"A festival of live music, food and entertainment" on a sunny Saturday in the Welsh capital’s castle – what could be better? Depot started as a pop-up venue at, you guessed it, a depot in the city's Dumballs Road in 2015 but it’s now become a mainstay and has a permanent home off Curran Embankment. But its fifth birthday saw it take over the castle for a big old shindig with one of its summer of live events.
The headliner was due to be Rag 'n' Bone man with the other eye-catching acts for 90s fiends like me being Faithless, Mel C, and Toploader, whose CDs were a staple of my school days. Others were Ian Davies, Gracey, Lola Young, Alfie Templeton.
Unfortunately at the last minute Rag 'n' Bone Man had to pull out due to illness so, as well as Sister Bliss’ DJ set, Craig David performed his TS5 set with a mix of DJing and singing. Any fears we had earlier in the night they would be too samey were soon disproved.
The event is billed as family-friendly so we divided it in two – going in the afternoon with a toddler and the evening thanks to a babysitter. Lots of others seemed to do the same and the kids area was heaving with everything from tiny babies to tweens. The afternoon’s big top entertainment of plate spinning and balloon modelling giving way to raving in the evening sun.
Despite the boiling temperatures making it tricky to keep small people cool there was a lovely vibe with huge tables with free craft activities and flower headband-making as well as loads of hula hoops and circus toys. Our toddler was enraptured by the plate-spinning show, which was thankfully undercover to give us all some respite as there was little shade elsewhere in the grounds.
In the evening we took a stroll round to check the street food offerings. I was chuffed it was local Welsh stalls with things like Meat and Green and Keralan Karavan but the queues were ridiculous and not really moving and there were things selling out so we gave up. But saying that I’m not sure the novelty of being in a beautiful venue like the castle dancing to tunes from decades ago will wear off for a while. From Mel C bringing out some Spice Girls classics to Sister Bliss remixing Faithless big hitters it was a joyous way of soaking up a sunny Saturday. Craig David isn’t someone I’d ever have expected to see but dancing around to some of the songs I grew up listening to on Now albums with his own music thrown in was an unexpected highlight. Hearing hundreds of people sing in unison to Fill Me In and yelling Bo Selecta with some Fugees thrown in with the scenes of Ibiza summers on the big screen behind him transported us across the sea.
And that’s my favourite bits about events like this – not just seeing our city come alive with a vibrant festival but the variety of acts you see in a day, few of which I'd have bought a ticket for in their own right. Never did I think I’d be raving in a field to Faithless at seven months pregnant with hundreds of others all doing the same thing.
I remember going to Depot’s first big event like this at Sophia Gardens five years ago with a gang of friends. We had a great time but didn’t make the most of the tickets and mainly just sat, chat, and ate, not actually bothering to go see the music, and because of that we realised we could have done that anywhere and haven’t been back. However their events have grown and got better organised. Friends who had been to other events at the castle by the same people had told me how well it was all organised and it was true. Lots of litter-pickers and bar staff meant you weren’t losing hours to big queues and the site itself was organised – if we were being picky the trek all the way round the castle for entry felt a bit of a pain and getting the right answer about how re-entry worked took a good number of people but they're small gripes about a big event that we'll look back and smile on.
But it was an event we enjoyed as a family and then on our own and one that in future, if the headliners were my bag, I’d pop along to again. There were all ages there – people slow dancing to Faithless, reminiscing to Mel C, and jumping up and down to Craig David. But a word of warning – it doesn’t come cheap with a £55 entry ticket per adult (anyone over 13) and £11 for those aged six to 12 meaning your ticket bill would soon be shooting up. Street food, as much as I love it, adds up especially when catering for a family and beers were £6.20 a go with a bottle of wine at £25. All that is fine and probably the prices I’d expect but just be aware if you’re planning a full day out, especially when it’s hot, that keeping everyone fed, cool, and watered will eat into your cash.
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