Lighting the Flame – Scarlets Festival of Sport

The London 2012 Olympic Games have inspired the community in Llanelli to organise the first Festival of Sports for the Carmarthenshire region.

The festival will take place at Parc y Scarlets on Friday and Saturday July 6 and 7.

In the true spirit of the Olympics, a partnership of Llanelli Town Council, Communities First Glanymor &Tyisha and Felinfoel & Llwynhendy, the Scarlets, Carmarthenshire County Council, Human Being Active, Welsh Athletics, AcuNat and Llanelli’s schools, are looking to build upon the success of the Following the Flame exhibition and workshops.

The festival, also supported by Carmarthenshire Community Events & Festival Grant and the Millennium Stadium Charitable Trust, will include a wide range of sports and healthy lifestyle activities and workshops. The festival will include athletics, mini-rugby, mini-decathlon and many other sports.

More than 600 children from Llanelli’s primary schools will take part in competitive sports on the Friday of the event. And just like the Olympics; the winners and runners-up of each sport category will be awarded medals.

On the Saturday there will be the Festival’s medal and awards ceremony for the winners and runners-up of the Friday’s sports day. Also on Saturday there will be sport displays and sport taster sessions for the whole family to enjoy. Some of the sports on display will include Gymnastics – represented by Llanelli Gymnastic Club and Judo – represented by Llanelli’s Sanshirokwai Judo Club.

There will even be a free healthy active fun run to take part in – again for the whole family to enjoy.

Additionally on Saturday there will be a multi-cultural Olympic-themed festival. The activities will include an African drumming workshop, a Zumba taster session, a Bollywood dancing workshop, belly dancing, African cultural dance performances and workshop, healthy eating workshops, Trysordy workshop of Olympic themed art – using waste and recycled materials to make Olympic torch, medals and flags.

Llanelli’s community groups will be providing textile, henna painting, arts & crafts, and beauty workshops. There will even be a range of foods from other parts of the world to try. Also in attendance will be Breast Test Wales, Age Concern, Regeneration & Well-Being and many other community organisations.

Glanymor & Tyisha Communities First Development Officer Farah Aziz said: “Some of the aims of the festival are to increase young people’s appreciation and involvement in sport, increase young people’s knowledge of the Olympics and the ideals behind the games, to show that exercise and living a healthy active lifestyle can be fun, to increase the knowledge and respect of other cultures and to leave a legacy of a growing annual festival of sport based at Parc y Scarlets.”

For further information please visit www.festivalofsport.org