1967 – First Mardi Gras Carnival

The Butetown Carnival traces its roots to a community Mardi Gras launched in the mid-1960s. In 1967, Cardiff politicians and community leaders organized what was then called the Butetown Mardi Gras, billed as an “International Caribbean Carnival,” as a goodwill event for the “poor people of Butetown” amid a period of local slum clearance . The festival – held in Butetown’s old park – brought Afro-Caribbean carnival traditions (introduced by seamen from West Africa and the Caribbean) together with Welsh folk customs like the Mari Lwyd . Keith Murrell, who would later become carnival director, recalls attending that first Mardi Gras as a child: “We used to call it the Butetown Mardi Gras back then, but it has always been a celebration of the Butetown community” . Though initially successful, this early top-down carnival ran only a few years before the council canceled it, laying a foundation of inspiration for Butetown’s own community-led carnival in the years to come . The 1967 Mardi Gras nonetheless set a precedent of cultural pride, music, and dance, planting the seeds for a lasting multicultural celebration in Cardiff’s Tiger Bay.