The Rise and Fall of Pontardawe Festival.

The festival was launched in the 70's as a purely Celtic event. Welsh bands such as Yr Hwntws; Ar Log; Aberjaber were joined by a wealth of Celtic artistes including Silly Wizard from Scotland, The popular Irish group Quilty, Brittany was well represented with groups such as Bleizi Ruz, Sonnerien Du. (I hope that I have spelt these names correctly?) They even had an exciting act from Galicia and who can remember that fantastic group from the Basque country? All the Celtic nations were featured at one time or another. Then Pontardawe grew and became a truly international event.It certainly put Pontardawe on the map. But was this a mistake one might ask? Because many other festivals in the UK had international artistes - giving the punter more choice as to which festival to attend to support their favourite world artistes. Pontardawe maybe lost it's individuality? It moved away from being a community event and costs rocketed. Then the Pontardawe International Festival fell victim to the Foot & Mouth Crisis. But the community were determined not to lose it all together and they have organised the event which has brought it back into the village. It is of course a much smaller festival but the spirit has been rekindled.

Who knows, what the future will be for this once magnificent international festival?