Bro Dur a Môr

The last week in May saw the visit of the Urdd Eisteddfod to Margam Park. A site it had not visited for over two decades, yet perfect for the largest national youth festival in Europe. The Urdd was the brainchild of Syr Ifan ab Owen Edwards in 1922. Two successive censuses had seen the proportion of Welsh speakers in Wales drop below 50% of the population, and he saw that the young were the target audience to save the language. In over a century, the Urdd has grown to over 50,000 members, has three residential sites and a presence in many schools’ “adrannau” and branches or “aelwydydd” in promoting diverse activities from sporting endeavour to eisteddfodau. The event at Margam was the culmination of hundreds of smaller events, including competition at school and local level, as well as the main event, which often had 17 finalist competitors in action for activities as diverse as recitation, instrumental, singing, disco dancing and many other competitions. These culminated in the main ceremonies of Chair, Crown and Chief Musician.
Although we had recently experienced the driest and sunniest weather since records began, in true eisteddfodic fashion, the heavens broke and torrential rain befell the main field or “maes” on Tuesday, and it proved wet for most of the week. However, this did not dampen the spirits of the many thousands that attended, including a record number of competitors in the learners category, which had risen by a third in comparison to recent years. The standard was amazing, with Guto Bell’s tearful rendition of how much he loved his mother, following his win in the recitation, had over one million hits on TikTok, which shows the reach of modern media and the Eisteddfod itself.
If you visit the field, there seem to be three categories of visitors. Harassed teachers wondering why their charges are in the fun fair, not in the pavilion, young children in prams being placated with ice cream, and the rest who are allowed to enjoy the splendour of this truly remarkable event. Having been “tadcu” on Monday, I returned to enjoy the choirs on the final day, in peace. Wales is said to be the land of song, and the standard of the performances confirmed that this was not a myth, since the music was spectacular.
It is said that every Eisteddfod leaves a “gwaddol” or legacy in the area it visits, and I’m sure that Margam will, in turn, leave a huge impression on the visitors from both near and far during the week.
Trefor Jones