A Welsh TV music star will be one of the headline acts when thousands gather for the traditional climax of this year’s Gwyl Rhuthun/Ruthin Festival in July.
The Welsh Whisperer, Andrew Walton, will join an impressive lineup for the Top of Town event on the town’s St Peter’s Square Saturday, July 5, for the festival which is again sponsored by Vale of Clwyd-based law firm Swayne Johnson.
Andrew has taken his quirky brand of traditional Welsh folk music around the country in an old Land Rover pulling his gear in an Ifor Williams Trailer for two S4C series.
The 37-year-old former teacher, who hails originally from Cwmfelin Mynach in Carmarthenshire and now lives in Caernarfon, exchanged the classroom for the life of a touring musician and he and his five-piece band will join an impressive lineup for the popular event.
It includes Yws Gwynedd, Keenan Jones, from Denbigh, Llansannan’s Tewtewtennau, DJ Charlie Butt and regulars the Pantonic Steel Band with their infectious Caribbean sounds.
The Whisperer is looking forward to a return to Ruthin and he said: “It’s a great event. The set-up is really good with two stages facing each other across the square and they get thousands of people there.
“It has a great family atmosphere, there are a lot of Welsh speakers and I’m looking forward to seeing many familiar faces from previous visits to the town.
“I’ve got a good band with me including accordionist George Whitfield who has about 100 accordions and is originally from Reading but now lives in Pembrokeshire and his playing adds so much to our sound.”
Swayne Johnson Managing Director Lynette Viney-Passig said: “The week-long Ruthin Festival is one of the highlights of the year in the Vale of Clwyd and beyond and attracts so many people to the town.
“We have offices in Ruthin, Denbigh and St Asaph as well as in Mold, Llandudno and Tattenhall so we’re very much part of the local community.
“We like to get involved in the places where we operate and we believe in playing our part in supporting them which we also do through our Swayne Johnson Charitable Trust which covers North Wales and Cheshire and for which we are always happy to receive enquiries.”
The week-long festival starts on Friday, June 27, and that evening there will be a performance of Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice by the Illyria Production Company in the garden of Nantclwyd y Dre, on Castle Street.
The following day, Saturday, June 28, there will be a concert by Cantorion Gogledd Cymru at Theatr John Ambrose, featuring soloists Elis Jones and Ceri Roberts, both National Eisteddfod Blue Riband winners, and starting at 7.30pm.
Theatr John Ambrose also hosts a Ruthin Area Youth Concert on Monday evening, June 30, and other highlights include a Welsh Poetry Stomp at The Feathers Inn on Wednesday evening, July 2, and the same venue will also host an acoustic music event the following evening.
On Saturday, July 5, at 11.30am Ruthin Craft Centre will have a reading by Bedwyr Williams of Seamus Heaney’s The Name of the Hare and the same venue opens three new exhibitions from 10am before the focus switches to the Top of Town where live music starts at 1pm with the town’s three primary schools performing on the stages.
