At the beginning of the new year, a group from the Urdd Eisteddfod team went on an exciting trip to meet with the organisers of the Primavera Sounds festival in Barcelona, ​​Catalonia. This was part of the effort to continue strengthening the partnership between Wales and Catalonia, and to learn about another festival held in a minority language.

The purpose of the trip was to share experiences of holding a festival of all sizes, to create and build on international connections for the Eisteddfod, and to gather ideas about new and contemporary aspects of festival of all kinds.

The group had a taste of arranging festivals of different sizes – the world-famous Primavera Sounds festival, and the much smaller Campa de Lingua. The crew were inspired by the organisers of Primavera’s way of working. The Campa de Lingua Festival is much smaller and is run by passionate young volunteers. The Urdd group enjoyed learning from the organisers of Primavera, but also shared experiences with the young people of Campa de Lingua. It was such a great  opportunity for everyone to gather ideas to develop further in the future.

The Urdd’s Triban festival will also benefit from this trip, with the new ideas being used to support young musicians in Wales.

The focus of the trip was festival organisation, but there was an opportunity to meet with the National Youth Council of Catalonia. From that, came the possibility of expanding their relationship with our Youth Parliament in Wales. This is a great opportunity to work together and continue the partnership by holding events and providing encouragement to young people from both countries.

In Catalonia, there was an opportunity to hear and learn about another minority language and their history. The Urdd group said there was a homely feeling when learning about something that was relatively similar to Wales. They were able to compare the Welsh and the Catalan language and discuss what makes us different and what unites us. Coming home, the group felt extremely proud and grateful for their bilingualism.

It would be fantastic to invite some of the team from Catalonia to visit the Eisteddfod! Catalan artists and organisations can come over and could arrange through Catalan Arts that the Theatre Company can visit the Eisteddfod in 2025.

Now, the Urdd has new strong connections and has strengthened the sense of team spirit when organising a festival. The group is ready to implement all the new creative ideas!!

The group returned to Wales feeling very proud for what we have achieved for the Eisteddfod, language, and organisation.