Eisteddfod brings back parade of nations in a week of music and colour
Thousands of singers and dancers from five continents are heading to a small North Wales town where King Charles got down to the bhangra beat.
This year’s Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod, starting on Tuesday, will be the first full length festival since before the Covid pandemic.
A concert starring Alfie Boe and musical theatre supergroup Welsh of the West End will open the evening events.
The event was established in 1947 in the aftermath of the Second World War as a way of bringing the nations of the world closer together in a colourful, multi-cultural melting pot.
In 2015 King Charles – then Prince of Wales – paid a visit when he was accompanied by Queen Camilla and he was captured on camera dancing to a bhangra beat with the Sheerer Punjab Bhangra Dance group from Nottingham.
The Eisteddfod’s royal connection stretches all the way back to 1953 when it was one of the first of the then newly-crowned Queen Elizabeth’s official engagements after she succeeded her father, George VI.
Seventy years later an extension has once again been added to the famous international pavilion to increase capacity to 4,000 seats in the canvas-covered auditorium.
Each day features a full programme of competitions in the famous 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.
The children’s competitions will take place on Wednesday when the annual Peace Message will be delivered bilingually by pupils from the nearby Ysgol Dinas Bran as part of the school concerts taking place at 9.45am and again at 10.50am.
The Young Peacemakers Awards Ceremony in association with the Welsh Centre for International Affairs will also take place on Wednesday and The White Flower: Into The Light, will be 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.
At 4.30 pm on Thursday the Parade of Nations will be making a comeback when a cavalcade of colourful competitors will wind its way through the town, 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 Choir of the World competition for the 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.
The Eisteddfod’s Executive Producer, Camilla King, said: “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.
“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 online to international-eisteddfod.co.uk.
