Thousands watch colourful Eisteddfod parade go through town

Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod’s celebrated Parade of Nations took place in the town this afternoon (Wednesday).

Thousands of spectators watched the colourful cavalcade start from the Eisteddfod and process through the town centre.

They were thrilled to see competitors and performers from as far away as Burundi, Canada, China, Ghana, India, Japan, Malaysia, Morocco, Singapore, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, USA and Zimbabwe alongside dozens of groups from the UK. 

The parade was to be followed by a huge party on the Eisteddfod field, where visitors will be able to get onto the "ground for a pound". 

Later in the evening Welsh folk heroes Calan will headline the Wales Welcomes the World concert in the Pavilion, also starring Britain’s Got Talent semi-finalists Johns’ Boys Chorus and Royal Harpist Alis Huws, alongside the Llangollen International Orchestra. 

Hundreds of young people hear Eisteddfod’s Peace Message

* Pupils from Garth, Pentre and Froncysyllte deliver the annual Peace Message from the Pavilion stage.

* The Pathway Group of Zimbabwe performed a routine for the youngsters who packed into the Pavilion for Children’s Day.

Hundreds of excited youngsters from schools across north Wales packed into the Pavilion yesterday (Tuesday) to hear Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod’s iconic Peace Message delivered from the main stage.

The message represents the true ethos of the Eisteddfod, which was founded in 1947 to foster peace and reconciliation through music in the aftermath of World War Two, and is a highlight of Children’s Day on the festival’s first day.

Written this year by Eisteddfod volunteer Elen Mair Roberts, the Peace Message was thoughtfully delivered by the pupils of three schools in the area – Ysgol Pentre, Froncysyllte County Primary and Garth Primary.

It began with the poignant words: “Peace is like a calm river that flows gently through our lives, bringing harmony and happiness. It means treating each other with kindness, respect and understanding,”

And it finished with powerful sentiment: “Even small acts of kindness, like helping a friend or sharing a smile, can make a big difference. We should embrace diversity and celebrate our differences. Each person is unique, and that’s what makes our world so beautiful.”

The message ended with the song, by Patsy Ford Simms and arranged for the Eisteddfod by Elen Mair Roberts and orchestrated by Eisteddfod Artistic Director Dave Danford, “We Are the Future of Tomorrow”.

Earlier the young crowd had been treated to special performances by Indian martial arts group Paallam Arts CIC, which the children cheered loudly as they went through a hectic fighting routine with sticks.

This was followed by a lively song-and-dance routine from the Pathway Group of Zimbabwe and an inter-active bilingual performance by award-winning storyteller Tamar Eluned Williams, accompanied by a four-piece ensemble of musicians from Sinfonia Cymru on harp, violin, percussion and guitar.

This told a tale from deep in the woods of long, long ago and had the children in the audience joining in loudly – in English and Welsh – whenever promoted from the stage.

The same performances and the Peace Message were repeated for an equally large group of children later in the day.

Artistic Director of the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod Dave Danford said: “The annual Peace Message is a wonderful tradition going back to the very beginning of the festival which embodies the true ethos of the Eisteddfod, that of peace and understanding through music and dance.

“This year it was beautifully and thoughtfully delivered by young people themselves to two very large and appreciative audiences.”

Tom Jones wows packed Pavilion crowd to open Eisteddfod week

* Tom Jones received a standing ovation - before he even sang. All pictures: Desh Kapur CUFF & TAYLOR.

* Australian indie pop band opened the show.

Tom Jones kicked off this year's Core Eisteddfod Week with his sell-out Ages and Stages tour at Llangollen Pavilion last night.

The Welsh superstar, renowned as one of the most accomplished musicians of all time, proved his legendary status when the entire audience gave him a standing ovation as he walked onto the stage - before he's even sung a note.

 

The sold-out crowd were treated to hit after hit as the international and multi-award-winning icon delivered an unforgettable performance, including massive hits It’s Not Unusual, What’s New Pussy Cat, Sex Bomb, Green Green Grass Of Home, Delilah, Leave Your Hat On and more.

 

Much to the crowd's delight, the legend showed no signs of slowing down: “We’ve travelled the world many times and we plan on travelling it many more times. We’ve had a ball up here tonight and we hope you have too…nos da duw bendithia…good night and God bless you all!”

 

Lead Programmer and Production Manager at the Llangollen Eisteddfod Dave Danford said: “From the moment we announced our line-up at the end of last year, Tom Jones has been the talk of the town. Tonight has been the most amazing evening to kick off our Core Eisteddfod Week, and to have an artist of Tom’s quality and profile really does show how far our festival has come. This show will be remembered in Llangollen for a very long time.”

 

Opening the night was Australian sibling trio Germein.

 

The headline shows are part of a new partnership between Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod and Live Nation promoters Cuffe and Taylor.

 

The series continues Friday (July 5) with Gregory Porter continuing the iconic Core Week of the International Musical Eisteddfod.

 

County chief says waste collection will improve in next week or so

* Graham Boase, chief executive of Denbighshire County Council.

Denbighshire County Council underestimated the resources needed in the early stages of rolling out its controversial new waste recycling system.

That is the admission from the authority’s chief executive Graham Boase in an email to llanblogger.

But he predicts that the number of missed collections will “significantly reduce” over the next week or so.

The new system – based on stackable Trolibocs rather than the old-style wheelie bins – was brought in for 43,000 properties across the county on June 3.

But it has led to a huge number of complaints from people – many from Llangollen - whose weekly collections have been missed.

Llanblogger’s Phil Robinson, who recently reported the issue to the public services Ombudsman for Wales, also wrote personally to the chief executive to ask for his observations on what has rapidly become a crisis of confidence in the organisation he heads.

Mr Boase responded: “You will have seen that both myself and the Leader of the Council have issued apologies for the issues associated with the roll out of our new waste and recycling service.  We have also said we acknowledge that apologies are not going to get the bins emptied.

“This is a major change involving a new collection regime across the whole of the County i.e. some 43,000 properties.

“It is clear we have underestimated the resources required in the initial phase of the roll out.

“This has resulted in a larger number of missed collections than we had anticipated, meaning that the planned mitigation for ‘mopping up’ those missed collections is currently insufficient to cope with the demand.

“This is despite careful planning, consulting with other authorities using the same system and receiving advice from WRAP (a climate change NGO – Non Government Organisation).

“We have identified temporary additional resources that will allow us to catch up, relook at some of routes etc to ensure no more missed collections.

“This will not happen immediately, but the number of missed collections will significantly reduce over the next week or so.

“Our new waste/recycling service allows for an increased emphasis on recycling, where quality kerb side separated material can be sold, as opposed to paying for the comingled material to be taken for separation, after which the quality of the material is often inferior. This is a model employed by the majority of Council’s in Wales so it works, but we accept we could and should have done better with our roll out.

“As I’m sure you can appreciate, I am receiving lots of correspondence at the moment due to the numerous issues we have encountered in the roll out of our new waste and recycling system. It is therefore difficult to respond to detailed questions as we don’t currently have the time, as we are trying to address the issues.”

Isuzu's go-anywhere 4x4 with something for everyone

Isuzu D-Max drive by Steve Rogers

With the best will in the world a mud-squelching field is not the place for this glitzy pick-up.

Well, you wouldn’t want to get that nice paint job dirty. No, towing a speed boat, carting surf boards to the beach, or adventuring off road is more the thing for the new breed of pick up. Forget big SUVs, the young trendsetters have been seduced by these customised trucks.

Take the D-Max. Only a third of its sales go to the heavy duty utility market, the rest are blinged-up lifestyle models that will set you back up to 40 grand and more. Isuzu even has a specialised centre that will do pretty much anything to make your pick-up stand out from the crowd.

During the pick-up exodus in 2021, Mitsubishi and Nissan the two biggest names to leave the field, smaller manufacturers like Isuzu and KGM Ssangyong grabbed the bull by the horns and took advantage of the big hole in the market.

Isuzu really went to town with D-Max offering a keenly priced single cab workhorse, extended cab (five seater with two doors) and a four-door double cab. They have a one-tonne payload and apart from the base single cab can haul three-and-a-half tonnes with every gizmo needed for serious off-road driving. Load-bed lengths range from 2330mm for the single cab to 1495mm for the double.

Stats from Isuzu show how the pick-up market has been turned on its head. Back in 2012 the all-purpose utility dominated the market, now that is down to a third with adventure and business models the big sellers.

Why choose a rough-riding pick-up over a comfy SUV? It is all down to tax breaks for company car drivers. Go for a pick up and the Benefit in Kind rate is lower than a car, regardless of the CO2 emissions even though they are pretty high on pick-up engines.

Isuzu is convinced its best selling D-Max will be the top of the range automatic V-Cross and here’s why. You can’t help but be sucked in with the smart paint finishes, 18in black alloys, and it does not stop there. Get behind the wheel and be pleasantly surprised by the layout and quality. There are hard plastic finishes but plenty of leather as well.

Equipment level is reasonably high with keyless entry, leather heated seats, all round electric windows, powered driver’s seat, six-speed automatic gearbox, if you prefer that over the manual, air con, auto dipping Bi LED headlights, camera and all-round parking sensors the stand out goodies.

Safety has not been forgotten either with an extensive list including cross traffic alert, my favourite because it is so helpful when reversing from a parking space, particularly with a vehicle this length.

The driver’s binnacle has a mound of selectable information while the central 9in touchscreen deals with the radio and bluetooth. Navigation is not an option but there are smartphone connections for Google maps and the like. Heating, thank goodness, is selected by physical switches in the centre console so there is no scrolling through menus and dabbing the touchscreen just to get the fan going.

The double cab is a good five- seater with ample width for bulky adults along the back seat which drops down to provide a solid flat surface for in-cab storage.

Bearing in mind the nature of the beast economy is reasonable averaging 33mpg, better than the official figure, with a best of 35mpg on a 120-mile round trip.

If a pick-up is on the shopping list then remember to have an open mind. D-Max is a tough off roader even wearing swanky V-Cross clothes, so expect a roughish ride on anything other than silky smooth tarmac surfaces. Piling some weight into the load bay will calm things down a bit.

The engine has an agricultural rap and is pretty noisy until it reaches cruising speed after 50mph. D-Max is the least powerful against its main rivals which won’t bother a farmer or tradesman who want plenty of torque for hauling loads and towing, but acceleration is way off the more powerful engines in the Ford Ranger and Toyota Hi-Lux - something Isuzu should consider if it is to keep pace with the growing demand for classy pick-ups.

For now everything is moving in the right direction. D-Max has been picking up awards left right and centre, and between the entry sub 30 grand utility and up-market V-Cross is a go anywhere 4x4 with something for everyone.

Fast Facts

D-Max V-Cross

£44,323 (starts £29,923)

1.9 litre diesel; 161bhp

0-62mph 13secs; 112mph

30.7mpg combined

241g/km

Insurance group 50

Towing: 3500kg

Payload 1090kg

Church bells will ring to celebrate 2024 Eisteddfod

The bells at St Collen's will be ringing out at 11.30am this Wednesday, July 3 to celebrate the 2024 International Eisteddfod.

This will mark too the Interfaith Experience which is being held in the Pavilion at 12.30 pm that day.  

The bells will also welcome Dr Rowan Williams to Llangollen, former Archbishop of Canterbury and before that Archbishop of Wales.  

He is chair of Academi Heddwch Cymru (Wales' National Peace Institute) and will be giving the annual Peace Lecture in the Pavilion at 1pm, following the Interfaith Experience.

Seven candidates contest Clwyd East in general election

Seven candidates are standing in the new Clwyd East constituency – which includes Llangollen – in the general election this Thursday.

They are:

As the result of boundary changes, Llangollen now forms part of the Clwyd East constituency, which has of 76,395 electors compared to Clwyd South’s 77,062.

This new constituency also includes areas such as Ruthin immediately to the north of Llangollen, Llanarmon-lal/Llandegla to the north as well as parts of Flintshire such as Leeswood, Northop, Mostyn, Caerwys and Ffynongrow up towards the coast, Mold and Prestatyn.

Since the general election of December 2019, when it was still part of Clwyd South, Llangollen had been represented by Simon Baynes of the Welsh Conservatives. He is now contesting the neighbouring North Shropshire seat for his party on July 4. 

The Welsh Conservative contender in Clwyd East is Dr James Davies who had been MP for Vale of Clwyd.

Opposing him are Becky Gittins of Welsh Labour, Alec Dauncey of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, Lee Lavery of the Green Party, Paul Penlington of Plaid Cymru, Rob Roberts, an Independent, and Kirsty Walmsley of Reform UK. 

As the usual polling station for Llangollen at the Pavilion will be in use by the Eisteddfod on election voting will now take place at Llangollen Town Hall and the count for Clwyd East will be held at Coleg Cambria in Connah’s Quay, Deeside.

In the poll on July 4 voters need to show photo ID at polling stations. Further details on this can be found at: https://www.denbighshire.gov.uk/en/your-council/voting-and-elections/voter-id.aspx

* The daughter of two well-known members of the clergy who was brought up in Llangollen is standing at the general election.

Joanna Stallard, whose mother, Mary Stallard, was one of the first women priests in Wales and is now Bishop of Llandaff, and father, Andrew Sully, was Vicar of St Collen's until 2018, is the Labour candidate for the Plaid Cymru-held seat of Dwyfor Meirionnydd.