How Porthcawl

FOR decades Miners’ Fortnight was the anchor which held Porthcawl’s success as a seaside town firm.

Thousands of families would decamp from the Valleys to the caravan sites of Sandy Bay, now demolished, and Trecco Bay for their annual two weeks of fresh air and fun every summer.

Miners would find themselves sitting next to their mates or “butties” from the pits on the beach, which led to Sandy Bay becoming known as “Hiya Butt Bay”.

Then the pits closed and reasonable package deals lured the masses to the Mediterranean, and Porthcawl, along with other seaside towns, lost its lustre.

Attempts have been made at regeneration in the decades since and while one large and much-hoped-for transformational scheme has yet to get off the ground, some projects are starting to come off.

The town now has a marina instead of a harbour. The Grade II dockside Jennings Building, which stood derelict for years, has been leased to developers and, with Welsh government and council help, has enjoyed a £2.5m transformation into a home for modern eateries and live/work units.

A community interest company with backing from the European Regional Development fund via the Welsh Government is also poised to build the multi-million-pound Porthcawl Maritime Centre on the seafront.

But all victories in the long-running fight to pull the town up have been very hard fought. All that is, except one.

Back in the early 2000s author, show and film producer Peter Phillips – who hailed from Wales but lived in America – attended an Elvis event at the Mall of America in Minnesota. Its popularity took him by surprise and stuck with him.

When he came back to Wales he met up with Jan Adkins – who was then the manager of Porthcawl’s iconic Grand Pavilion – and successfully pitched the idea of an Elvis tribute artist award show to her, which was to be called The Elvies.

The first event was pencilled in for a weekend in the autumn of 2004 at a time when Peter Phillips said the Grand Pavilion’s future was uncertain and it needed a boost.

“I would like to say I had a great vision, but it wasn’t,” he admits.

His collaborator at the time, Porthcawl resident Steve Maitland-Thomas – now also a town councillor – said it was just meant to be a one-night award show. But, by both luck and design, its appeal was widened.

Despite not being an Elvis fan himself – he admits his first response to Peter’s idea for an Elvis show was “don’t be so stupid” – Steve did start to see potential.

He said that by pasting the same message repeatedly on thousands of Elvis websites their fledgling idea caught the eye of Charles Stone, who had once been Elvis’ tour manager and was now looking after the man dubbed the ultimate Elvis tribute artist (ETA), American Kraig Parker.

Charles and Kraig flew in for the 2004 festival, but Steve said they had trouble generating interest at first.

“We went into the Hi Tide (pub and performance venue) on the Friday and the manager Dave Jones pointed at Kraig and said ‘Can he sing as good as he looks?’” Steve recalls.

“So we turned the microphone on and he performed a cappella.”

Steve said Dave was so impressed he wanted to cancel that night’s show and replace it with Kraig but it was too short notice. Dave then scheduled him to perform on the Saturday but Kraig was still left venueless for that night.

Steve said the Texan ETA, who has played Las Vegas, ended up in the slightly less glamorous Cabin Bar right next door to the Coney Beach Fun Fair.

“We started off with about 20 people in there and by the end there were people running down the street to see him,” said Steve, who added his mother-in-law later had a shock when he had to give his house keys to another Elvis ETA, Rockin’ Dave Riley, so he could get changed ahead of his show as he couldn’t get into the Grand Pavilion.

Peter agrees that the Hi Tide, which now hosts around 500 different Elvis shows over the festival weekend, was among the first venues to “take it and run with it”. But others were still unsure.

Thankfully the doubters didn’t include the Mayor of Porthcawl at the time, Phil Rixon.

A well-known local character and businessman, he rang Peter and asked how he could help.

“I said you and the lady mayor can come and renew your wedding vows on the seafront in a recreation of the scene from (Elvis film) Blue Hawaii,” said Peter.

“He said he’d do that and they did and it was a huge publicity stunt which resonated and appeared in all the American newspapers. This was before things ‘went viral,’ but it resonated.”

Phil and wife Cheryl, who had first married at Bridgend Register Office in 1974, renewed their vows in Hawaiian shirts, surrounded by fake palm trees in front of 2,500 people in a ceremony led by Kraig.

The coup was one of the crowning glories of that first celebration of the King in Porthcawl and from then on there was no turning back.

Peter said the show has basically stayed the same “just got bigger” over the years.

However, he admits it did survive a sticky time thanks to the timely intervention of none other than First Minister and Bridgend AM Carwyn Jones.

“Year four and the festival sort of needed a leg up,” said Peter, now 59 and dividing his time between Ireland and Spain.

“It needed investment to take it up another gear and Carwyn secured £15,000 worth of funding from the Welsh Government.

“It grew over the next two years to be as big as it should be because every hotel room and caravan pitch was full. That probably would have been 10,000 to 12,000 beds in Porthcawl.”

Peter, who also runs an Elvis Festival in Benidorm, said the Porthcawl event is now self funding, although Bridgend County Borough Council does give £20,000 towards the huge number of safety measures which now have to be taken to accommodate the 35,000 revellers who descend on the town.

The cash from the strategic events budget pays for traffic management, health and safety, street and beach cleaning and public safety, on which the council and organisers work closely with South Wales Police.

Research commissioned by the Welsh Government in 2013 and carried out by Kinetic Cubed Ltd estimated that the Porthcawl Elvis Festival generates £6.7m for the local economy.

And, according to a Bridgend council report published in March, the 2017 Elvis Festival combined with the Urdd Eisteddfod, which took place in Pencoed in May, and the Senior Open Championship, which took place at the Royal Porthcawl Golf Club in July, will be responsible for attracting a combined total of approximately 175,000 visitors to the county borough and generating approximately £14.8m for the economy.

It’s a huge achievement for a small town, but the festival is not without its detractors.

Peter admits there are people who hate it but appreciate its value for the town and also those who just hate it.

He also admits there is validity in complaints from residents and visitors that it has become too alcohol driven so the festival is responding to its critics this year by providing a family zone on the seafront and a programme of child-friendly events, including a BestDressed Houndog competition for dogs in Elvis costumes.

Steve became disillusioned with the direction of the festival long ago and said he and Peter parted ways following a meeting in the Wimpy burger bar above Sandy Bay. Nevertheless, he still thinks the benefits it brings to certain town businesses are “brilliant”.

“I think it’s worth a lot of money to a very, very small amount of people. The rest of us, the 16,000 (residents), have to put up with an extra pound on the pint at the bar, not being able to get into pubs and a lot of drunk people and some pretty gruesome sights,” said Steve.

“But anything coming into Porthcawl is good with me.”

Councillor Mike Clarke, a director of the Bridgend Tourism Association and of the Harbourside Community Interest Company, concurs that its economic appeal cannot be dismissed.

“Anything that brings people to the town has to be good. I think the pubs and restaurants have done well out of it, but I know that Peter’s also been looking at reflecting on the way it’s been going and how it can be attractive to families.

“It’s put Porthcawl on the map but I know as a councillor you can only please some of the people some of the time. People sometimes only see what’s in the street, they don’t necessarily see the hidden benefits. But at the end of the day Porthcawl heavily depends on visitors and tourists.

“I was talking to an accommodation owner and he said he is booked up a year in advance for this.

“I welcome anything where people are getting up to do something of benefit for the town.”

The Porthcawl Elvis Festival continues until tomorrow.