Yesterday, Clare and I were both looking forward to joining the coach organised by Menter Iaeth Caerdydd for the journey to the Welsh National Eisteddfod, this year located in a park beside the Millennium Coast Path between Llanelli and Burry Port. We were so keen we turned up an hour early at the Mochyn Du pub near Sofia Gardens to catch the coast. Both of us had forgotten things at home, so we jumped on a bus and went back home for the spare hour, and then returned at the correct departure time.
We arrived at lunchtime and wandered around the 'Maes', and I went off site to explore the area with my camera in addition. The coastal path runs alongside the railway line linking Swansea to Fishguard just inside the sea defences. At this point, you look out and across to the north shore of the Gower Peninsula across the golden sands of the Loughour/Llwchwr Estuary. This has got to be one of Wales' best journeys, whether by rail, by bike or simply walking, different at every stage in the tidal cycle. We must return and explore properly another time.
I met a few people I knew wandering around the 'Maes', watched the Cornish bagpipe band perform on the open air stage and generally loitered, enjoying the atmposphere. Clare spent most of her time in the 'Pabell Binc', the large lurid coloured circus tent that serves as a well equipped competition arena seating 2,500 people.
At four, she texted me to come quickly and take the seat she'd acquired for me to watch the Chairing of the Bard ceremony. I've seen it on TV, and as a teenager took part in an English language version of the ceremony held annually in Pengam Grammar School.
The national Chairing ceremony is a well staged and impressively theatrical event, that lends itself well to being televised, but the atmosphere of you're there in the flesh is an exhilarating experience of what it means to be Welsh.
The sense of good will and respectful order that honours creatively gifted people is something to rejoice in. The revealing of the Bard whose poem earns the most prestigious of chairs in Welsh society is nicely theatrical and a genuine surprise to all but the few judges. I was so glad finally to have witnessed it at first hand. Here's Bard Ceri Wyn Jones being applauded out of the Pabell Binc.
We had supper in the main restaurant on the 'Maes', resplendent with home grown food and home made recipes. Dudley Newbery, Wales' own Welsh language celebrity TV chef, known by all by his first name only, was the guest of honour for the evening - but, in typical Welsh fashion he wasn't presiding at a top table or giving a speech, but there with his crew serving up food to the hungry masses coming out of the 'Pabell Binc' after the Chairing ceremony. We had the fish dish, which I'm sure I've seen him preparing in one of his TV shows. His Welsh language equivalent of the TV series Masterchef is worth a watch whenever it appears. You don't have to be able to understand what's said. The cuisine and the relationships between participants all speak of themselves and have quite a different feel to their counterparts in English or other languages.
After supper, we spent the last couple of hours of our visit watching first the clog dance and then the choral competition finals in the 'Pabell Binc'.
By this time most of the scores of pavilions had closed for the night. The remaining hive of activity was the rock concert down at the other end of the site on 'Maes B', the home of Welsh popular culture (as opposed to traditional culture). By the time we walked to our coach in the moonlight just before ten, the distant strains of 'Mae hen wlad fy nhadau', the Welsh National Anthem could be heard in the distance. Not for the first time today.
More photos here.
No comments:
Post a Comment