Winterwonderland Swansea

Plenty of fun for the family.

SwanTV at The Wave Local Hero Awards

SwanTV attended The Wave Local Hero Awards at the Dragon Hotel

Tourism Swansea Bay Awards 2012

And The Winners Are...

Swansea Bay Tourism Awards 2012

Celebrating the excellence and innovation from across Swansea Bay’s tourism, leisure and hospitality industry… 
 

Last Thursday night the Winning & Highly Commended businesses of the 2012 Swansea Bay Tourism Awards were announced at a prestigious and glitzy awards ceremony and dinner at the Brangwyn Hall in Swansea. 

 

The evening was well attended with over 430 people from the finest tourism, leisure and hospitality businesses in Swansea Bay, celebrating their success since the last awards in 2010; guests included Steve Webb, Director of Visit Wales, both the Mayors’ and Leaders’ of Swansea and Neath Port Talbot, the Regional Tourism Partnership, ‘so many to mention!… 

 

Becoming a finalist and then becoming a WINNER or highly commended business is one of the proudest moments for any business – demonstrating commitment and dedication. 

A complete list of the Highly Commended and Winning business is below or can be found on the awards website www.swanseabaytourismawards.co.uk.
 
Congratulations to all who took part!!
 
 Photos from the awards can be found on the Facebook page of All About The Image – click here. For those of you that don't have a Facebook account, photos will be on the Swansea Bay Tourism Awards Website later in the week - www.swanseabaytourismawards.co.uk.

If you would like to purchase photos please contact Graham Smith, All About The Image, on 07976 658572 or email
graham@allabouttheimage.co.uk

And of course SwanTV were there to capture the moment so watch out for the video coming up on our new website.

We are anxiously seeking university students to direct, be camera-men, edit and produce material. So if you want the experience just get in touch at ask@swantv.com

Some Swansea Views

The Glittering Prize!

Here is the new SwanTV logo. Watch out for it at local events and on the internet

SwanTV were pleased to contribute to the Dylan Thomas Literary Award ceremony by producing the video shown at the beginning of the evening and by following the finalist during the week as they were involved in different events including talking at local schools to inspire pupils.                       



Jamie Owen of BBC Wales hosted the event. We heard excepts read by each finalist from their book. 

Chibunda Onuzo read from The Spider King's Daughter. Born in Nigeria in 1991, she is the yongest of four children. She graduated fro King's College. London in 2012 with a first in History.  When not writing Chibunda can be found playing the piano or singing.

D W Wilson was born and raised in the small towns of the Kooteney Valley, British Columbia. He read from Once You Break a Knuckle. He is the recipient of the University of East Anglia's inaugural  Booker Prize Scholarship - the most prestigious award available to students in the MA programme. His stories have appeared in literary magazines across Cananda, Ireland and the United Kingdom: and The Dead Roads won the BBC National Short Story Award in 2011. He lives in London.

Seating Arrangements was read by Maggie Shipstead. She graduated from Harvard in 2005 and earned an MFA at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Currently, she is a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. Seating Arrangements is her first novel.

Tom Benn read an except from The Doll Princess. Born in 1987, he grew up in Stockport. He is a graduate of the UEA Creative Wrtiting MA and was a recipient of the 2009 Malcolm Bradbury bursary.

The White Shadow was read by Andrea Eames who was born in 1985. She was brought up in Zimbabwe, where she attended a Jewish school for six years, a Hindu school for one, a Catholic convent school for two and a half, and then the American International School in Harare. Andrea's family moved to New Zealand in 2002. She worked as a bookseller and editor and now lives in Austin, Texas with her husband. Her first novel, The Cry of the Go-Away Bird, was published in 2011.

It was no surprise to hear that the judges had a tough job selecting a winner, each book was a joy to listen to, and I would highly recommend reading all.

The winner was Maggie Shipstead and she was presented with a cheque for £30,000 by Hannah Ellis, grand-daughter of Dylan Thomas.

The evening celebrations were held at the Waterfront Museum, Swansea and this was a superb sumptuous setting for such a glittering prize.  
 

















This is a bi-annual event and will coincide with the century of the birth of Dylan Thomas.

Dylan Thomas Centre launch of Nigel Jenkins new book

    

 Last evening the Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea hosted the launch of Nigel Jenkins new book Real Swansea Two, the sequel to Real Swansea One. .Bang up to date it covers both history and changes in and around Swansea.

Dylan Thomas Literary Prize Week sundry items

Out and about at the end of October. I just couldn't believe my eyes to see Xmas decorations up already.

Driving near Cross Hands I had to stop and take a photo. I know celebrations start earlier each year but it's mainly shops that are after our custom. Do you think this is too early? Let me know. Drop a comment in at the bottom of the page.






Driving through the Hafod last week I just had to catch this shot of what could be scaffolding being erected to reach out to the silver lining.

 The Dylan Thomas Literary Award is here again. This most prestigious event celebrated young authors (under thirty years) from around the world.

We followed three of them this week from Mozart's where they read excepts from their short-listed books, across to Noah's in Swansea Uplands where they were interviewed by Peter Stead, who created the awards back in 2006. There is a glittering prize - of £30,000. A bonus to any author today: and particularly to a young author in this very competitive market. The readings were such a contrast and all held the packed room audience spell-bound.
 


Introduced by Hannah Ellis, grand-daughter of Dylan Thomas. This was a warm and inspiring event.

 Lighting was extremely poor at this location as was the sound but we have managed to capture the essence of the intimate atmosphere. Watch out for footage on SwanTV

Tuesday evening the  Dylan Thomas Literary Finalists went to the Swansea Print Workshop where there was a presentation on the Dylan Thomas Project run 10 years ago with both original and new artists. The work is very delicate and cotton gloves were the order of the day. Touching the paper may have a damaging effect.

As a memento of the occasion the Print Workshop had set each author's name in cold type and produced a simple poster for each to take away. They actually printed off their individual copies.  

There are some really interesting old printing presses at the Swansea Print Workshop that are still used today. 

Action!!! Out and about with the Team

SwanTV up and running. Not just running but racing to get the first programme up in the New Year. In fact as early as January.

Now with Mike Scott on board and partnering up we have both creative juices and technical genius to bring the best that Swansea Bay has to offer.

And we have covered a few events already so that we can put together a Showcase of what's to come.

Here we are at the Admiral 10k run where we spoke with the some of the front runners and winners. We caught a glimse of the mascots as they sped past us as if running through a sea of treacle.Well done guys!!

Then off to St Mary's Church where there was an Open Day. Whether a church goer or not this was an opportunity to see inside the church, pick up a coffee and look around, or climb the 129 steps to the top of the tower for some spectacular views.

We were given a tour and had an interview with the Treasurer on the battlement like top. You can see from these pictures that this is a great vantage point looking right across to the Brecon Beacons in the far distance.

I'm sure you'll be able to pick out the buildings around the city.

We looked in at the bells on the way up (thankfully appreciating the break).

With the changing face of the City with businesses closing down or re-locating it was good to see the new Polish Bakery and Cafe opening up in Cradock Street, city centre. The smell of fresh bread is compelling when you pass: the taste is yummy!

Art across the City continues. This is in Castle Square. The plaque will give other locations and dates. Well worth going on the tour and seeing what our local artists are doing.

 

And finally we are ramping up on posts now and getting some respectable number of views every day. Our new website is almost there and you can get your business out there. Ask about out peanut intro rates, no monkeying around!!

Just to let you know that Swanseabay-tv is alive and kicking and looking for quality material 30 seconds up to 5 minutes to include. This can be about events, people or places. Call 079776364681 for more details. We will always include your credits.