These gigs were rammed and it was so wonderful to see such an important space in Cardiff completely bursting with people.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t always that way though. For a long time I remember when people would come to stay with us, if we weren\u2019t feeling particularly wealthy at the time, a typical Cardiff tour would involve taking your guests to the large castle front door, walking up to the barrier and standing to view the castle accommodation to the left and look upwards towards the keep.\u00a0 A rope barrier preventing you from moving past the stone entrance unless you pay an entrance fee. There\u2019s only so much time anyone can stay stood on the spot looking at monumental historic buildings from a distance, hanging out by a barrier, so, after we\u2019d have our fill of looking for a bit, you’d be forced to turn around and leave.<\/p>\n
There has definitely been a change in approach at some point by Cardiff Castle management, probably driven by a need to drive income, to be more \u2018open\u2019.\u00a0 The barrier preventing entrance is now mostly down, except of course when you do need to pay to enter on occasions such as going to see The Streets. If nothing particularly special is happening, you can now enter the Castle Grounds and visit the coffee shop (hopefully to spend some money!) and walk around so that you are really part of the historic monument. As a resident of Cardiff, you can bring documents to obtain a \u2018Cardiff Castle Key\u2019 which enables you to visit the castle when you wish. Certainly making the opportunity to take guests around the inside of the Castle more economically viable.<\/p>\n
The Castle regularly opens their doors now for things like the Cardiff Christmas Wonderland, setting up food stalls and rides and setting up an ice rink (which you have to pay to use of course) and summer celebrations of Welshness such as \u2018Tafwyl<\/a>\u2019. \u00a0\u00a0I am not privy to seeing Cardiff Castle accounts pre and post \u2018opening up\u2019 but it at least feels that there are definitely far more money-making opportunities to be had given they are now more ‘open’!<\/p>\n I think that the same approach has worked really well in Cardiff\u2019s Millennium Centre in the Bay.\u00a0 Noone can argue that the structure isn\u2019t memorably beautiful and grounded in Welshness thanks to its sensitive use of Welsh building materials – as such it\u2019s something for our city to really be proud of.\u00a0 Whilst the originally conceived booking hall lent an air of gravitas to the monumental nature of the performances that you were about to experience, it certainly didn\u2019t scream a warm welcome.<\/p>\n The best picture I can find of what the entrance to the Millennium Centre used to look like is here thanks to Katie Witcher Hamer from <\/strong>W is for the Wales Millennium Centre | We Are Cardiff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Quite austere, industrial even, and quite frankly, a waste of good public space.\u00a0 So it was greatly pleasing when someone with some commercial knowhow overhauled the ticket box counter to turn it into a caf\u00e9 and bar.\u00a0 The Millennium Centre has been totally transformed.\u00a0 It was always quite good at opening itself up, but by turning the heart of the building into a social space, they\u2019ve clearly identified itself as very much a public building, whilst also capitalising on commercial revenue opportunities other than just selling tickets.<\/p>\n So whilst I mourn the summer and prepare myself mentally for another long winter ahead, I\u2019m thinking about what other brilliant Welsh spaces I can move to be part of, to be with other people and to connect.<\/p>\n![\"Industrial](\"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/sarahlethbridgelean\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/554\/2026\/10\/Millennium-desk.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/sarahlethbridgelean\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/554\/2026\/11\/Millennium-Centre-Opened-Up-cropped.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n