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Show Entries sought for Welsh festival BYU is continuing an old Welsh tradition by planning an Eisteddfod, a festival with competitions in music, literature, arts, photography and crafts. The festival will be Friday, March 1, at 7:30 p.m. in the Provo Tabernacle, 100 S. University Ave., Provo. Entries will be judged earlier in the week, Feb. 27, at 7 p.m. in the Provo Tabernacle. Both the competition com-petition and the festival are free and open to the public. Entries are still being accepted in nine of 15 competition categories. Competitions whose deadlines are extended to Feb. 20 are as follows: male recitation (prize $50) ; female recitation (prize $50); community choir (prize $100); church choir (prize $100); high school choir (prize $100); female soloists, ages 17-21 (prize $50) ; male soloists, ages 17-21 (prize $50); female soloists, ages 22 and older (prize $50); and male soloists, ages 22 and older (prize $50). The arts and crafts competitions -- ceramics, photography, wood carvings and weaving - must be turned into 122 Wilkinson Center (the hobby shop) Feb. 22 and 23. To receive a brochure with greater detail call the College of Humanities, 378-2775, or the College of Fine Arts, 378-2818. An Eisteddfod is an important part of Welsh culture. People in schools, small villages and cities frequently gather for competition meetings. Welsh citizens come together to compete at singing, to recite poetry, and to offer their prose, arts and crafts for a decision by judges. "Many of the pioneers who settled in Utah had Welsh ancestry,", explains ex-plains Ronald Dennis, chairman of the festival and faculty member of the Department of Humanities. "In the mid-19th century large numbers of Welsh converts to Mormonism poured into the Rocky Mountains. For decades they carried on the tradition of the Eisteddford, but as the Welsh speakers went to their graves, so did the tradition. "We are particularly interested in more recitation, choir and vocal entries," says Dennis. "They are such an important part of the traditional festival, and we encourage en-courage people to enter and compete com-pete for cash awards." BYU's College of Humanities and College of Fine Arts and Communications Com-munications are co-sponsoring the festival as a way to honor the many people with Welsh background in the Intermountain West, and to stimulate interest in Welsh traditions. The departments are trying to create the flavor of the national Eisteddfod where great choirs and honored poets vie to win a chair or a crown, the highest honors Wales can bestow in literature. In adherence to Welsh tradition, winners of poetry writing competitions com-petitions will be "chaired" or "crowned" in the traditional ceremonies of the "Chairing of the Bard" and "Crowning of the Poet." |