Welcome to Cardiff!

Today marks the release of our latest edition: Elska Magazine Issue (07) Cardiff (Wales)

It also marks the first issue of the second Elska year, having released our first edition, Issue (01) Lviv (Ukraine), exactly one year ago. As a UK-based publication, it was great to finally set an issue in Britain, but on an island(s) so full of big cities, it was so hard to choose which one to focus on. In the end I went for the Welsh capital for three reasons: 1) I'd never been to Wales so it had the most to discover; 2) my partner is half Welsh and I was always curious to see his roots; 3) I love the local accent, which kinda even turns me on!

We met a lot of 'local boys' in Cardiff, so many that this became the hardest issue ever to edit down. In the end it's the longest edition too, at 164 pages, and features sixteen photospreads, each accompanied by a story. Most wrote in English as it's the native tongue of 80% of Cardiffians, but a few wrote in Welsh (Ceri V, Orrie M, and Dave R) and one even in Catalan (that's Oliver D, a postgraduate student at the university). Plus, seeing as Brexit just happened before we shot, the impact of this is reflected in a few of their stories.

The Cardiff issue, besides being the biggest, is also the most diverse in terms of body type and age. As usual, we just turn up in a city, post a load of messages on social media and photograph everyone who responds and wants to be in the issue. There's no scouting for particular guys or types of guys. Rather it's a spontaneous and authentic operation. This usually results in more diversity than the average gay mag, but Cardiff took the cake! Beyond the 'textbook-hot' muscle boys, there's skinny guys, thicker guys, and definitely a rugby player or two, as you might expect from Wales. But most striking of all is the age spread - from 19 (that's Jon D) up to 75 (that's Bruce B).

If you haven't yet seen the full Elska experience, I hope you'll pick up a copy and join us for our latest journey. Head to the main site, www.elskamagazine.com, to buy one, to see a list of stockists, or to subscribe to a year of Elska.

Diolch, Thank you!

xx

Liam

#CardiffWales