A FULL week of events will be part of this year’s Wales-Brittany Festival in Aberystwyth and surrounding areas, May 13-18. The festival will celebrate Wales’ connection with Brittany and show Wales’ support for the Ar Redadeg race. All the events of the week will be free, but attendees will be encouraged to contribute as you can.
To start the week of celebration, at 19:30 on Monday 13 May at Bank Vaults Aberystwyth, there will be a film night in Breton ‘An alc’hwez aour’ by director Mikael Baudu. The film will be shown with English subtitles and will document language campaigning in Brittany. There will be a discussion to follow led by Gwenole Cornec.
On Wednesday night the 15th between 18:00-20:00 there will be an opportunity to learn traditional Breton dancing (fest-noz) in an informal workshop at the Aberystwyth Students’ Union. A warm welcome to everyone.
There will be a special performance by the band Iskis who will have travelled from Brittany on Thursday night the 16th of May at Bank Vaults Aberystwyth starting at 19:30 with support from Beth Celyn.
On Friday the 17th of May 19:00 at the Wynnstay pub in Machynlleth there’ll be a panel discussion entitled ‘Intersectional struggles – the environment, neoliberalism, the housing crisis and minority languages’. On the panel will be: Brendan Budok, Felix Parker-Price, Catrin O’Neill, Dr Bethan Siân and others. There will be a folk session to follow the discussion – so bring your instruments if you’d like to join in the fun.
To top it all off, there will be a full day of events on Saturday the 18th of May starting at 10:00 with a run from Aberystwyth Football Club to the Bandstand along the prom. The run will be held in solidarity with the Ar Redadeg event held at the same time in Brittany. All ages and running abilities welcome! There will be an option for children to join the runners from the Pier up to the Bandstand. Runners will go for a cup of tea to PD’s Diner after the run.
From 12:30 onwards there will be events in the Bandstand, including a talk by Dr Heather Williams ‘Johnny onions and poets: Wales and Brittany’ at 13:00.
Following that at 14:00 there will be a Breton language tasting session and then at 15:00 a fest-noz dance workshop.
Later, at 19:00 at Theatr Arad Goch there will be an evening of lively Breton music and the chance to dance fest-noz. Money will also be raised for Palestine on the night. Bar and delicious crêpes will be available.
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