Last week, Wales International were at the National Eisteddfod in Llanrwst, Conwy at stand 410-412 welcoming our Worldwide Welsh Friends! With the Eisteddfod set to see around 150,000 visitors over its 8 day run, we were so excited to share our news and events with new and returning welsh friends.
Despite the weather’s best efforts, the event saw incredible crowds turn out for one of the world’s biggest celebrations of Wales and the Welsh community! With over 250 stalls and stands and events running throughout the day, the Eisteddfod saw T. James Jones as the winner of the 2019 Chair, Gareth Evans Jones winning this year’s Drama Medal and Fiona Collins as the 2019 Welsh Learner of the Year Winner. We send a massive congratulations to all winners and participants across the 2019 Eisteddfod competitions!
For more information on the results and news from the 2019 Eisteddfod, please click here https://eisteddfod.wales/2019/news
At the event, we had our Annual General Meeting and our Annual Lecture ‘Cymru, Llundain a Llanrwst’ (Wales, London and Llanwrst) with our special guest speaker, Ifor Ap Glyn, which both took place on 8th August. With this, we had some NEW and incredibly exciting events taking place at our stall earlier on in the week.
On Monday, we hosted Wales International’s Music Panel with renowned artists such as Lleuwen and Nesdi Jones who were interviewed by our President, and Welsh Tenor, Rhys Meirion discussing all things Welsh Music and its place within our culture!
The next day, our second panel discussion was Wales International’s Welsh Learner Panel. This discussion was all about Welsh language learning and we were so privileged to have a panel of incredible Welsh speakers! We saw input on the subject from our ambassador Aran Jones, Founder of Say Something in Welsh, Francesca Elena Sciarrillo, 2019 Urdd Eisteddfod’s Welsh Learner of the year and Eiry Miles, who works every day at the National Centre for Learning Welsh.
One of the major topics of conversation were the ‘Cymraeg 2050’ plans by the Welsh government, one of the biggest campaigns around the Welsh language that Wales has ever seen. We are working alongside the Welsh Government to achieve their 2050 vision for the Welsh Language of reaching 1 MILLION Welsh Speakers! By connecting with Welsh people from all over the world and creating discussions, such as the ones we had at the Eisteddfod, we are developing the conversation of the Welsh language and encouraging others to reconnect to their language and show others its importance. We are also building a learners resource in our Members only section; you can learn more about our membership here.
For all of our Worldwide Welsh friends, we would LOVE to hear your thoughts on these plans and would encourage you to connect with us and share your ideas on how we could develop this within your local communities!
