Gwyl Plant Gwent
Gwerinwyr Gwent started this festival of Welsh folk dance for children in 1982, with eight schools taking part, now over a hundred schools take part each year.
The festival is non-competitive and open to any youth group, not just to schools.
The first festivals were held in Gwent Square, Cwmbran.
As the number of children grew the festival became two festivals, with one group of children dancing during the morning and another group of children dancing in the afternoon.
Our numbers kept on growing, and we added two festivals in Ebbw Vale town centre.
We outgrew Ebbw Vale so we moved to a larger venue in Abertillery.
We grew even bigger so added Abergavenny and then Newport to our venues.
Each year we add more schools to our list!
If you are passing by when they are dancing, do stop to watch the colourful spectacle made by the children as they dance in their traditional Welsh costumes, for the children enjoy displaying the dances which they have learnt during the past year.
Each summer the Gwyl Plant Gwent committee decide upon the twelve dances for the next summer's festivals. They then produce booklets with the instructions for these dances, one in English and one in Welsh. The teachers are provided with audio tapes or a CD of suitable music for practising the dances, together with a video made by Gwerinwyr Gwent, with the dances walked through to the exact words in our book of instructions and then danced to the music.
Courses are arranged in the autumn and the spring terms for teachers to learn the dances and in the spring terms we also hold practices to which the teachers bring children.
If you would like to know more about the festivals or the teaching aids
(which may be bought by anyone who feels they would find them useful),
please contact the secretary of Gwyl Plant Gwent -
Mrs Dawn Webster
Greenacres, Broadstreet Common,
Nash, Newport NP18 2AZ
dawn.webster@virgin.net
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