The National Eisteddfod of Wales can be traced back to 1176 when it is said that the first Eisteddfod was held, under the auspices of Lord Rhys, at his castle in Cardigan. There he held a grand gathering to which were invited poets and musicians from all over the country. A chair at the Lord's table was awarded to the best poet and musician, a tradition that prevails in the modern day National Eisteddfod.

Following 1176, many eisteddfodau were held throughout Wales, under the patronage of Welsh gentry and noblemen. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, an Eisteddfod of historical significance was held at the Ivy Bush Inn in Carmarthen, when the Gorsedd of Bards first became officially associated with this national event. By this time, the Eisteddfod had developed in to a fully-fledged folk festival on a large scale

In 1880, the National Eisteddfod association was formed and charged with the responsibility of staging an annual festival to be held in North and South Wales alternately, and with the exception of 1914 and 1940, this target has been successfully achieved.

To give you some idea of the scale of the activities that we covered during our week in Denbigh, the events' field is spread over 35 acres of farmland (we walked all of it!) and the supporting infrastructure covers a further 100 acres.

The festival gets more broadcasting coverage than any other cultural festival in the UK, with 30 hours of analog TV and 100 hours of digital TV. This year's host town of Denbigh raised donations of $335,000 and it is estimated that the Eisteddfod brought in some $10m to the area.

The actual number of competitors varies between 6,000 - 8,000 but this year was not expected to exceed 6,000, as people from areas suffering from foot and mouth disease had been specifically requested not to attend.

We should mention that all official Eisteddfod events are entirely in the Welsh language. As an indication of how strictly this rule is enforced, many years ago, HM Queen Elizabeth II paid a royal visit to the Eisteddfod, was welcomed on the official platform but was not permitted to reply as she does not (or did not then!) speak Welsh.

Having said that, non-Welsh speakers are catered for. At the entrance to the "maes" (field) one can avail of a free handy receiver which gives an instant translation into English of all the proceedings in the Pavilion, and in certain satellite areas.

The Eisteddfod Pavilion is where the finals of all the major competitions and all the main concerts of the week take place. During the week, preliminary qualifying competitions were still being held in Denbigh itself, and many of the participants would already have won prizes in local eisteddfodau during the previous 12 months.

Evening concerts during the week included (for example) the Eisteddfod Choir accompanied by the Manchester Camerata, country music performers (in Welsh), the National Youth Orchestra of Wales, and a performance of the musical "Oliver"
presented by local secondary school students.

The highlight of these concerts was the sell-out performance by the internationally acclaimed Welsh baritone, Bryn Terfel.

During the entire week the pavilion was alive with the sound of music. Competitions included those for dance, folk airs, brass bands, female, mixed, and male-voice choirs, soloists in all voice ranges and various age groups, instrumental groups, solos for harp, piano, and general stringed, brass and wind instruments, operatic pieces, etc. etc. One of the most popular competitions, that is, for Male Voice Choirs of over 60 members, was, as usual, reserved for the last night of the festival, and provided a grand finale to the week's events.

However, it's a sad fact that the huge choral tradition in Wales, especially in male voice choirs, has obviously been on the decline for some time.

We were surprised to find that this major competition for male voice choirs is now categorised as "for over 60 voices" and not the 120 voices we recall from our earliest visit to the Eisteddfod. Not only that, but this year there were only 3 choirs competing. A quick glance at the choirs also seemed to indicate that in each, the number of members under 35 years of age could be counted on one hand.

Having said all of that, we enjoyed the performances from Dyfnant, Caernarfon, and Trelawnyd Choirs (there's nothing really quite like the sound of a Welsh Male Voice Choir!). The winner was the Caernarfon choir.

The next day, we had fun at the Penffordd stand. Penffordd is a relatively young multi-media production company who tell us they want to "nurture rising stars, find young bands and choirs, and budding musicians who are anxious to record." One of their newly signed artists, the singer and songwriter Robin Jones, was performing live at the stand, and we were delightfully entertained by his "soft rock with a Welsh heart."

We went back to speak to Robin next day, and he told us he would be there for the week promoting his first CD on the Penffordd label (Robin Jones) so happily we were able to hear him sing on several further occasions.

We were at Penffordd again for a highly amusing karaoke competition—where 4 politicians from the Welsh National Parliament (one each from Plaid Cymru, the Labour Party, the Conservatives, and the Liberal Democrats) sang Welsh folk songs and were "adjudicated" by the attending crowd. Considering it was pouring rain and feet were muddy, it was generally agreed that the competition was a great success - voting was tight, but Plaid Cymru won by a head.....

We had another lunchtime musical session when Dafydd Iwan, singer and song-writer extraordinaire, co-founder of Sain Recording, and a founder of Cymdaethas Yr Iaith Gymraeg (the Welsh Language Society) gave a brief outdoor live concert at the Sain Stand, where he was keeping an eye on company business and promoting his latest CD. We were delighted when, especially for ourselves, he sang the Welsh song he has written to the much-loved Irish melody The Fields of Athenry. Everyone enjoyed the joke when he later had to interrupt his performance to give way to the strains of Verdi in Welsh (competition onstage) which were emanating from the loudspeakers which carry the sound from the main pavilion.

For American readers, you'll be interested to note that Sain has two Dafydd Iwan videos in NTSC format. The winning Caernarfon Male Voice Choir mentioned above also has a CD available on the Sain label. This and all other Sain videos, CDs, and cassettes are now available for online ordering.