A little while ago I went to this venue to see Aled Jones take on the role of Caractacus Potts in…read more'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang', and finally got to see this splendid new building from the inside. Most people who are at all familiar with Cardiff would recognise the armadillo/woodlouse outer shell of the Wales Millennium Centre, and the giant lettering gracing its sides. But, unfortunately, few people seem to have actually ventured inside. The space is modern and clean, without looking barren, as so easily might have happened. The theatre itself has excellent leg-room, comfortable seats and pretty much unrestricted views. I sometimes struggle with low volume when attending musicals, but the acoustics were excellent, and every word clear as a bell. As well as shows and events, there are also food outlets and guided tours available. There are also free performances most days on the Glanfa stage, which are certainly worth checking out.

This is a great place to go watch a show. Very enjoyable experience watching bedknobs and brooms…read moresticks, slight technical problem but still enjoyable. The seats were comfortable and view was great. Staff friendly and helpful. Great experience and thoroughly enjoyed will return to watch another show.

I've been to St David's hall a couple of times now, mainly for comedians like Ross Noble and Sean…read moreLock. As a venue, it plays hosts to a huge variety of acts and entertainment. In the coming week alone you can see acts as varied as Stan Stennett (?), Brian Conley, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Roy Chubby Brown. It's not the most aesthetically interesting or pleasing venue in Cardiff, being beaten hands down by the Millenium Centre in the Bay, but it nevertheless remains the favoured venue for most acts, probably due to it's slightly larger seating capacity of 2000 (as opposed to 1897 in the Millenium Centre). It still hosts the annual Welsh Proms aswell. My own experiences have all gone pretty smooth, with very little queuing and helpful, professional staff. I suppose it's good that there's nothing of note I can really say here, as the things that would tend to stick in your mind about something as general as a concert hall would in all likelihood have been bad experiences anyway. It's a top venue though and it's important to Cardiff as a city to have somewhere encouraging the arts and being constantly active in doing so.

I have always found St David's Hall to be a little bit of a strange venue. That's not to say it's…read morenot good. Just odd. I think that's because it was, when built, quite a modern design, and that design was not universal enough to quite stand the test of time. What remains is an odd mixture of wood, green carpets and wide areas which make sense when they're full of people, but which are just tired when not. That being said, the selection of music, comedy, ballet and theatre in this venue is great. The theatre itself is vast, but seems much more intimate because of their carefully tiered seating. Seats encompass the stage, and there is a massive organ on display. Unfortunately, I've always found this venue to a little dampening to sound. Or the speakers aren't loud enough, or something. A good venue though.

Earthfall is a pioneering, radical hybrid dance-theatre company that puts on exciting, energetic…read moreand unique productions. Since forming in 1989, the company has become widely known and very well-established across Wales, has won several awards, and has performed all over the world at major festivals. They've featured on TV programmes and have been involved in film work, winning the Bafta Cymru Award for Best Short Film for 'Too Old To Dream'. Unlike most conventional dance companies, Earthfall uses some performers who are not trained dancers, and brings political and social issues into the dance arena, as well as using sound and installation in their productions, alongside dance and theatre. If you haven't seen an Earthfall production, find out what they have coming up ('The Factory' is on in October 2010) - and get yourself a ticket! You're unlikely to have seen anything quite like it before.

Jessica Cohen and Jim Ennis formed this pioneering dance theatre company over 20 years ago and have…read moregarnered a reputation for issue-based work that combines radical choreography with live music and strong visual imagery. The award winning troupe seek a deeper experience of physical theatre resulting in performances that are gritty, emotional and often stamped with the word 'mesmerising' in press reviews. Earthfall as a company continue to develop and explore their relationships across the globe, they have regularly worked with companies in both Poland and Brussels, and have toured internationally across France, Germany, Holland and South America. This August will see Earthfall continuing their international work through a co-production of their 2005 show After The Birds, with CHOREA, a polish based theatre company. Earthfall are financially supported by the Arts Council of Wales and the Lottery Division of the Arts Council of Wales.

Everyman are an ammeter dramatic theatre group who put on some fantastic open air plays in the…read moregrounds of the Folk Museum every summer. They generally put on three or four shows, always one aimed at young children such as Wind and the Willows, and of course one by the bard himself Shakespeare. A performance of A Midsummer Nights Dream in recent years was particularly memorable, the outdoor setting being absolutely perfect for the forest scenes. Of course there is a downside to staging the plays outdoors, whilst on a warm summers evening the experience is fantastic, on a rainy day the open air stage is disastrous, with both the performers and audiences spirit (and person) being rather dampened, though thankfully the audience are under cover, for the most part.

Everyman Theatre Group is, to put it simply, the biggest amateur dramatics society in Cardiff…read more Being responsible for the famous summer Shakespeare show at St. Fagin's each year, and the nearly all the local output from Chapter Arts Centre's theatrical arm, the company is a constant source of entertainment and intellectual stimulation for the city. Their output routinely consists of avant-garde pieces, both classical and updated Shakespeare plays, musicals and comedies, ensuring that the company always contains players of consummate skill, and ensuring the company rarely repeats itself. At intermittent Wednesdays, Chapter hosts the interesting "Everyman Club Night" where company members, potential patrons and everyday members of the public are able to sit in on a small performance of a pending piece and witness the director's burgeoning ideas before they come to fruition. It's an interesting experience, being packed into a room that fits maybe thirty people at a stretch, watching actors literally three feet away from you, and provides a wonderful sense of involvement to see the director's vision come to the stage several months later. There is, however, a vein of elitism within the company; a degree of snobbishness that can sometimes rear up. Luckily, this is usually quelled before it can cause any real harm to the company's image.

MMMMMMMMMMMM. Yeah. Huh? Sorry? UHHUH…read more Excuse my mumbling. What I was trying to tell you is that UHHUH are an inclusive dance theatre company with 'an artistic preference for individual creative expression.' They like to celebrate the diversity of dance and dancers by including people of different physicalities, movement vocabularies and ages. Mostly, they aim to produce accessible and challenging dance theatre. The Cardiff-based contemporary dance theatre company has ambitions. These ambitions include a desire to stay active and prolific, working in Wales and further afield. UHHUH was founded in 2001 by Sarah Hall and Jon Luxton, and began life as Talking Bodies, offering inclusive dance workshops at the Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff. In 2002, Talking Bodies ran a season of inclusive dance workshops with visiting practitioners including Adam Benjamin and Petra Kuppers. Following the success of the workshops, Talking Bodies took a mandatory break whilst Sarah had a baby - fair enough, right? - and subsequently retrained. Jon continued to pursue his creative passion individually, with performances with Blue Eyed Soul (a Shropshire based inclusive dance company) and Cardiff-based Found Reality. Since 2006, UHHUH dance has had a limited output but still put on the occasional has full length shows, receiving strong support from funders and their audience.

WID is a national organisation for professional dance artists working independently in Wales,…read moreoffering programmes and services to develop their skills and career. It's a kind of umbrella organisation aiming to develop a strong dance sector in Wales by nurturing the talent of both dancers and choreographers. From a practical point of view, they offer touring opportunities; professional development summer schools, workshops and seminars; and even administrative assistance and low-cost studio hire. For dancers or choreographers mainly living or working in Wales, it's a first port of call for help and support. Their website also advertises opportunities for choreographers and dancers, from projects taking on staff to dance auditions.

When I was growing up I used to dance. I went to as many classes as I could get Mum to take me to -…read moreballet, tap, modern, folk. I adored it, until the day I broke my toe, and then kept breaking toes. I returned to it in secondary school, at university and in my twenties. I didn't quite make my dream of being a dancer professionally, but I still love to dance and to watch dance. Welsh Independent Dance (WID) is the national organisation for professional dance artists working independently in Wales. They encourage dancers to develop their craft through a variety of programmes and services, and they also support their career development. Their main mission not-so-impossible is to support, nurture, encourage and promote the careers of independent dancers and choreographers in Wales, and develop a strong, vibrant, and diverse dance sector. They do good.

'What good is sitting alone in your room? Come hear the…read moremusic play. Life is a Cabaret, old chum, Come to the Cabaret. 'Put down the knitting, The book and the broom. Time for a holiday. Life is Cabaret, old chum, Come to the Cabaret. 'Come taste the wine, Come hear the band. Come blow your horn, Start celebrating;' Ready? This local drama club meets on a Monday evening at around 7.30pm at Rumney Memorial Hall. They put on two theatrical productions a year - a pantomime at Christmas and a play in the summer. Members can take part in the performances as an actor or actress or, if they preferred, they could help out back stage with wardrobe, set production, lighting and sound or just generally help out with ticket sales, programmes etc. please contact Mark Williams via rumneydramaclub@hotmail.com for more information.

South Wales Intercultural Community Arts (SWICA) is a non-for-profit organisation, which actively…read morecelebrates the cultural diversity of South Wales through quality participatory arts projects. SWICA is currently run by its originator, Steve Fletcher, (Development Officer), and his partner Lorraine, who mans the office and coordinates the administrative aspects of the organization. But SWICA, being all about people and realising creative potential, as well as building bridges between communities and differing cultural groupings, involves a whole host of people, who volunteer their time in order to create amazing spectacles. Their remit includes the pursuit of cultural equity i.e. "arts for all" promoting social inclusion and citizenship, working with special reference to people who live in socially and economically disadvantaged areas, broadening arts provision, namely creating new arts opportunities and introducing art forms previously absent, and essentially targeting those who do not currently benefit from existing arts provision. Their programmes are all inclusive, making special provision for young people.

This is the energetic organisation behind Cardiff's colourful MAS Carnival, a non-for-profit…read moreorganisation set up back in April 1990 to celebrate South Wales's cultural diversity - by organising arts projects that all members of the community can get involved in. Everyone who's been to Cardiff Summer Festival's annual MAS Carnival parade will have seen the results of SWICA's work in action - and those who haven't can catch them in all their glory at this year's parade on 31 July, snaking their way from Cardiff Bay at 11.30am to City Hall by about 1.30pm. From tinky tiny kids upwards, everyone can get involved in their community workshops and events - whether you want to stay 'behind the scenes' and help out making carnival costumes, or shake your booty by performing in one of their events. The organisation's 'arts for all' ethos encourages everyone to take part, particularly those living in socially or economically disadvantaged areas, and young people. They try to engage people who haven't benefited from the existing arts provision that's been available to them, by introducing new art forms for them to try that weren't previously available.

Want to see Boy Zone? Take That? West Life? Enrique Iglesias? Pink? Then this is the best place in…read moreCardiff to go, when these and other pop stars come to Wales. I long for Britney Spears to come and sing here. I've seen her in London, but it is not the same as it would be to be able to see her here. I really enjoyed the Boy Zone concert it was amazing, they were on roller skates and they performed scenes from the Movie Grease. This was back in their early years. It ended with fireworks and started with fireworks. Spectacular! I saw Busted there as well that was another awesome concert! I'd never had such fun in a long while, before I had been to that concert. I didn't even really care about how loud it all was, which I often do. I recommend it for all; especially teenagers, the older the better I feel. It's near Cineworld cinema, in the town centre.

This is a really good arena. I've never been to it to see any sports (I don't even know if they do…read moredo sports there - sometimes places really surprise you and you realise that they have an ice rink under the floor and things!) but only music. It's a fantastic venue to see a concert. There is always a really atmosphere - and although part of that will obviously be my own excitement, a bad venue can hinder a gig. There's a good amount of seating and of standing room and the prices are always reasonable. I just wish there were more loos! That's always the problem!

National Theatre Wales are a fantastic new company based in Cardiff breathing exciting new life…read moreinto the previously often boring performance programme of the region. Their work is bold and engaging, involves collaborations with the best know (Marc Rees, DJ Britton) and unknown creatives and often takes place in unusual yet engaging places from Swansea's Old Library (Shelf Life) to the seaside (The Beach). The invigorating programme is performed in English, productions and locations changing monthly. Of the shows I've seen so far this year including Shelf Life and The Devil Inside Him the work has been of a strong standard and the aesthetics and production have been of an international standard. A fantastic thing. I'm getting excited about Gary Owen's Love Steals Us From Loneliness (Bridgend, October) and David Harradine's The Weather Factory (Snowdonia, December). Get talking about it, get going, get involved: http://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/

From the owner: We make theatre in its broadest sense: a journey that connects and questions us, makes demands of…read moreus, provokes and pokes us, surprises and delights us. We’re here to change things. We do this by drawing people and places into experiences that enrich and inspire creators and audiences, alike. The unexplored corners of Wales’ rich cultures and communities are where we play.