Merlin Festival

A TREASURE Hunt will be one of the many highlights of this year’s Merlin Festival in Carmarthen. The festival will be held on Saturday August 11 throughout the town.

The Merlin Hunt involves Merlins hidden in various shops around the town. A form can be down loaded from the website http://www.discovercarmarthenshire.com/merlin/

Clues

• One for sorrow two for joy – King Street
• A birds name – Lammas Street
• Pop in for a coffee – Jacksons Lane
• Something fishy – Indoor market
• For your latest blockbuster – St Catherine’s walk
• Get Locked up – Notts Square
• Merlin’s Walk – Find The Skateboarder
• Merlin’s Walk – Find a canvas here

This year’s acts include:

• Dragon Quest – your once in a life time chance for an extraordinary encounter with a Goblin Queen and her huge and ancient Dragon! Let go of reality and enter the world of fairy tale and myth as you become involved in goblin mischief and are entranced by the enchanting, smoke breathing, true to life Dragon.
• Luke Jugglestruck, – an award winning entertainer and magician with 19 years of professional experience behind him, presents an astonishing magic experience you will never forget. Using coins, cards and everyday objects Luke will perform magical miracles that defy explanation and his mind-reading will not only leave the audience spellbound but laughing too!
• Randalf the Wizard – Minister of Mugglery Magic; making things disappear that don’t need to be disappeared.

The festival will also feature Okey Dokey the Dragon and the Alchemy Dragons.

There will also be a Children’s Magical Tent with free face painting by Bochau Goch, youngsters can make magic witch pots with Siramik, there will be Magic cookery lessons with S4C’s Anthony Evans, Magical arts and craft work shops by Fran Stevens plus roaming entertainment from Fiddlebox and a the Dragon Ride (a charity horse ride across Carmarthen – the horse will be dressed up as dragons they will be raising money for Air Ambulance Wales).

Also across the town St Catherine’s Walk has a number of activities planned including Pant Glas World of Nature of Rhos Static Owls, Hawks and Falcons; Moses the mingling magic magician and free face painting by Twinkletime.

At Merlin’s Walk there will be Uncle Sam, free face painting by Face Paint me, an Owl Sanctuary and wood carver as well as Dave the Magician.

Carmarthen is reputedly Wales’s oldest town, with a history dating back more than 2,000 years and is linked to Merlin through its name. The town celebrates its links with the legendary wizard each year.  Merlin is best known as the magician of Arthurian legend but Carmarthen lays its own claim to the man of mystery from the past. The name Myrddin may have arisen from the Roman period Celtic name for a place in Wales, Mori-dunon meaning “sea fort.”

The name became Carmarthen/Caerfyrddin, which can be loosely translated as Fort of Moridunum, since a caer is a fortified royal residence. It seems that the name was taken to mean ‘Caer of some man called Myrddin’.

Council executive board member for regeneration and leisure Cllr Meryl Gravell said: “I hope everyone will come along to the Merlin Festival and have fun celebrating the history and myths of Carmarthen.”