Rockmart hosting Welshfest March 18 after 3-year hiatus
The information booklets for the 2020 Rockmart Welshfest and Heritage Days with sponsors and a schedule of events were printed and ready for visitors, but none were ever distributed.
Just days before the ninth annual event was to happen, the first cases of Covid-19 in America were confirmed and Welshfest was one of the first public gatherings to be canceled as a result of the following pandemic.
Organizers have been hard at work planning Welshfest’s comeback and are ready to welcome people to downtown Rockmart this month for what they are calling the “10th Anniversary” event celebrating the city’s heritage and special connection to some of its earliest settlers.
This year’s festival will be Saturday, March 18, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. with more than 50 vendors as well as live music, entertainment, children’s activities, and arts and crafts.
Arleigh Ordoyne, a member of the Welshfest committee and director of the Polk County Historical Society Museum, gave a presentation about the festival at the Feb. 24 meeting of the Cedartown Kiwanis Club.
She explained that the Welsh were important to Rockmart’s early success as they were proficient in working in slate quarries. When John G. Blance discovered the rock on his property in 1849 in Van Wert — later Rockmart — he sought to hire immigrants from Wales to work for him.
The Welsh community in Rockmart and the nearby area swelled and led to an influx of Welsh culture, including speaking and singing Welsh during services at the Historic Van Wert Methodist Church.
Welshfest officially begins with a Friday Night Hymn Sing on March 17 at 6 p.m. at the church located at 72 Church St. near Van Wert Elementary School. The building is only occasionally opened to the public.
Downtown activities kick off the next morning with a pancake breakfast by members of the Rockmart First United Methodist Church starting at 7 a.m. in the church’s fellowship hall. Vendors open and the schedule of events begin at 10 a.m. on South Marble Street.
An opening ceremony will include a laying of a wreath at the Veterans Memorial Plaza, the Welsh national anthem, and a performance from featured musician David Llewellyn. Luther Mountain’s Bluegrass Band will perform during the day, and the Trifecta Pembroke Welsh Corgis will show off as well.
Brenda’s Welsh Tea Room will be open in the First United Methodist Church fellowship hall for lunch featuring British cream tea, scones, Welsh cakes and other food items.
Other special events include a men’s bonniest knees contest, Methodist church history tours, and “welly wanging” — a contest to see who can throw a Wellington boot the farthest.
From more information and a list of sponsors visit rockmartwelshfest.com