Roald Dahl Plass

This oval shaped arena plays hosts to some of the greatest events held in Cardiff Bay. It has displayed football matches when they put up a big screen for the crowd to enjoy as you can see from the photo I uploaded. It can get extremely busy filled with people from everywhere just wanting to enjoy their day out.
It has the infamous ‘Torchwood’ building that has water running down it and you will not be able to resist the urge to either go and have a photo taken by it or touch it for that water to go down your arm. I have enjoyed many events including food festivals where there are giant gazebo’s filled with food from all over wales including cheese, honey and all other things from the Welsh country. It has hosted some sports games with the last one being a Cardiff City match that the placed on the big screen, to say it was busy is an understatement. Even when it doesn’t hold events it’s a nice area to sit down or walk through. There are often skateboarders and bikers down there practicing.
I think this is an excellent area to have outdoor events. I do however wish they had one thing that would make Cardiff Bay great. If they had a bonfire night on November 5^th launching fireworks from the middle of the oval I believe it would bring thousands of people in. Who’s with me on this? It can’t be me surely?

For a while it looked as though Cardiff Bay was going to represent an expensive pariah of the city’s widespread redevelopment: apartments that couldn’t be sold, changes hated by pre-​existing locals, met with a shrug of indifference by more central townsfolk unimpressed at its relative inconvenience. But slowly over the past decade it’s become an integral part of city life and Roald Dahl Plass is very much a gateway to the modern, new Cardiff Bay, bordering the more historic, less plush surrounds of Butetown. Its basin confines host all manner of events and festivals throughout the years, and are a great destination for families, symbolically sandwiched by the Wales Millennium Centre’s high art presence and Mermaid Quay’s lowest common denominator chains. The wall of water fountain is an eye-​catcher if slightly function-​free landmark. But in general, though Roald Dahl Plass doesn’t possess the magic of the great man’s books, it does typify the Bay’s shiny new image.

The Roald Dahl Plass or the Oval Basin are the lungs of Cardiff Bay, which when full of activity (or air if the analogy is to work) breathe life into the bars, restaurants and walkways that surround it.
It’s played host to so many events from concerts to international volleyball competitions to the start and end of various charity runs. This still happens and will continue to. Most recently the international food fair was here — I had some deliciously huge prawns cooked in garlic and parsley which I can’t recommend enough unless you’re not a shellfish lover.
Even if you’re not a big fan crowds then its still worth a visit here night or day when there aren’t any events on. In the day there is a steady stream of people to watch plus a 70 foot high metallic water tower which kids love to put their head in. Whilst in the evening, the plass has a different more romantic feel to it, with the 18 fifty foot high pillars that surround it, being illuminated.
Like a human without its lungs the bay wouldn’t thrive as it does.

This is the renamed historic Oval Basin lock at the capital’s dockside, which took the name of the world’s favourite chidren’s author in 2002. Dahl, who was born to Norwegian parents in Llandaff, spent his childhood in Cardiff, growing up to write the bestsellers The BFG, The Twits, Matilda and many more.
The Oval Basin served as a lock at the city’s docks until it was filled in during the 1960s in order to stabilise its walls. A stone’s throw from Wales Millennium Centre and The Welsh Assembly, the space now serves as an entertainment area with many events taking place here throughout the calendar year. It is especially appropriate to take the authors name because Dahl and his sister were christened at a nearby Norwegian Church, where their parents had worshipped. Dahl became the church preservation trust’s first president in 1987.