Drinking Culture Voxpop: Misrepresented?

Question: Do you think that material such as ‘The Valleys’ and ‘Cardiff After Dark’ are a fair representation of the drinking culture in Wales? 

Arron, 20, Sales assistant, Cardiff

The show portrays characters in wales wrong. In terms of binge drinking I think this city is out of control. You can’t walk past here on a Saturday night without people spewing. I think they’re all just as bad; binge drinking seems to be the new culture. It’s mainly students. Hey here’s our student loan let’s go and get some drink.

Valleys portray people wrong. I’m Welsh but I don’t have the taffy accent, they are trivializing us.

Emannuel Dekeith, 58, Head-concierge, Cardiff

Probably better. Because it’s very localized, it’s a very small part of Cardiff, and I don’t see it as being a problem. If you pick a Friday night, it’s the end of work, people, or youngsters, will abuse it. But Monday to Friday you will se very few people. Its not an everyday thing. Its binge drinking, but on a very limited time, such as a Friday and Saturday. City center almost deserted Monday to Friday.

Charlotte, 25, Travelling,

I have seen girls in the street who are practically naked, and boys with girls doing all sorts of things. I think it’s quite a wild drinking culture in Cardiff. It is nothing like back home. I have been here for three weeks and my impressions are that people in Cardiff love to drink all the time.

Hadley, 24, Retail assistant, Cardiff

I think it’s quite over the top but not anymore than the rest of the British culture really. I think Cardiff is quite tame compared to Swansea as far as nights out. I don’t think that Cardiff is as hardcore as Swansea, but I still think it’s a little bit too heavy on the drinking. They need to try and introduce a few more regulations. They need to introduce things to peak people’s interests otherwise people just keep going out. If the culture wasn’t people just going out getting smashed then there wouldn’t be such a problem.

Jade, 19, Sales, Cardiff

It’s a bit excessive. Welsh people don’t act like the valleys. Its not a majority. Everyone goes out and drinks, but don’t all act like that. You get that (carnage) everywhere. Its not just welsh cities. I think it’s normal, university students, that’s the way they are.

John, 55, Lawyer, Cardiff

I represent the kind of people you are talking about, so I know that Cardiff can be quite extreme when it comes to binge drinking.  I haven’t seen the valleys but I can tell through my line of work that people can get a bit over the top here. I would say it’s worse than parts of London, and would probably compare it to Newcastle in terms of the drinking culture.