Raglan Castle and festival

Let me first off saying what an amazing spell of weather we are having in south Wales at this moment. Every weekend seems to be just perfect to go out and explore what this great country has to offer. Even when we have bad spells, it seems to happen during the week when we are all busy. So like always (come rain or shine) we headed out once again on another family adventure.

This time though instead of heading to waterfalls to dip in the cool water or head up a mountain to see some amazing views with this near perfect blue skies, we headed to a beautiful little village called Raglan. The reason for this was to make the most of the weather and the time of year to go and experience some of these towns’ festivals.

This is the first year we are going to enjoy these festivals as a family as my little girl is now the bit older and she loves music and more importantly she really loves to dance. So we promised on the weekends that if these kinds of things are on we will go to these and mix it up with the walking, sightseeing, etc.

Raglan is about an hour’s drive from our home but it is on a very easy drive as once on the motorway it was only about 3 turning until we reached the village. Once we did arrive we seen straight away there was no way in from the way we come due to them closing the main high street to allow for the festival to take place and have more of a street party. But this easy enough to get round due to the fact of how small the village was (which we didn’t realise at the time) and we just followed the diversion sign that showed us round the right and then it was next left and there we were. We sore straight away there was no car parks so we followed a line of cars down that were parked outside the houses down what seemed a main road till we found a space.

I put the picnic that was in my ruck sack with plenty of water on my back and we made our way down to the festival on the high street. This only took us around 5 mins. Once there we saw a food trailer that was parked across the road blocking it off, leaving only a place to walk through next to a table selling the tickets to get in. The tickets cost £2 each but all money went into buying things for the village as this was a none profit event so we didn’t think twice about it. With the £2 entry me and my wife got plastic cups with raglan festival (which we kept as a souvenir) and my daughter was given a bottle which she could fill up with juice or water all day long for free on the hot day which we thought was a really nice thing to do. The main reason for our plastic cups was they didn’t want glass in the festival for safety reasons, so every time you brought a drink they just used the cup which was a great idea.

As we walked in we could see all the shops where shut and the only thing open was a pub just down to our left and a b&b down the bottom. This should in itself tell you how small the festival was. It was only hundreds of yards long and that was pretty much the length of their high street. There was the food trailer like I said before which was now behind and was selling a host of hot food, just down to the right was a couple of stalls which were selling homemade cakes, with tea’s and coffee’s. The pub was then opposite them on the left. Just after that was an open back truck. This just like the food trailer was blocking the road off the other end with also an access point for people to get in. It had a band set in the back with all the sound system there for the people to come on and play. To the left of the stage there was what looked like it was a car park any other time but was turned into a kid’s zone. This was probably emptied for the event. Inside the zone was a bouncy castle, face painting and a kid’s matted area for playing games with next to it a seated area with tables for arts and crafts.

We arrived around 12:40pm and with that it was meant to start at 12. So there was no music going till around 20 minutes or so when we got. Straight away my little girl wanted to get paint on tattoo instead of face paint, so we queued for that. She only had a series of little love hearts down her arm. Whilst that was going on the music had started and there was what sounded by the way he started to talk to the crowd was a local guy. He was sat on a chair with guitar singing some old classic songs which I think if I’m right were from the 80’s and 90’s. After my little girl finished getting a tattoo, there was a magician starting right next the face painting and she sat to watch. She seen only about ten minutes before getting up as was a little young for her, even though she is only 9. After listening to a bit of music and Esme having a go on bouncy castle and that we decided it was time to leave and go see the castle near by

From what I read before we came, the castle was amazing to see and also set in a beautiful location. So we made the short walk up to there as by then it was 14.20pm and the castle closed at five o’clock. The walk was only around ten minutes away and the only thing we had to watch for was crossing the dual carriageway. The castle was just off the carriageway and as we were walking into the car park the castle was there before us and it really stood out. The great thing we noticed was there seemed to be a lot left of it, so would be plenty of places to explore.

It cost £17 for the three of us to get in and by the end of our trip there I can safely say it was more than worth the money. This castle from what we learned was built in the 1430’s and even though it was a big place and looked more than able to defend to people inside it, apparently it was built more for show rather than battle and once you explore the castle you can see why. Once you paid to get in and walked into the site the front of castle stood really high in front of you and was in good condition considering its age.

The main thing you really notice though is to the left, this is a very large defence tower surrounded by a moat. It is still filled with water to this day and looks stunning. As the water is a beautiful green with loads of Lilly pads and wildlife. As you walk around the castle there are lots of room’s to explore, some high in the tower, some at ground level and also underground where they use to keep and store fresh food, wine, etc, as it held a cool temperature all the time. Like I said before this castle was more for show and there was plenty of information boards around explaining the rooms and what they were used for and all showed it was held for very grand parties for high ranking people in that time. Please feel free to check my Instagram and Facebook for photos. There is also a website for the castle as well to get more information and pictures.

We spent over two hours at the castle and could have stayed longer and explored the grounds as well but we wanted to get back to the festival to see some of the singers and bands. Once we got back it was around five. We decided to try out the cups this time and get a seat in front of the made up stage. We sat around 10 rows back as there were a good few seats around as this was a busy festival for the size but a lot of people were stood up talking. My wife and daughter went and got an ice cream and sat down and I made my way to the pub right next to the seats. They had a lot of staff on and I got served pretty fast considering this was probably there busiest day of the year. I had a pint of carling and my partner had half a cider as she was the chosen driver for the day.

I joined the family and not long after a lady singer got on stage and started to sing Tina Turner and a few other hits. My daughter then wanted to dance. Not being a shy guy myself I didn’t mind and we made our way to the front. We were the only ones dancing with hundreds watching on but it was great fun.

This act stayed on for around forty-five minutes singing songs new and old. Me and my daughter danced the whole time, trying to pretend we were going with the music and was some sort of professionals. By the time the lady had finished I was boiling hot as was a warm day and there was no hiding from the sun. Must say at this point I really wish I wasn’t wearing trousers lol.

During the break my daughter had a hot dog from the food trailer which loved. By the time she rested and ate the soul band was just about to start. This was the main act and the place seemed to double in the amount of people that were there. There were around ten people to the band. Female singers started on the stage with the keyboard, drummer and guitar players. One girl took the lead role and then three guys appeared from behind the stage and walked into the crown with trumpets and that. It was great to see and really got the crowd going. The girls sung a couple of songs but then the main soul singer came on and they backed him up. They were a great band and could see that they had been doing it a long time and were very popular.

For about six to eight songs me and my daughter danced (there are videos of this as well lol) and with this quite a few people were up dancing as well. My daughter at this point was getting tired as it had been a long hot day and she really had not much of a rest all. So at 7:20pm we decided it was time to make our way back home. We arrived at 8:30pm had a shower and some tea. Esme pretty much went straight to sleep and we chilled to watch some television and reflect on what a great day it was there and on how much we would love to go back again next year