by the St. John’s Ambulance this year as ” Serving Sister of the most venerable order of the hospital of St. John of Jerusalem ” and we were delighted to be a part of her day when she attended the EMS Day in Llandudno. We are so proud of Clare who works tirelessly for the community, keeping everyone safe at many, many events, and helps us to carrying out regular risk assessments , advising volunteers on safety issues as well as being a wonderful part of the production team.
Following the devastating storms that destroyed the beach shelter on Deganwy Prom , a local group worked tirelessly to raise funds for it to be rebuilt and it was a honour to be there at the opening ceremony of this beautiful part of our local heritage.
In early September TVConwy were invited along to the Scifi Wales Convention in Venue Cymru and volunteers Stuart Brookes-Norrie, Bethany Hughes, JoJo Austin and Chris Burrows went along to spend a wonderful day filming and taking photographs of the event.
Throughout September hundreds of artists ranging from willow weavers to photographers open their doors to the public for the fantastic HelfaGelf Art Trail https://helfagelf.co.uk/ – this year we set ourselves a challenge – to visit as many artists as we could in one day. It was a busy and fascinating day – to say the least!
We had the privilege of being part of the Media Launch Day at Venue Cymru where we met the stars of this year’s panto Peter Pan. It was a wonderful day with lots of fun and laughter and it was interesting to create a short video piece looking at how the crew and press work together behind the scenes to promote the event.
The incredible group of women who brought ” Whingeing Women “crashing into Conwy back in 2013 were back with a new show – “Real Women” was a packed evening which was hilarious, sad, thought-provoking and of course, just a tad on the X-rated side ! TVConwy’s Paul Cameron was there to capture it all.
Helping to raise money for Prostate Cancer UK , local fashion boutique Chess, along with organiser Kieth McMillan held a wonderful evening in the Llandudno Bay Hotel – TVConwy were there too and were pleased to be part of such a great fundraising event.
One very cold weekend at the end of November we filmed the last in this session of All Afloat – it was really nice to be back with the group of children we’ve seen develop over the months to see the chance in their confidence. We filmed and took photos of their outdoor activities weekend at Plas Menai Outdoor Activities Centre and chatted with a few of them about their plans now they’ve caught the sailing bug.
An annual tradition for many families – locals and visitors alike – the Conwy Christmas Eve event is always a fabulous evening – our young crew Bethany Hughes and Rhianna Braden were there to capture the excitement along with photographer Sandra Phillips who got some great photos of the night.
So there we are – just a brief run through of some of the main events of the year attended by our volunteers.
2017’s been a busy year in other ways too – we’ve attended lots of volunteer fairs and community activities, we’ve put on a further “Through Older Eyes ” course, promoted countless community activities and charitable events where our roving photographers Sandra Phillips and Gerrit Forrester have represented us at and had a very high level of community engagement both on the ground and through our social media pages.
With thanks to all our sponsors, supporters and volunteers – a very Happy New Year to you all!
Check out out 2017 video and all the other videos we’ve created since we started in 2013 on https://vimeo.com/tvconwy