* Dylan Thomas.
* Queen Elizabeth at the Llangollen Eisteddfod in 1953.A famous radio
broadcast by poet Dylan Thomas about Llangollen International Musical
Eisteddfod is being recreated to mark its 70th anniversary.
The reading from
actor, writer and director Celyn Jones will form the centrepiece of a mini
programme of events to celebrate the literary magician’s 15-minute masterpiece
on the BBC’s Home Service when he visited in 1953.
The vivid verbal
images conjured an enchanting and unforgettable picture from the unique event
and was delivered in his deep, resonant voice.
But it’s been
revealed that the historic broadcast very nearly didn’t happen because at one
point Thomas lost his notes on the way back to the BBC’s studio in Cardiff.
That same year the
late Queen Elizabeth also attended the Eisteddfod shortly after her Coronation.
The festival had
been established six years earlier under the dark shadow cast by the Second World War as a way of promoting
peace through musical harmony and dance.
Since then hundreds of
thousands of competitors from all over the planet have beaten a path to
Llangollen.
The picturesque
town in the Dee Valley where “Wales meets the world” is now gearing up for the
first full length festival
since the Covid-19 pandemic struck.
It all gets underway on Tuesday, July 4, and the competitions and concerts
continue until Sunday, July 9, with thousands of singers and dancers from
around the world due to take part.
Each day features a full
programme of competitions in the Pavilion and a line-up of stalls and
exhibitions on the field along with the competitors from around the world, many
in colourful dress while three open-air stages run a stream of live
performances.
Entertainment
on the outside site includes workshops, talks, international showcases, outdoor
theatre performances, circus skills, sound bath sessions, yoga, belly dancing, beginner’s Welsh and
salsa.
The Globe Stage will feature music acts spanning folk, jazz, world and
indie.
There will also be an international flavour to the cuisine available in
the new Globe Food Court.
Visitors will be able to “go around the world in 80 minutes” with stalls
serving food from different countries including India, Greece, Jamaica, Mexico,
Germany and Italy.
According to the Eisteddfod’s executive producer, Camilla King, they
were particularly keen to celebrate the anniversary of Thomas’s memorable
broadcast.
She said: “Although sadly Dylan Thomas died in New York a few months
after his visit to Llangollen, his priceless legacy will live on because he is
rightly regarded as one of the literary greats.
“We felt it was particularly appropriate to remember not only his
brilliant broadcast but also the wider canon of his work which turned him into
a superstar poet.”
The activities will include a presentation by Prof
Chris Adams, vice chair of the Eisteddfod and a member of its Archive
Committee, who revealed the poet was paid the princely sum of 20 guineas for
his endeavours.
Prof Adams said that Swansea-born Thomas had “generated verbal
images of the early Eisteddfod whose power resonates to this day”.
It was all the more remarkable, he said, because locals recall he had
spent a lot of his time in Llangollen in the pub, with the Wynnstay Hotel (now
The Three Eagles) being a favourite watering hole.
That was borne out by the late Aneirin Talfan Davies, the BBC producer
who was despatched to Llangollen to keep an eye on Thomas, who accompanied by
his wife, Aeronwy and their daughter, Caitlin.
Talfan Davies, who was himself a talented poet, later told how Thomas
had spent the week “wandering aimlessly through the streets of
Llangollen, with the odd half hour spent in the eisteddfod tent and many hours
in the bars of the town’s pubs.”
He also described the poet’s way of working which involved “writing notes
on cigarette packets, and the panic on the way back to Cardiff when Thomas
feared he had lost the material”.
Thankfully, the notes came to light in the nick of time and the
finished, finessed piece has been described as a classic example of his genius
with words.
Apart from the competitions and remembering Dylan Thomas, other
highlights include a concert starring Alfie Boe and musical theatre supergroup
Welsh of the West End on the first night of the Eisteddfod on Tuesday, July 4.
Wednesday will see
The White Flower: Into The Light, a concert of remembrance for the fallen of
Sarajevo and Ukraine, featuring the NEW Sinfonia orchestra with soloists from
Bosnia, Wales and Ukraine, with the centrepiece formed by Karl Jenkin’s much
loved work, The Armed Man.
The popular procession of international
participants and celebration of peace takes place on Thursday, followed by
Flight, a new mixed-media dance, music and theatre work by visionary artists
Propellor Ensemble, inspired by migratory patterns in nature and humanity.
On the Friday night Guy
Barker’s Big Band will take the stage with Strictly Come Dancing singer Tommy
Blaize.
Saturday features the blue
riband event, the Choir of the World competition for the coveted Pavarotti
Trophy, and also Dance Champions and the Pendine International Voice of the
Future 2023.
There is a new look to the
final day of the Eisteddfod on Sunday with an all new live final which
sees rising vocal stars battle it out to claim the title Voice of Musical
Theatre, and Cân i Llan, a new song-writing competition for unsigned acts aged
14-22, providing a platform for emerging voices in contemporary popular music.
Camilla King added:
“Entertainment on the outside site spans across three main stages with further
daily pop-ups and includes workshops in the Amphitheatre with Small World
Theatre Company inviting visitors to create their own white flower sculpture
and Propellor Ensemble building a giant instrument from recycled materials.
“There will also be
daily Lego building, arts and crafts, floral sessions from the Eisteddfod’s
famed arrangers, circus skills with Jester Jack, Xplore Science, yoga, sound
bathing, belly dancing and the chance to learn new skills from the wide ranging
visiting competitors.
“Talks on the Dome
Stage feature Calan’s Bethan Rhiannon ‘From clog dancing to comedy’, poet
Mererid Hopwood leading a panel for the annual Peace Lecture, reflecting on the
incredible Women of Wales Peace Petition.
“International
showcases take the Globe Stage from acts including the Tibetan Tashi Lhunpo
Monks, SOAS Min’yo Japanese folk music, Bosnian and Ukrainian performers, and
music from Filkin’s Drift, Seprona, Kilbride Brothers, The Billy Thompson Trio,
The Bartells, Chester Big Band and Lilly Boughey amongst many others.”
* For tickets or for more on Llangollen
International Musical Eisteddfod and its competitions and concerts as well as
how to get to it and where to stay go to www.international-eisteddfod.co.uk or check out www.facebook.com/llangollen
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