THE SUN shone on Llandeilo and its 5th Literature Festival during the third weekend in April. It was the first ever hybrid version of the festival with 20 sessions in Welsh and English over two days – half of which were also streamed live on Zoom to remote viewers.
In terms of attendees, the festival managed to match the results of the last full live event in 2019. With an average of 25 viewers in the room and an additional 7 via zoom and a few sold out sessions the festival was back on track.
The event took place almost exclusively in Hengwrt, the newly refurbished Shire Hall in the centre of town, which has state of the art technical equipment and meeting rooms.
Christoph Fischer, Chair of the Literature Festival, said: ‘The venue and its facilities were perfect for our return to live events. Having only one location with the book shop in the foyer created a focal and meeting point for our audience. The 600 visitors to town gave us overwhelmingly positive feedback for the sessions and many took advantage of the sunshine, the restaurants and attractions that Llandeilo has to offer. I would like to extend a special thank you to Menter Bro Dinefwr for the use of the building and for staffing the event throughout the weekend.’
The most popular sessions over the weekend featured local authors, such as Geoff Brooks, Helen Adam, Ingrid Birchell Hughes, Kate Glanville and Sian Collins as well as the Archdruid Myrddyn ap Dafydd who travelled from North wales for the event. Welsh language sessions with authors and poets from all over Wales took part and topical events such as Queer writing and a manifesto on non-binary issues also drew in large audiences.
A bilingual storytelling walk on Saturday led people from Newton House back to Hengwrt, where 18 out of the 20 events were being held.
Laura Ann Hubbard, owner of Flows cafe on Market Street remarked: ‘There was definitely a big buzz around town and being able to host a Music and Lyric event at the café as part of the festival was a pleasure and proved to be a great success. I believe that other local businesses benefited from the crowds that attended the event’
It certainly was a huge success for all involved and the festival committee was pleased that all their hard work over the previous month had paid off to offer a bilingual literary event to the people of Llandeilo and beyond.
Heddyr Gregory, one of the committee members, commented: ‘We were delighted to see crowds gathering once again after a difficult two years for the literature festival due to the pandemic. On behalf on the committee members I would like to thank everyone who attended and supported this year’s event and would also like to thank Literature Wales and our other sponsors and volunteers who contributed to make this event possible.’
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