Celebrating Fishguard's Celtic and Festival culture

Fishguard owes much of its identity to the Sea and its Celtic heritage. Schemes such as the Ports, Past and Present project aimed to enhance Celtic descended port towns including Fishguard, finding ways to boost tourism by utilising their shared history and connection via the sea. The existence of many festivals in Fishguard also contribute to the town’s identity, however a lack of an epicentre for these festivals was identified, with festivities happening across the entire town in existing architecture that the locals moved between.

This movement in the festival became a critical design aspect in the proposal and this idea was strengthened by the role of movement in the history of the Celts as well, leading to the exploration of movement and procession through an architecture in the primer project and ultimately testing how people could be encouraged to actively move through spaces.

Taking all this research into account, the ‘Fishguard’s Heart of the Festival’ proposal aimed to acknowledge this rich identity, evolving into a town-wide proposal that is a synergy of permanent and temporary structures to accommodate Fishguard’s festivals, with a main building that acts as the epicentre, the heart of the festival. A key challenge solved by the proposal was addressing the disconnect that the festivals had with the sea, aiming to reconnect the two physically without spoiling the natural view; another challenge was ensuring the spaces could adapt to accommodate the larger influx of people during the festival. The emerging design addressed these challenges and is defined by three key spaces: the Music Centre, the Musician’s Retreat by the sea and the Lower Town Café. Taking into account existing marine walks and coastal views to cement the idea of movement and procession, all three of the designed spaces aimed to enhance the community and the landscape through the creation of a ‘circulation system’ that united all existing festival spaces into one processional route. The Music Centre would be an architecture that served as the heart of the festival, hosting teaching spaces that aid in nurturing the musical heritage of the townspeople.

Supporting infrastructure took the form of a Musician’s Retreat in the Lampit Bach, a cliff site that addressed the disconnect with the sea, as well as the Lower Town café that brought life back to its site. To accommodate festivals more, temporary performance stages are able to be constructed in the last two sites, whilst the Music Centre’s teaching spaces are able to open up to form larger festival spaces. The proposal was not designed to replace the way in which Fishguard celebrates its Celtic heritage, but in a way that unites the entire town, enhancing existing infrastructure to provide an enriched town-wide festival