CURTAIN FALLS ON EISTEDDFOD
THE “unsung heroes” of the National Eisteddfod were lauded by officials as the 2017 festival staged on Anglesey closed late on Saturday evening.
Nearly 150,000 attended the Maes at Bodedern during the week-long event which was hit by heavy rain on the opening weekend forcing organisers to change parking arrangements and bring in additional trackways, stone and straw.
The Eisteddfod’s president, Osian Roberts, said the success of the festival mirrored that of the Wales football team at the Euro 2016 championships last year.
Mr Roberts, the team assistant manager, was brought up in Bodffordd and in his early days was a regular competitor at the Eisteddfod.
He said: “When Hal Robson-Kanu scored againt Belgium the headlines were about him and the rest of the team. But no one mentioned the team behind tremendous amount of work done by the team behind the team.
“Exactly the same has happened with the Eisteddfod with hundreds of people working behind the scenes to make sure the Eisteddfod takes place.
“These include the fundraisers who made sure the money was there, the coaches and tutors who prepared the competitors and the volunteers who made sure the Maes was ready.”
Derec Llwyd Morgan, chairman of the local executive committee, said Anglesey had been “Wales’ cultural capital” for the past week.
“It would be impossible to thank everyone but just look at the members of Llangefni Rugby Club. They thought they would be responsible for just one car park.
“They ended up supervising seven and all without a word of complaint,” he said.
Eisteddfod chief executive Elfed Roberts said the festival’s total cost would not be known for several weeks.
“We have obviously incurred additional costs. The shuttle bus service was in our contingency plan but we had not envisaged using it for six days. I expect a report to be presented to the Eisteddfod Council at its next meeting in November,” he said.
He also revealed 147,498 people had attended the event at Bodedern.
This was the lowest total for a north Wales Eisteddfod since 2007 but it was higher than the last four festivals staged in south Wales.
Hundreds of pictures were taken near the giant Eisteddfod letters during the week.
These were made by Tony Thomas, the Eisteddfod’s Technical Officer, in the festival’s workshop in Llanybydder and first appeared on the Maes in 2014.
Made largely of recycled materials Tony, who has been working for the Eisteddfod for 30 years, believes the letters seem to have taken the place of the Pink Pavilion.
“I love seeing people getting excited when they seem them and wanting to take photos of something I’ve created. That’s the best feeling,” he said.