Weekend events (including cheese) for all tastes

Cardiff Bay Beach - open until September 3

IT MIGHT not exactly be bucket and spade weather but there’s a new beach to visit this weekend after Cardiff Bay was once again transformed for the summer.

A large sandy beach, set up just outside the Wales Millennium Centre in Roald Dahl Plass, opened yesterday.

The Cardiff Bay Beach also features a water play area and a variety of funfair rides and games including a Captain Hook pirate ship ride, a carousel, a runaway train, helter skelter, bungee trampolines, water ball and water boats.

Visitors can also enjoy a range of traditional game stalls, a pirate party funhouse and a children’s roundabout.

There are also food stalls dotted around the area with barbecues, ice cream and cocktails all on offer at the attraction, which is free to enter.

The beach will be open from 10am to 8pm from Sunday to Thursday and between 10am and 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays until September 3.

The Big Cheese, in Caerphilly, also began yesterday.

The free three-day event, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary, is set to attract 80,000 visitors before it closes tomorrow.

The event programme included reenactment displays, musical entertainment, educational activities, craft stalls, animal marquees and a traditional funfair – as well as more than 60 food producers at the traditional cheese market.

Porthcawl’s annual summer festival also takes place today between 11am and 5pm on the seafront.The theme of this year’s event is pirates with visitors invited to get into the spirit by dressing up. There will be children’s rides and activities, stalls and kite workshops.

And today and tomorrow, tribute acts from across the UK will be descending on the Vale of Glamorgan for Glastonbarry.

The event, at Romilly Park, Barry, will pay homage to two giants of the music industry who died last year with acts portraying David Bowie and Prince among those performing.

About 4,000 people are expected to attend each day of the festival, which has become one of the biggest tribute act events in the UK.