The Ontario Welsh Festival

2020 has proved to be a hugely difficult year for us all, here in the UK and indeed throughout the world. It’s given us so many heartbreaks, sadness, frustratio...n, and challenges to overcome. As Christmas, the most wonderful time of the year, approaches The Morriston Orpheus Choir based in Swansea South Wales, UK, has been working extremely hard, remotely, over the last few months with the expert help and assistance of COBRA Music Studios to present to you in the way we know best, through song, our Christmas wish that you all have a very special time, filled with joy and happiness. As the powerful words say in this most famous Christmas song, A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn Nadolig Llawen a Blwyddyn Newydd Dda.

Posted on behalf of one of our members: ********* Given the current world health situation, I am not shocked to hear that the Ontario Welsh Festival 2020 was cancelled, but I am disappointed. I know I am one of many who look forward to it each year.... Me being me, I hadn’t actually got around to registering, but I had intended to get my money off this week. Guess what? I have just written a cheque the equivalent of what I would have sent and I will, indeed, mail it off this week as a donation. Cancelling events, cancelling our Welsh Festival, comes with a financial cost. I am not a Board member so I do not know what that cost is but the least I can do, for an Association which has meant so much to me over the years, is to transform my Registration into a Donation and help out in difficult times. This is not an original idea. As the former strategic development director for traditional music in Wales, I have been watching as freelance musicians in Wales and elsewhere find their touring opportunities collapsing, first due to Brexit and now due to Covid 19. I came across this by Arts blogger, Francois Matarasso: Instead of asking for refunds from cancelled performances or events, we could turn the money we've paid into a donation ... We bought the tickets because we could afford them, and presumably we value the organisation whose work we wanted to see. THEY are already facing potentially catastrophic loss of income: WE just don’t get to see something we were looking forward to. And so I am, as usual, sending off my envelope and my cheque to the OGGA late; gwell hwyr na hwyrach. I know they will make good use of it. And I hope some of you will follow suit. Bydd hiraeth arnaf am yr Wyl eleni; ymlaen i 2021! Cofion, Siân Thomas (Sian Onondaga)

The organizing committee deeply regrets to announce that the 2020 Ontario Welsh Festival in Ottawa has been cancelled in response to the effort to reduce the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19). Our decision has been taken in accordance with the March 12 announcement by Dr. David Williams, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, who recommends the cancellation of events involving 250 people or more. We are extremely disappointed to have to cancel, but at this time of global uncertainty, the health, safety, and well-being of our community is the priority. We thank everyone for their patience as we work to refund registration fees. PLEASE NOTE; you must cancel your hotel reservations directly with The Lord Elgin Hotel at 1-800-267-4298 or (613) 235-3333.

Alert! Please be aware that we have been advised of a scam that has been sent supposedly from a representative ( Ann Watson) of Ontario Welsh Festival, inviting vendors to sign up for a table at the festival - for a fee . The email contains a link to a PayPal account to make the payment. Note that the Ontario Welsh Festival does NOT advertise for vendors in this way and does not accept any responsibility for people who might sign up for a table in this way.

https://walescontemporary.artopps.co.uk/

2020 Gold Award Winner The words Ontario Welsh Festival and Dave Pugh are totally synonymous. Dave has been involved with this annual event since the early 1980s and is the extremely worthy winner of the Gold Award. Although he was born in Ontario, his heritage is 100% Welsh- which is obvious when we realize his passion for all things Welsh- especially Welsh choirs. Dave has been responsible for organizing the visits of several Welsh choirs, including Côr y Traeth and Dyn...fant. The word organizing for Dave also means that visiting choirs get to perform in as many venues as possible around Southern Ontario. In 1984 Dave was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Ontario Welsh Festival. Amongst the positions he has held on the Board is President (twice) and Treasurer. He formed a very successful liaison with our travel agent to organize the visits of choirs, resulting in problem free travel arrangements for Welsh choirs once they arrive in Ontario. Currently he is responsible for soliciting advertisements for our booklet. Dave was the first to add a seminar to the Festival weekend when he invited a speaker from the Stratford Festival in 2005. Dave’s passion for his Welsh heritage has resulted in his attending residential Welsh language courses in North America and, of course, visits to Wales, especially the National Eisteddfod. He also organized a Welsh weekend in his hometown of Oshawa which featured the Ottawa Welsh Choral Society. Congratulations to this year’s winner of the Gold Award. Very much deserved!

Now from Welsh Music to Language. How it became "Cool" to speak Welsh. https://www.theguardian.com//welsh-speaking-bilingual-tv-t

Alert! Please be aware that we have been advised of a scam that has been sent supposedly from a representative ( Ann Watson) of Ontario Welsh Festival, inviting vendors to sign up for a table at the festival - for a fee . The email contains a link to a PayPal account to make the payment. Note that the Ontario Welsh Festival does NOT advertise for vendors in this way and does not accept any responsibility for people who might sign up for a table in this way.

Contemporary musicians from Wales making headlines in Wales and Europe. http://www.newsoundwales.com/wales-100/

Continuing with our series on contemporary Welsh culture: https://www.classicfm.com/discover-mu/latest/gallery-wales/

You still gotta eat!

https://www.visitwales.com//music-and-culture-festivals-wa

Introducing Gwenno, popular Welsh singer. Gwenno sings in Welsh and Cornish. A bit of interesting trivia: In October 2018 the Cornish Language Board claimed that Saunders' album Le Kov had contributed to a 15% increase in the number of people taking Cornish language exams during 2018.(Wikipedia) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rCeygWexyA

https://www.facebook.com/JohnIeuanJones/videos/2556976564427803/?t=9

In the following weeks we will be publishing a series of articles from various media about life in Wales today. We will focus on contemporary Welsh music, language, popular culture, and all the things that affect peoples' lives. We will start with Welsh music. Here is an article about contemporary Welsh musicians and their music that are popular in Wales and internationally. I hope you enjoy the series. Follow this link for the news story https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-49472723. We will post music videos in the next few days.

https://www.facebook.com//a.59338640747/1520428644774828/

https://www.facebook.com//a.59338640747/1514642842020075/