Our mission is to create and share interesting stories about alternative culture and arts (amongst other things) – mostly we like to hand the reins over to the people of Cardiff for them to tell you all about it. We work mostly online through our website, but also on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Soundcloud, and Instagram. For residents of Cardiff or visitors to the city, the We Are Cardiff project shares something a little different –  personal stories that sit outside the churn of mainstream media, helping you to get a better idea of the variety of great stuff and wonderful people that live in this city.

Our obsession with stories runs deep: we have a sister publishing company in We Are Cardiff Press, which is a non-profit publisher, showcasing writing and art from creators in the city. We craft collectable, limited edition runs of beautiful books, from literature to photography, and illustration to personal storytelling. All profits from sales are put back into the Press to fund new books.

Want to contact us? wearecardiff@gmail.com, find out about working with us, or download our media kit. Please note the media kit is pretttty old now, if you want updated figures give us a shout (we just haven’t got round to updating it in ages…!).

CARDIFF

Cardiff is a little city, but a great one. You encounter any number of different nationalities on a daily basis – you see the interaction between traditional Welsh culture and its English counterpart. You see roadsigns in Welsh first, English second. We have a resident circus. We have sandy beaches and waterfalls and castles and caves within driving distances. We have abandoned nuclear bunkers, hidden tunnels underneath the city centre, an enormous stadium, a beautiful museum, gorgeous parks and old Roman forts. We have the world’s oldest record shop, coastline rich in fossils and a colourful gay pride festival. Most of all, we have a lot of interesting people that inhabit the city. This website is about them.

We are unveiling the stories of the people who inhabit this fair place, through the stories or poems they write, and through pictures of them in different parts of their city.

PRESS

Lots of lovely people have been very nice about our project, and we’re very grateful to all of them for the feedback. So ta very much!

We Are Cardiff was named as one of the most influential Welsh Twitter feeds – both inside Wales, and outside of it (Wales Online, October 2015)

You can see Helia featured as Blogger of the Week (!) in the Guardian’s Urbanist’s guide series: The urbanist’s guide to Cardiff: ‘the UK’s most sociable city’ (June 2014)

We Are Cardiff featured in the Guardian’s G2 in March 2012 – representing Wales and the UK in a feature about global blogging voices (Simon Ayre’s photo of Zoe Howerska appeared on the cover of G2 – marvellous!)

We Are Cardiff was winner of the Best Blog award in the Wales Blog Awards 2012. It was also nominated for the Wales Blog Awards 2010; shortlisted for Best Community blog in the Wales Blog Awards 2011; and shortlisted for Best Community Blog and Best Multimedia Blog in 2012.

Other bits:

An article about the background to We Are Cardiff – and how the project is developing – that Helia wrote for the Guardian in September 2010

Our oldest resident (and arguably most famous local celebrity!) Dennis Dutch of Clark’s Pies also had an article about his story on the Crossroads Care website.

We were featured on the What’s On In Cardiff blog in July 2011 and on the Literature Wales site for our involvement in Big Little City in 2011.

Thanks to Joao Morais for this nice write-up of our project and what we’re trying achieve over on Plastik Magazine with a review of a fundraiser that we held for the We Are Cardiff: Portrait of a City film in 2012.

WHO ARE WE?

Concerned citizens! Superheroes! Lovers of baked goods, ales and ciders! All of the above!

Editor-in-chief: Helia Phoenix
We Are Cardiff Press: Hana Johnson
Design: Adam Chard and James O’Brien
Consultant/Advisor/Mentor: Lucy Squire

Previous WAC helpers have also included  Matt Appleby and Amy Davies. The following very talented photographers have contributed portraits to our online gallery: Adam Chard, Simon Ayre, Jon Pountney, Ffion Matthews, Amy Davies, Doug Nicholls, Lann Niziblian, Rob Bell, Helia Phoenix, Geraint Griffiths, Peppe Iovino, Lorna Cabble, and Ben Blyth. Also numerous students from the USW Photojournalism course, and thanks to Andy and Becky on the course for ongoing support. Also, thanks to the list of contributors as long as your arm.

WANT TO LINK TO US?

Use the image above and place it on your site to link to us!