1000’s of persons are anticipated to attend Port Talbot this weekend because the city gears as much as welcome an annual Welsh competition.
The Urdd Eisteddfod is a celebration of Welsh tradition when kids and younger folks as much as the age of 25 participate in quite a lot of competitions.
There are 400 of them in complete, together with singing, reciting poetry and dancing.
The Urdd organisation itself was established greater than a century in the past in 1922, with the intention of giving kids and younger folks in Wales the chance to study and socialise within the Welsh language.
Its six-day Eisteddfod is held throughout Could half-term and in a distinct a part of Wales annually.
The Urdd Eisteddfod broke its personal information final 12 months, with greater than 100,000 registrations to compete.
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A choir competes on the 2024 Eisteddfod yr Urdd. Pic: Urdd Gobaith Cymru
Margam Park is dwelling to this 12 months’s occasion – the primary time since 2003 that it is performed host.
Among the many primary prizes up for grabs this 12 months are the chair (awarded to the primary poetry competitors winner) and the crown (awarded to the primary prose competitors winner).
This 12 months’s crown and chair have been made utilizing a few of the last items of metal produced at Port Talbot steelworks earlier than the closure of the blast furnaces final 12 months.
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The chair on the 2025 Eisteddfod yr Urdd was created utilizing a few of the final items of metal produced on the Port Talbot steelworks. Pic: Urdd Gobaith Cymru
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Pic: Urdd Gobaith Cymru
There are some new additions to this 12 months’s Eisteddfod, together with awards for singing, musical theatre and performing, named in honour of Sir Bryn Terfel, Callum Scott Howells and Matthew Rhys.
One other new award – the Amy Dowden award for dance – will even be awarded for the primary time this week.
“The arts and the industry is tough, and I just hope that [the young people] can see that I’ve managed to push myself through it,” she stated.
“I’ve worked hard, I’ve had a few challenges along the way. Hopefully I can help inspire them as well.”
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Amy Dowden. File pic: PA
‘It is like Britain’s Received Expertise’
As a former competitor herself in what’s one among Europe’s largest touring youth festivals, Dowden says she “couldn’t imagine [her] childhood without it”.
“I’ve loved Eisteddfods since I can remember. Every year at school I took part in everything, from the baking to the reciting poems, to the folk dancing, to the creative dancing,” she stated.
“The Urdd Eisteddfod is literally like one big talent competition, it’s like Britain’s Got Talent.”
The winner of the Amy Dowden award will get one-to-one classes together with her as a part of the prize, in addition to masterclasses on the Royal Welsh Faculty of Music and Drama.
They’ll have the chance to carry out on a global stage and likewise win a money prize.
“I know from my dance training and everything, each of those is so beneficial to getting yourself to that professional level,” Dowden added.
