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Headpiece made by Adrian Spinola for the 2006 MAS Carnival and worn by the Marigold Queen. South Wales Intercultural Community Arts (SWICA) organised the annual Cardiff Carnival from its inception in 1990 until 2015. Steve Fletcher artistic director tells us about the origins of the MAS Carnival in Cardiff:

“MAS is the first three letters – M.A.S. – of the word masquerade, and masquerade is the form of carnival that you would find in the Caribbean and so when I started SWICA way back in 1990, the Caribbean MAS Carnival was the form of carnival that we thought perhaps could give us the answer about how we, here in Cardiff, could come together using collective creativity and we could take over the streets.

You’ll hear steel pan drums from the Caribbean; you’ll hear djembes and other forms of drumming from Africa; and you’ll also hear the fabulous two-skinned dhol drum and the Punjab. Hundreds or people taking over the streets, dancing there’s noise, there’s colour, it’s like a sea of colour and it’s all going down the road and flowing through the city, so it’s ‘just incredibly vibrant, terribly exciting…terribly exciting.”