Llangollen Fringe Festival 2026 starts tomorrow

* Gwenno.

* Skinny Lister.

* Nubiyan Twist.

Llangollen Fringe starts tomorrow (Friday) with 10 nights of live music, comedy and free events across the town 

Llangollen Fringe Festival gets underway tomorrow (Friday), bringing 10 nights of live music and comedy to the town alongside a packed programme of free performances, workshops, family events and traditional music.

Running from September 4–13, this year’s festival welcomes artists from Wales and across the world, with Mr Scruff, Skinny Lister, Ryan Young, BCUC, Talisk, Nubiyan Twist, Gwenno, Kasai Masai and The Selecter among the headline acts at Llangollen Town Hall.

The festival opens tomorrow with a Comedy Club headlined by Andrew Maxwell, known for Live at the Apollo, Have I Got News For You and Mock the Week, before Mr Scruff & MC Kwasi take over the Town Hall on Saturday.

From there, the ten-night programme brings everything from Scottish folk and Welsh-language music to South African sounds, Congolese rhythms, soul, jazz and 2-Tone to Llangollen.

Llangollen Fringe Artistic Director Neal Thompson said: “There’s a real buzz building in Llangollen. We’ve got ten brilliant nights at the Town Hall, with artists coming here from across Wales and the UK, as well as South Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Canada and beyond.”

Alongside the headline concerts, dozens of events across the festival are free.

New for 2026, Scotland Introducing, presented in partnership with Showcase Scotland Expo, brings some of Scotland’s finest folk artists to Llangollen. Mairi McGillivray, Abigail Pryde, Luke Daniels Trio, Niamh Corkey and Findlay Napier will perform free showcases at The Hand Hotel, while Tom Campbell Trio appear at the Town Hall supporting Talisk.

Acclaimed Scottish fiddler Ryan Young and Talisk also feature as headline artists within the programme.

Music Around Town will fill Gales’ Wine Bar, The Hand Hotel, Three Eagles and Bridge End Hotel with free live music on Sunday 6 and Saturday 12 September, while Trad Lab brings free traditional music workshops, sessions and performances throughout the festival.

There is plenty for families too. With the children back at school, the fun continues at Fringe with free opportunities to try percussion, puppetry, poetry and more, as well as The Dinosaurs Are Back! and a dinosaur workshop at the Town Hall on Saturday September 12.

The wider programme also includes spoken word, performances and events throughout the town, including Canadian singer-songwriter Dave Gunning and Welsh-Arabic ensemble Panedeni.

Tickets remain available for headline shows throughout the ten days, including Andrew Maxwell, Mr Scruff & MC Kwasi, Skinny Lister, Ryan Young, BCUC, Talisk, Nubiyan Twist, Gwenno, Kasai Masai and The Selecter.

A limited number of Festival Passes giving access to all ten headline nights for £120 are also available.

* Tickets, free event registration and the full programme: llangollenfringe.co.uk

New opportunities for musicians provided at Fringe this weekend

A new programme of free workshops, open traditional music sessions and shared music-making will launch at Llangollen Fringe this weekend, creating new opportunities for musicians, singers, learners and curious newcomers to get involved in traditional music.

Llangollen Trad Lab runs from September 6–13 September, bringing together experienced artists, emerging musicians and participants in a welcoming environment built around learning, playing and connecting with others.

The programme puts Welsh traditional music and Cymraeg at its heart, with workshops exploring Welsh tunes and song alongside session skills, tune arrangement, Arabic folk singing and percussion. A series of open sessions throughout the week will give people the chance to bring an instrument and join in, share tunes and meet other musicians – or simply come along and listen.

Artists and facilitators include Aneirin Jones (Vrï), Patrick Rimes (Vrï), Sarah Zyborska (SERA), Gwilym Bowen Rhys, Katie Stevens, Yasmine Latkowski (Panedeni), Joëlle Barker, Andy Hickie and Angharad Huw, with musicians from Wales and further afield leading sessions throughout the festival.

The response has already been strong, with several workshops reaching capacity ahead of the festival and places still available across parts of the programme.

Trad Lab has been developed by Caroline Murphy in partnership with Llangollen Fringe, with the aim of creating more opportunities for people to experience traditional music as something they can actively take part in, as well as enjoy from an audience.

Caroline Murphy said: “Trad Lab is really about creating the kind of environment where people feel comfortable turning up, learning something new and playing music together. You don’t need toalready be part of a traditional music scene or know all the tunes. We’re all there to learn, share, meet people and connect through music.

“There is so much brilliant traditional music activity in Wales, but we need more visible opportunities for people to participate and for musicians to connect with each other. Llangollen Fringe gives us a brilliant setting to bring that together, with Welsh music and Cymraeg sitting alongside traditions and artists from around the world.”

The wider Fringe programme is an important part of Trad Lab, encouraging participants to move between workshops, sessions and live performances and experience traditional, folk and global music in different settings.

This includes Scotland Introducing, with free performances from Scottish traditional and folk artists, alongside festival appearances from artists including Talisk, BCUC, Nubiyan Twist, Kasai Masai, Ryan Young, Panedeni and more.

The project is supported through Tŷ Cerdd’s Cronfa Tradd Fund, funded by the Arts Council of Wales in response to its recent Traditional Music Review. The new fund supports grassroots and participatory traditional music activity across Wales, creating more opportunities for people to take part, share and connect through music.

To help people explore everything happening across the week, Trad Lab has also created a Trad · Folk · Global Festival Guide, bringing workshops, open sessions and festival highlights from across Llangollen Fringe together in one place. Available in English and Cymraeg, visitors can browse events and build their own festival schedule.

All Trad Lab workshops are free, with advance booking required. Open sessions are free and open to everyone.

* Explore the Trad Lab Festival Guide: https://llangollen.netlify.app/

* Full programme and workshop booking: https://llangollenfringe.co.uk/whats-on/trad-lab

Healing Prayer drop-in at Penllyn Chapel this Saturday

Film evening for Tibet floods will re-live 1976 kayaking expedition

* Paddling action from the 1976 Dudh Kosi Expedition.

* A '76 paddler on a glacier. 

A legendary kayaking expedition half a century ago that was first to journey down the extreme whitewater flowing from Mount Everest will be re-lived at Llangollen Town Hall next month in aid of people hit by the Tibet-Nepal floods.

In 1976 Dr Mike Jones led the expedition to paddle the Dudh Kosi River that flows from the Khumbu glacier to the Sun Kosi river. 

The team drove overland the 6,500 miles through Europe, Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India to get to Nepal (and after the expedition back again).

The kayakers battled extreme, freezing rapids and waterfalls originating from the Khumbu glacier.

The Nepal part of this expedition was filmed for HTV by Leo Dickinson and Mark Reynolds and went on to win multiple film awards.

Four of the original team along with Dickinson will be presenting the original, re-mastered HTV film at Llangollen Town Hall on Saturday October 17.

Also to be shown is a short Super 8mm film showing the drive overland to Kathmandu.

On display will be one of the original Pyranha kayaks which was paddled on the expedition, the original GoPro camera and other memorabilia.

Another key feature of the evening, which begins at 7.30pm and has an entrance fee of £10, will be an auction with support from Pyranha, Palm, TNR, Cwm Alis, FlowFree Coaching, NRS, Bearded Men Adventures and others still welcome.

Money raised will go to Aquabox, an operation almost entirely volunteer based which ships out mechanical filters to provide clean water in crisis situations around the world as has already despatched equipment to the Nepal-Tibet.

Dave Manby, one of the 1976 expedition originals who will be there on the night, said: "Obviously Nepal is a special place for me because of the 1976 expedition.

"When the flood down Bhote Kosi happened it was devastating, the people in the mountains have so little. They have kindness and a beautiful place to live but that is not much help when your home and livelihood has gone. So this year's white water film night money will go to help out.

"I was the youngest member of the team. Others who will be there on the night include John Gosling who for a long time worked at Gales Wine Bar."

* Tickets for the evening can be bought at: https://buytickets.at/2025wwfilmnight/1866443

2027 secondary school place applications now open

Parents and guardians can now apply for a secondary school place for their child, with applications now open this week until October 31.

Applications are open for a year 7 secondary school place within the allotted age ranges, which is for children born between September 1 2015 and August 31 2016.

To be able to apply for a school place, parents and guardians will need to create an Education Self-Service account. This can be created before, during and after the application period.

Applications submitted after October 31 will be treated as late and will be processed after all the on-time requests have been dealt with.

The closing date for secondary school place applications is October 31 and with parents and guardians being informed of the outcome by March 1 2027.

Geraint Davies, Head of Education Service said: “Moving up to secondary school is a very exciting step.

"I would urge parents and guardians to check the eligibility dates, and ensure that any applications are submitted before the deadline.

"Applying on time helps ensure requests can be processed as smoothly as possible.”

"Please visit link: https://www.denbighshire.gov.uk/school-admissions

Latest information on free school meals

The new Welsh Government committed in June 2026 to roll out additional free meals to families in receipt of Universal Credit in Secondary schools, starting with Year 7 and 8.

This commitment was made in response to the rising cost-of-living pressures on families and their shared ambitions of tackling child poverty and ensuring no child goes hungry in school.

In order to deliver this ambition WG have provided both Capital and Revenue funding for all Welsh local authorities.

In Denbighshire the capital funding is being used to cover the cost of improving the kitchen and dining facilities across the authority to ensure we have sufficient capacity to deliver the additional meals pupils.

The revenue funding is being used to cover the cost of the additional food that is required and to increase staffing levels to be able to cook the increasing number of pupils having school meals.

Parent and carers will be able to register online on the council website their application for the free meal entitlement from beginning of September, with pupils that are eligible to take up the meal from November 2 after works have been completed in secondary schools. 

Fundraising ceilidh will help meet church repair costs

* One of Llangollen's most famous riverside landmarks, the Methodist Church, is in desperate need of help.

What's claimed to be Llangollen's first pop-up zero alcohol bar is set to open for business later this month.

It will take pride of place at the Town Hall where Llangollen Methodist Church is hosting a ceilidh evening to help pay for an urgent repair programme to its historic riverside building, on which 122 years of rain, frost and ice have taken a heavy toll.

A church spokesperson said: "It’s one of Llangollen’s best-known landmarks but right now, this much-loved building desperately needs our help.

"Water is getting through cracks in the stonework, damaging the walls, plaster and woodwork inside. Essential repairs to the parapets, spire, guttering, eaves and fascias are urgently needed and because of the height of the building, the church will need to be surrounded by scaffolding just to carry out the work safely.

"We need to raise around £20,000 and we need our community behind us."

The ceilidh at the Town Hall is planned for the evening of Friday September 18 and, according to the spokesperson, the zero alcohol bar will be a first for Llangollen.

"We’re planning a great selection of zero-alcohol beers, lagers and ales, 0% spirits and mixers, sparkling 'Nosecco', soft drinks and more, with favourites such as Guinness 0.0 hopefully making an appearance.

"Whether you’re alcohol-free, driving, doing a challenge, cutting down, or simply fancy trying something different, come and see what the zero-alcohol buzz is all about.

"We’ve got the fantastic Five Speed Box providing the music, so bring your friends, bring the family and get ready for a great night of dancing, laughter and community spirit. Refreshments and snacks will also be available to purchase.

"Every penny we raise will help save our church building. We genuinely need the support of Llangollen and the surrounding community to make these essential repairs possible. This beautiful building has been part of our town for more than 120 years, and we want to make sure it remains here, safe and welcoming, for generations to come."

On the night, doors open at 6.30pm and dancing takes place between 7pm and 10pm and all ages are welcome.

* Tickets - cash only - are £10 for adults and £5 for school-age children. They are available from Porters Delicatessen in Market Street, or on the door, card or cash.