NEATH PORT TALBOT is set to play host to the popular Urdd Eisteddfod in 2025, a festival known for being one of the largest youth festivals in Europe.
The Urdd Eisteddfod is known right across the country for drawing in thousands of children and young people each year, to take part in Welsh language competitions such as singing, reciting, and dancing.
The festival is held annually in different locations across Wales, with plans for it to take place in Neath Port Talbot’s Margam Country Park in 2025, between May 26 and May 31. It will be the first time the festival has returned to the site since 2003.
The area of Margam Country Park has become a popular tourist destination in recent years, known for its 19th Century Gothic mansion Margam Castle, based in more than 1,000 acres of stunning parkland.
The Welsh park with a castle, Grade I listed gardens and a herd of deer, has also been named as one of the best places to see bats in the the whole of the UK in recent months.
Next year’s Urdd event will follow on from this years, which took place in Montgomeryshire, with the spectacle celebrating a record-breaking 100,454 young people registering to compete in more than 400 competitions.
Speaking after the 2024 event in June, which saw around 400 pupils from Neath Port Talbot schools take part, a council spokesperson congratulated its representatives who competed a the iconic festival, adding: “In Neath Port Talbot we are now looking forward to our pupils competing at the Urdd Eisteddfod in Margam Country Park which will be held between May 26 and May 31, 2025.”
Llio Maddocks, Director of the Arts, Urdd Gobaith Cymru said: “Eisteddfod yr Urdd is a cultural highlight of our Welsh calendar, and festivals such as ours deserve to be enjoyed by all.
“Ensuring opportunities and experiences for competitors and visitors who are new Welsh speakers is crucial to the success and legacy of our youth festival. We look forward with confidence to Eisteddfod yr Urdd Dur a Môr at Margam Park, Neath Port Talbot in 2025.”
