Gŵyl Y Golau 2026

As some of you may remember, this time last year I attended an event at our local National Trust property, Dinefwr. Gŵyl Y Golau, which means Festival of Light, is the Welsh equivalent to Imbloc. Last year’s event was quite spectacular because it was done with the aid of a grant from the Welsh Government to explore the connection between music and the environment. That grant has now ended, but Simmy Singh and Angharad Wynne had so enjoyed last year that they wanted to do it again.

So what was different? Well, no money to bring in Nigel Shaw and Bethan Lloyd. Simmy did find a local percussionist and guitar player to perform with her, but as with so many musicians these days she also had a multi-instrument backing track. The songs that had all three of them working hard were probably the best entertainment, but Simmy also played a track from her new album which was really impressive.

The event was run over two days. The Friday majored on story-telling, with Simmy mainly providing a musical accompaniment to Angharad’s tales. Saturday was mainly music, with Angharad providing the occasional break to let the musicians recover after an energetic number.

There was supposed to be a Saturday morning event too, which would have been a guided walk around the estate with Angharad telling stories connected to the location. Sadly that had to be cancelled because it was pissing it down. All things considered, however, we did pretty well with the weather.

One of the things I picked up listening to Angharad is that there is an international community of story-tellers. This is quite separate from the written fiction community. Angharad talked about working with traditional story-tellers from Africa and India. It is a bit of a shame that our communities don’t talk more. We could learn a lot. So many written fiction writers are terrible at reading aloud, but Angharad can keep an audience spellbound for an hour, speaking entirely from memory.

Like last year, part of the event was held around a bonfire in the gardens of Newton House. We said goodbye to Mari Lwyd, who will go to sleep now until next winter. We had fairly clear skies, and a full moon for Saturday, so I guess we also had Diana’s blessing. There is no Celtic god who is specifically associated with the moon, though there are plenty of goddesses that you can use if you wish.

As with last year, much of the purpose of the event was the welcome the starting of spring. Gŵyl Y Golau is the mid point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. We should start seeing lambs in the fields soon. It is very much a festival of New Hope, if you’ll permit me a brief Star Wars reference. Here’s hoping that the things we hoped for will come to pass. It is about time that the Evil Empire got a good kicking.