Best Crowds since 2012 at Flintshire Urdd National Eisteddfod

On the last day of the Urdd National Eisteddfod, which was held this year in Flintshire, the organisers have announced that they have welcomed more than the last three years to the Maes, with a total of 90,316 visitors attending the festival.

Over 15,000 competed during the week, with over 200 volunteers stewarding. There were seven members of Urdd staff running the prelims, and between them they clocked 924,000 steps during the week, equivalent to 438 miles.

Over 20,000 people have downloaded the Eisteddfod yr Urdd app, and 8,800 videos from the app were watched during the week.

On Twitter, 8,116 messages using #urdd2016 were posted and #urdd2016 had 2.3 million impressions.

A giant sandpit was organised by the 2017 Bridgend, Taff-Ely Urdd National Eisteddfod, where over 3,000 children enjoyed building sand castles. They also raised £2,800 towards the Eisteddfod next year.

The best sellers in Caffi Mistar Urdd were salads and jacket potatoes, with 100kg of coleslaw, 120kg of tomatoes and 270kg of potatoes enjoyed.

800 children took part in the penalty challenge in the sports area, and around 11,000 arrows were aimed at the target in Gwersyll Llangrannog’s archery challenge. In Pentre Mistar Urdd, 394km were rowed in the rowing challenge and 635 hoodies and 514 Mistar Urdd cuddly toys sold.

Merched y Wawr had a good week with £1,500 raised selling second had accessories, which brings their total to £18,000 since the campaign to raise money to the British Heart Foundation was launched 18 months.

Another stall which had a good week at the Urdd was Cowbois, a company from Bala selling Welsh hoodies and t-shirts. Owner Wyn ap Gwilym said, “We’ve had a great Eisteddfod and have been bringing more stock to the Maes every day. The best sellers have been our football hoodies and t-shirts – with the slogans ‘C’mon Cymru 2016’ and ‘Cymru Ewro 2016’ proving popular.”

This was Sioned Hughes’s first Eisteddfod as Urdd Chief Executive. She said,

“I have thoroughly enjoyed my first Eisteddfod as Chief Executive. We’ve had such a welcome, the weather has been glorious and the staff and volunteers have worked together brilliantly. By working as one big team we have offered something truly special and unique which celebrates the Welsh language and our talented children and young people. Doing so in an area which is on the Welsh boarder where the Welsh language is considered a minority language means a lot. The enthusiasm, colour, energy and laughter has been inspirational.”

One of the volunteers who’s been busy all week and is extremely happy that so many have attended the Eisteddfod is Jeremy Griffiths, Chair of the local Executive Committee. He said, “I’ve been on cloud nine all week. It’s been great, and it amazes me how many people that I don’t know have congratulated me on the local committee’s work – I will be sharing this with the rest of the team as soon as possible.

“I’ve enjoyed watching the talented children and young people performing throughout the week in the pavilion but if I had to choose a highlight, it would have to be the musicals staged by the local children and young people – Hersprê and Fflamau Fflint. It was quite emotional to see Flintshire children delivering shows of such a high professional standard. All I can do now is wish the local team in Bridgend, Taff-Ely all the best when the Eisteddfod visits their area in 2017.”

400 tons of gravel and 50 miles of cables were used while building the Maes, and it took 6 weeks for the team of 150 workers to build the site – it will now take 10 days to take it all down.