The National Eisteddfod – and Rhossili

Last updated: May 2006

Next year, 2006, is Swansea’s turn to host the National Eisteddfod of Wales, the premier artistic event in Wales and one of Europe's largest and oldest cultural festivals. In order to ensure a successful festival, communities within Swansea have been asked by the Swansea Eisteddfod Appeal Committee to raise funds totalling £300,000. Rhossili’s target has been set at £1,000. So far many communities in Swansea have been very active, already achieving their targets – some have even exceeded them – and £160,000 has been raised to date.

Earlier this year Rhossili’s Local Appeal Committee was established and is working with Oxwich and other south Gower communities to raise funds via a number of activities and events. The Committee would appreciate your support! So far art and colouring competitions have been organised for young people, and a concert in St Mary’s Church will be held in August (see below). Other events will follow over the next year – see local posters for information. If you would like more information, or if you would be interested in becoming involved with the Rhossili Appeal Committee, please ring Mary Provis – 391229.

Great Gower Themed Competitions!
Colouring competition – for Infants and Junior age groups
Art Competition - for Junior and Secondary age groups
Prizes to include: a one hour sitting with renowned local photographer MARK BUTTON at any location of your choice in the Swansea/Gower area (worth £100), WH Smiths Art boxes, £10 Staples vouchers

Entry forms are available for £1 from The Green Gallery, Rhossili; Pitton Cross Caravan Park, The Village Shop and Post Office, Scurlage; The Post Office, Port Eynon; The Post Office, Reynoldston; The Compass Coffee Shop, Reynoldston; Bwthyn Crafts and Coffee Shop, Oxwich.

The colouring competition picture has been designed by artist Anthony Evans and both competitions will be judged by Rhossili artists, Kevin and Terry Ryall and Helen Sinclair this autumn (2005).

Barbeque Supper at June’s
June Thomas kindly prepared a delicious buffet and invited some friends along one Saturday evening in early August. This event raised £160. Thanks, June!

Bank Holiday Monday Produce Market
It was a sea-misty, warm summer morning and this sale of cakes, plants, garden produce and books raised £213 for the cause. Thanks to the National Trust for allowing us to use their front lawn. Also a come-and-have-a-cup-of-tea-and-a-cake afternoon in Port Eynon Village hall in the preceding week raised a further £50+.

Land of Song Concert
Rhossili Church, Wednesday 31 August
Local Welsh singers, Hemiola, along with local girl, Mairwen Kirk and the Hemiola Consort of Viols provided the entertainment. It was a lovely evening, a musical treat and a further £248 was raised.

National Eisteddfod Grand Raffle
There are some great prizes to be won including luxury holidays abroad and short breaks in Wales. These tickets are available from committee members at a cost of £1 each.

Family Fun Day – Horton Beach – Sunday 18 September
All sorts of great activities for kids and parents down at the beach.

(To all those who would have preferred the information above in Welsh – we ran out of time for translation – sorry!)

Young Local Artists shine in competition

As mentioned in a previous newsletter, two exciting Gower-themed competitions for children took place over the Summer. They involved a colouring competition and an Art competition. The event was organised by the Rhossili-to Oxwich Appeal Committee for the National Eisteddfod.,

The colouring competition poster was designed by artist Anthony Evans. The Art competition required the children to draw, paint or make a collage on the theme ‘When I think of Gower I think of this…’.

Catchment area schools and several local businesses supported the competition by selling the entry cards and also by being locations to which the entries could be returned. These included The Green Gallery, Rhossili; The Village Shop and Post Office, Scurlage; The Post Office, Port Eynon; The Post Office, Reynoldston; The Compass Coffee Shop, Reynoldston and Bwthyn Crafts and Coffee Shop, Oxwich. Forms were also available at Pilton Green Caravan Site and Beynon’s Strawberry Field. The committee are very grateful to all these venues. Knelston Primary School and the Post Office at Port Eynon were particularly effective in selling lots of forms!

A large number of entries were returned in most categories. They were judged by three Rhossili artists: Kevin Ryall, Terry Ryall and Helen Sinclair who took their task extremely seriously, using a points system and coding the entries so that they could be dealt with anonymously. Helen also produced beautiful certificates for each of the prizewinners and those who received a Highly Commended acknowlegment. These included comments from the Artists about each child’s work. The Green Gallery hosted a prize-giving event on Sunday 13th November. It proved to be the ideal venue for such an event, reinforcing to the children the fact that their work had been judged by real Artists. Prizewinners from as far away as Stroud and Brecon attended. Nevertheless, it was noticeable that many of our winners were local children. We should be very proud of them since the judges were delighted with the standard of the competition as a whole. There were some great prizes, with some impressive Art boxes having been donated by WHSMiths and £10 vouchers by Staples. The star prize went to the overall winner of the competition, Alison Jane Rees, who produced a very effecticve collage of the sun setting over the Worm, with the Helvina in the foreground. Alison won a one- hour photographic shoot with Mark Button at any location of her choice in the Gower. Perhaps she’ll include a shot by the famous wreck?!

The prizewinning entries then went on display at the Foyer of County Hall from14th-18th November and many of the children were able to photographed there by the Evening Post. We are hoping that the pictures will also go on display on the Village website (www.Rhossili.me.uk and follow the link to Eisteddfod 2006)

Congratutulations to Alison and all the other winners (see below), but also to all those who took part in the competition, making it such a successful event.

Infants Colouring:
1st Charlotte Lucy Morris, Port Eynon; 2nd Georgia Fraser, Oxwich; 3rd Thomas Leftley, Oxford; Highly Commended Hannah Louise Beetham
Brecon and Luke Dennis, Fforestfach

Junior Colouring:
1st Aimee Morris, Scurlage; 2nd Carys Hellewell, Loughor; 3rd Emma Kemsley-Pein, Market Harborough; Highly Commended Stephanie Nicholas, Waunarlwydd; Zoe Foot, Bonymaen

Junior Art:
1st (and overall winner) Alison Jane Rees, Pitton Green; Joint 2nd
Ceinwen Bowen, Llandewi and Hannah Beetham, Brecon; 3rd James Evans,
Pontlliw; Highly Commended Milly Zoeftig, Middleton; Naomi Osborn, Oxwich Green, Matthew Evans, Pontlliw; Dyfrig Provis, Pitton; Macey Cubbage, Vale of Glamorgan

Senior Art:
1st Kyra Jo Evans, Cwmdu

The fund-raising is going very well and we’ll try to offer you a fuller picture of all the events that have taken place, and are yet to take place, in the next Newsletter.