Wales YFC News
Wales YFC Eisteddfod 2023
Mona Dairy Pavillion on Anglesey Showground was the home of Wales YFC’s National Eisteddfod this year. On November 18th, Ynys Môn federation welcomed competitors and supporters from across Wales, ten years to the year since the county held the eisteddfod last. 750 competitors from 12 county federations took part this year in an event that was kindly sponsored by Castell Howell.
There was a wide range of competitions across music, recitation, light section and homework sections that included writing, art and photography competitions. After a day of competing, Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion jointly won the Mansel Charles trophy, with both ending the day with 43 points across all Eisteddfod competitions. With 37 points, Meirionnydd federation finished in 3rd place.
A successful chairing and crowning ceremony was held under the leadership of Nia Thomas and sponsored by Arfor/Llwyddo’n Lleol. The Chair was sponsored this year by FUW and the Crown sponsored by Dŵr Cymru, thanks for their support. The beautiful chair created by Tomos Jones went to Eryri, to Mared Fflur Roberts for her winning poem on the theme ‘Locality.’ Mared is a member at Dyffryn Madog YFC and currently studying her A-levels, hoping to continue studying in Aberystwyth university next year.
Alaw Fflur Jones from Felinfach YFC, Ceredigion won the Crown this year, made by Helen Evans ‘Blod,’ A past-student of Ysgol Gyfun Aberaeron and Cardiff University, Alaw is a familiar face to the movement after being the Junior member of the year at county, Wales and national level in 2018/2019.
Congratulations to the two that came out on top!
Learner of the year ceremony was held this year too, for the first time, with Daisy Plews, Ynys Môn YFC being awarded for her efforts in learning the Welsh language and using her Welsh skills within the movement’s activities.
It’s nice to be able to give a special recognition to several winners of the Eisteddfod, through special trophies. With the support of sponsors, there were a number of new trophies this year; 3 trophies from Ymddiriedolaeth James Pantyfedwen for winners of Solo 28 or under, Vocal Ensemble and the hymn competitions, also the Lenora Davies trophy for the winning recitation party and the D.I.Evans challenge cup for the winning duet.
At the end of a high standard Eisteddfod, the Ardudwy Cup for the best soloist in the music section was presented to Tomos Heddwyn Griffiths from Meirionnydd and the Wales YFC cup to Alaw Mair Jones from Ceredigion for her performance in the monologue which won the best individual in the recitation section. The Joy Cornock cup is presented to the most promising individual in all the Eisteddfod competitions and this year, that individual was Noah Morgan from Brecknock, for his performance on the drums in the instrumental solo.
To conclude the day of competitions, we had six choirs entered into the Choir competition, singing ‘Rhowch i mi’, a song commissioned by Catrin Angharad, especially for this year’s Eisteddfod. After a fantastic competition, the judges decided that Meirionnydd YFC was the winning choir this year, with Ynys Môn coming in the second position and Carmarthenshire third. Taking the Denbighshire Farmers’ Union of Wales Trophy for winning the homework section was the Eryri federation and the Elonwy Phillips shield for the winning federation in stage competitions was Ceredigion federation.
Gwen Edwards was this year’s Eisteddfod chair, a present member of Rhosybol YFC at Ynys Môn. She said “It was a privilege and a pleasure to be Chair of the Eisteddfod this year. It was a pleasure to work together with Wales YFC, the committee and the members to hold a great Eisteddfod. It was nice to see members from all over Wales performing on stage and the standard was certainly very high.”
Wales YFC would like to thank everyone who contributed to make the eisteddfod a success once again this year, being competitors, stewards or supporters. A special thanks must be given to the judges and the fantastic accompanists who were so busy throughout the day and to the Ynys Môn committee for their work, support and welcome in preparing and holding the Eisteddfod.
A big congratulations to Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion on coming joint winners o at the end of the competing, we look forward to welcoming everybody to 2024’s Eisteddfod in Ysgol Bro Myrddin, Carmarthen on November 2nd 2024.
All results are now on the Wales YFC website and it’s possible to re-watch the competing that was broadcasted on S4C on Iplayer or S4C Clic.
