Originally shared to Instagram @swansea.scoop

Hi all, it's Andrew from Swansea Scoop - hope this is okay to post!

Some of you might know that I put together a free email newsletter with all the best stuff happening in Swansea every week - events, food and drink, positive news, and more. It's now grown to over 12,000 subscribers, and we also share some of the best bits on social media.

Below is a summary of the events in week's newsletter - you can see the whole thing, with links to each event (and subscribe free if you like :)) at https://www.swanseascoop.com/p/52-things-to-do-in-swansea-september-28th-october-4th

And if I can get away with two plugs, the Swansea Scoop Dinner Club is making a return with a 3-course Welsh set menu at Flynn's Deli on Thursday, October 22nd. If you're looking for a fun and low-pressure way to meet new people in Swansea, it would be great to see you there. Tickets are at at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2001389661353

Any questions or anything, chuck them in the comments and I'll be happy to answer.

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What’s on in Swansea this week - September 28th to October 4th

Here’s a big round-up of events, food & drink and live music happening around Swansea this week 👇

🍽️ FOOD & DRINK

☕ Yanura Coffee, Three Crosses — Small-batch coffee from its solar-powered roastery every Saturday, 9 AM–1 PM.

🌎 New world street food restaurant, Castle Street — Chef Raj Chowdhury, owner of Raj Kitchen, is opening his new street food venue a few doors away on Thursday October 1st.

🍺 Oktoberfest at Hoogah — Munich Lager, soft pretzels, live music, 2-pint steins and food specials. Thursday October 1st–Saturday October 3rd.

🎉 Harvest Party, Gower Heritage Centre — Music, dancing, freshly made pizza and curry. Saturday October 3rd, 5.30 PM–late. £5, children free.

🍫 Deli 101: Chocolate Tasting, Flynn’s Delicatessen — Guided small-bite chocolate tasting. Saturday October 3rd, 3 PM. £12.

🛍️ Pontarddulais Market — Outdoor market with local food, sweet treats, homewares and handmade crafts. Saturday October 3rd, 10 AM–2 PM.

🌱 Vegan Mini Market, Swansea Market — Brontosaurus Vegan Lifestyle Store and friends take over part of the market. Saturday October 3rd, 10 AM–3 PM.

🐾 Vicky Park Market, Victoria Park — Monthly pop-up market, this time including the annual dog Halloween costume competition. Sunday October 4th, 10 AM–2 PM.

📅 WHAT’S ON

Monday September 28th

👴 Ageing Well Activities for 50+ — Movie and soup specials, coffee mornings, bowling, social walks and more across Swansea. Various times | Free

Tuesday September 29th

🏔️ Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour 2026 — Extreme adventures and short films at Taliesin Arts Centre. 7.30 PM | £19.50, Under 26s £17.50 | 12+

🥁 Roger Taylor: Violence Insane in a Beautiful World — Queen’s drummer brings his solo tour to Swansea Building Society Arena. 7.30 PM | From £47.64

🍄 The Magic of Medicinal Mushrooms — Stories, science and traditional wisdom around medicinal fungi at Problematic Pub Comedy Club. 7 PM | £20 + fee

🎤 Opera Boys: The Farewell Tour — The classical crossover group’s final tour with Britain’s Got Talent winner Paul Potts at Swansea Grand Theatre. 7.30 PM | £39

Wednesday September 30th

🍂 Wednesday Wildlife Walk, Penllergare Valley Woods — Birds, butterflies, fungi and autumn colours with Conservation Officer Chris. 10.30 AM–12 PM | £1

🔪 Murderous Minds with Emma Kenny — A look at the psychology of real-life killers at Swansea Grand Theatre. 7 PM | £33 | 16+

🎥 Unfinished Business — Film exploring equality and progress through the stories of women. 7 PM | Free for students/low incomes, £5 suggested donation

🎨 Urban Arts 50+ Creative Focus Art Class — Relaxed guided art session at Urban HQ. 1.30 PM | Free

🎭 It’ll All Be Over by Christmas — Theatr na nÓg drama about a girl evacuated from Liverpool to Swansea during WWII, at Dylan Thomas Theatre. 1 PM | £15–£25 pay what you can

🌿 Waterfront Wildings, National Waterfront Museum — Outdoor cooking, crafts and stories for preschoolers. 10.30 AM–12 PM | £1 minimum per child, pay what you can

Thursday October 1st

😂 Rogues’ Gallery Comedy Club: Sooz Kempner + Paul Dennis — Comedy at Rogues’ Gallery. 7 PM | £10

✍️ Elysium Scribes — Weekly creative writing workshop at Elysium Gallery. 1–2 PM | Free

🎤 Harry Baker: Tender — The World Poetry Slam Champion performs poems inspired by the first 100 days of parenthood at Taliesin. 7.30 PM | £19, Under 26s/Students £16 | 11+

🖼️ You Are Here — New free exhibition celebrating Swansea neighbourhoods and the Gower coastline at Taliesin Create. Runs until December 18th.

🎸 The Bootleg Beatles — Performing songs from The Beatles’ five biggest-selling albums at Swansea Grand Theatre. 7 PM | £34.50–£42.50

🎭 The Shape of Things to Come – Tocyn Iaith — Rufus Mufasa’s bilingual show exploring language, power and belonging in a future Wales. 6 PM | Free–£12

Friday October 2nd

🍄 Friday Fungi Foray, Penllergare Valley Woods — 1.5-hour autumn fungi walk. 1 PM | £1

👑 The Best of Queen — Majesty perform Queen’s biggest hits at Swansea Grand Theatre. 7 PM | £35

🖼️ Tracy Harris: More Than the Land Remembers — Photography and Super 8 film exploring female presence in Welsh industrial landscapes at Elysium Gallery. Free

📷 Ffoto Cymru: Paula Pedrosa – The Living Nature of the Stone-dead — Photography exploring geological time and extinct life at Elysium Gallery. Free

Saturday October 3rd

🎉 Harvest Party, Gower Heritage Centre — Music, dancing, pizza and curry. 5.30 PM–late | £5, children free

🕺 Michael Starring Ben — Michael Jackson tribute show with a live band at Swansea Grand Theatre. 7 PM | £23–£33

😂 Celya AB: We Must Stop Meeting Like This — New show from the Saturday Night Live UK writer and Edinburgh Fringe stand-up. 7.30 PM | £19 | 16+

🎻 Mumbles Folk Festival – Twmpath — Folk music and dancing in Mumbles. 7–10 PM | £6.13

🍫 Deli 101: Chocolate Tasting, Flynn’s Deli — 3 PM | £12

🛍️ Pontarddulais Market — Local food, crafts and handmade goods. 10 AM–2 PM

🎻 BBC NOW – Fantastique, Brangwyn Hall — BBC National Orchestra of Wales. 7.30 PM | £12–£22

🎱 Bingo Lingo: Oktoberfest Special, Patti Pavilion — Adult bingo night with prizes. 6.30–11 PM | 18+

🌱 Vegan Mini Market, Swansea Indoor Market — 10 AM–3 PM

🦕 Dinosaur Pebble Painting, Elysium Gallery — Free family workshop with artists Dale Sinoia and Lucy Donald. 11 AM | Free

Sunday October 4th

🐾 Vicky Park Market — Monthly market at Victoria Park plus the annual dog Halloween costume competition. 10 AM–2 PM

😂 Paul Foot: The Future — The Edinburgh Comedy Award-winning comedian at Problematic Pub Comedy Club. 8 PM | £17 + fee

🌍 Exploring Solutions, Riverside Park Pontardawe — Screening of The Emergency Briefing followed by a climate action discussion, with food included. 2–6 PM | £6 / £3

🎸 LIVE MUSIC

Monday September 28th

Uplands Tavern — Open Mic Night | 9 PM

Tuesday September 29th

Bay View — Open Mic Night

Wednesday September 30th

Club Kova — KØR Swansea: Freshers Special | 9 PM
The Swigg — Swansea Jazz Club: Dick Hamer Big Band | 8 PM
Down By Here — Open Mic | 7.30 PM

Thursday October 1st

The Bunkhouse — Gig Gym Gym 2026 | 7 PM

Friday October 2nd

Patti Pavilion — A Night of Queen with The Bohemians | Doors 7 PM
Hippos — TR X HIPPOS: Janaway B2B Cheff the Boy | 6 PM
The Bunkhouse — Cowboy Hunters + Bambees | Doors 6 PM

Saturday October 3rd

Tŷ Tawe — Ryland Teifi | 7 PM
Down By Here — White Leather + Waterpistol + Rainyday Rainbow + A-Topic | 7 PM
The Bunkhouse — Desert Storm + Suns Of Thunder + Heavy On The Ride + MOULD | Doors 6 PM
Peppermint — Swansea Freshers: KOJO FUNDS Live | 10 PM

Sunday October 4th

Plough & Harrow, Brynhyfryd — Open Mic Night
Down By Here — The Foehn Effect | 7 PM
Langland’s Brasserie — Swansea Jazz Club: Georgia Furlong with Dave Cottle Trio | 7 PM

Please double-check details with the organiser before heading out as times and events can change.

Full plans have been submitted to transform Swansea’s Civic Centre into a huge waterfront destination 🏖️

🐠 An aquarium is one of the centrepieces. Operator reefLIVE has collaborated on the vision, with a purpose-built extension in the north-east wing. Visitors would move through aquarium exhibits and digital installations, past an education zone for schools and universities, exiting through a gift shop.

🍴 The huge atrium could become a food hall, surrounded by food and drink units with commercial and cultural space above. Its raised plinth could double as a stage for events.

🍹 Restaurants, cafés and shops would line the seafront side of the building. Around 59,000 sq ft of commercial space is proposed, with glazed shopfronts and folding doors opening onto covered outdoor seating overlooking Swansea Bay.

🚶 You’d be able to walk right through the building to the beach. Access through is currently very limited — the plans keep the main city-side entrance and add a new one facing the bay, with the atrium forming a route between the two.

🎬 The old Council Chamber could become an entertainment venue — a flexible space for cinema screenings, talks, performances, fitness classes, conferences, weddings and civic events.

🏠 More than 130 homes are proposed on the upper floors, potentially rising to 138. Many would get new balconies or terraces, with colourful angular balconies added to seafront-facing elevations.

🌿 Flats without balconies would share a rooftop garden designed to feel like a coastal landscape — sea-facing seating, salt- and wind-tolerant grasses, dwarf pines, gravel paths and timber benches.

🌳 The grounds would become a new waterfront park, with roads and hard landscaping giving way to lawns, coastal planting, play areas and event lawns stretching towards the seafront.

🏢 Much of the building’s Brutalist concrete exterior would remain, with some original concrete ceiling structure exposed inside the new homes.

🤝 The scheme is being delivered by Urban Splash, Swansea Council’s regeneration partner, appointed as part of a 20-year, £750m strategic partnership.

Swansea Scoop: https://www.instagram.com/p/DbvRFt7Cuq9/?img_index=1

I published the story of Tea Cosy Pete for Swansea Scoop today, and received a lovely e-mail from someone who knew him growing up. Thought some here might enjoy it!

https://www.swanseascoop.com/p/tea-cosy-pete-swansea

And the e-mail:

"Good Morning

I'm writing from Cambridge, Ontario, Canada where I've lived for the last 42 years. Your story about Tea Cosy Pete caught my attention because as small children we lived in the same rooming house at Glantawe Street in Morriston, which was run by a Mrs.Geary.  

Brian lived there with his mother (Bronwen), his brother Liam ( I never knew him as Bill) and when he would occasionally return from the merchant navy his father Bill Burford. (Although Bill wasn't Brian's real Father,  I believe that he was Liam's)  However at the time they were just another poor family like the rest of us. They were by no means middle class.

From there they moved to a council flat in Clase, one of the ones that were two stories. We visited them a couple of times and of course Brian, Liam and myself all went to Dynevor Grammar School, although the brothers were several years older than myself.  

I saw Brian go from being a small quiet boy to an upper sixth student wearing a sports coat with leather elbow patches and carrying a briefcase, to what he eventually became, and I saw and spoke with him regularly in the transition period, before we moved to Canada.

I don't know what happened to their father because for the longest time prior to them moving to Clase we never saw him, in fact we never saw him again.

What no one seems to remember is that for the first few years living rough, his mother Bronwen was actually with him on the street. I can't say that we were close friends, partly because of the age gap, and partly because Brian wasn't as sociable as Liam was. I can remember Brian being at our place once, and he didn't like what my mother had made for food, so my mother opened a small tin of Heinz beans for him, at which point he looked quite incredulously at my mother and said are they all for me. Isn't it funny how you can remember little oddities like that!

I hope that helps paint a picture of who he was."