Read the 1946 invitation to the World’s Choirs
Tag: 1940s
The invitation was prepared by W.S. Gwynn Williams for distribution by the British Council. This was the original summons sent out to call overseas competitors to the first ever International Musical Eisteddfod in Llangollen back in 1947 and the sentiment behind it still holds true today.
Membership card and consititution for ‘The Council of the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod’. Members would be residents of Llangollen and would be approved by the Council.
A greetings card from Norwegian competitor “Thanks a lot for making our visit to Wales, the Eisteddfod and Chirk the most wonderful”
From 1949 local youngsters presented a peace message from the Llangollen Eisteddfod stage, an initiative of the chairman Jack Rhys Roberts. Llangollen adopted and adapted the Urdd text each year.
Before the festival ended, the President Clayton Russon and Chairman George Northing announced to the press that Llangollen would hold a second international eisteddfod in 1948. This triggered an unexpected row, and a leadership crisis. Harold Tudor wanted the International Eisteddfod he conceived to move around like the National, and tried to enlist public support through the press, generating immense protest in Llangollen.
The eight minutes and twenty seconds of this film are a unique audiovisual record of the first festival in 1947. You’ll see and hear the winning choirs. You’ll share the excitement with the audience packed into the marquee, made from war surplus canvas with 6000 seats borrowed from schoolrooms, chapels and elsewhere round the area…
Read the programme from June 1947, the first ever International Eisteddfod.
