The family who run the coffee shop in Cwmdonkin Park’s pavilion are inviting the community to a free summer party on Sunday afternoon — celebrating a new look for the building and a new future for the business.
Dylan’s Coffee Shop, in the Uplands park, has been run by Sara and Papi Faye since April 2021 — and has now moved into a Community Interest Company, meaning its profits will be put back into the park and the community around it.
The party runs from 3pm to 6pm on Sunday, 19 July, with free activities including live music, a magician, face painting, animal petting and football games.
“When we first opened the coffee shop we wanted to create somewhere that felt welcoming,” said Sara Faye.
“Over the years, we have got to know so many local people and families — we feel incredibly lucky to be part of such a special community.”
She said the move to a Community Interest Company felt like the natural next step: “It means that as the coffee shop grows, we can put even more back into the community through activities, events, and preserving the pavilion.”
“The Summer Party is our way of saying thank you to everyone who has supported us. Come along, bring your family and your friends and enjoy the afternoon with us.”
The new company — Evan’s Green Grounds Community Interest Company — will work to make the pavilion a community hub, organise events and activities, encourage greater use of the park, and protect the pavilion building itself.
The family say the pavilion’s improvements and Sunday’s celebration have been made possible by grant funding and support from Codi, Morganstone and Swansea Council.
It also aims to celebrate the connection that gives the coffee shop its name: Cwmdonkin was Dylan Thomas’s childhood playground, a short walk from his birthplace at 5 Cwmdonkin Drive — and the pavilion café is named in his honour.
The park appears throughout his work — most famously in The Hunchback in the Park, his poem set among its paths, its fountain and its railings.
The Victorian park remains one of Swansea’s best-loved green spaces, and is among the nine Swansea parks holding Green Flag status this year.
The pavilion coffee shop has become a fixture for park regulars in the five years since the Fayes took it on — with Sunday’s party doubling as a fifth-birthday thank-you to the community that sustained it.
Anyone wanting to know more about the party or the new community company can contact the coffee shop directly.
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