Come visit the Mentrau Iaith at the Urdd Eisteddfod this year!

The Urdd Eisteddfod will bring many thousands of children and families to Denbighshire this year, with many visiting various stalls looking for opportunities and extra events for children and adults to be able to use and practice their Welsh after the Eisteddfod has left.

The Mentrau Iaith will have a stall manned by the dedicated staff at Menter Iaith Sir Ddinbych – the local Menter Iaith for Denbighshire, and also staff from Mentrau Iaith Cymru and various other Mentrau. The stall will be a hive of activity and all are welcome to call by for a chat – but Monday is a day for partying!

The Mentrau Iaith are happy to celebrate publishing 10 new Magi Ann books. Here Gill Stephen, chief officer at Menter Iaith Fflint a Wrecsam explains:

“Magi Ann is a very popular character who has entertained children within the covers of her black and white books since the author, Mena Evans, wrote them years ago. But Magi Ann, like everyone, is developing and is always ready to take advantage of different opportunities to reach out to children. One development has been the Menter working on the creation of 6 interactive apps featuring all of Magi Ann’s stories, and the most recent development is the publication of 10 colourful books thanks to the publishing company, Atebol. “

The book launch will take place at the Welsh Government stall on Wednesday, with another party on the Mentrau Iaith stall on the Tuesday we will launch a series of 16 videos for Magi Ann’s friend – Tedi. Symud Gyda Tedi (Move with Tedi) videos aim to help families with young children have fun and keep fit in their own homes. One of the video’s stars, dancer and fitness instructor Hanna Medi will lead a moving session with Tedi at the launch party – and any young family is welcome to join in the fun.

Mid-week at the stall, older children will have the opportunity to learn about local history by building with Lego and Minecraft and taking part in video games sessions. The video games encourage the natural use of Welsh between teenagers and are extremely popular across North Wales with the Mentrau Iaith organizing numerous competitions between children from Anglesey over to Flint. Gwion Tomos-Jones of Menter Iaith Sir Ddinbych says:

“As a Menter Iaith we have been working with other Mentrau in the north, creating a community of Welsh video players. These games include Minecraft, Fortnite and Among Us. The children love to discuss, debate, fight and laugh together online in a safe, fun and Welsh atmosphere. “

The Mentrau Iaith stand will take a different look from Thursday and be transformed to reflect a more festival atmosphere. This is to promote and highlight all the festivals and musical events organized by the Mentrau Iaith across Wales. Menter Iaith Môn will be holding ukelele sessions on the stall on Thursday and local performer, Morgan Elwy will be singing with us on Saturday at 1pm.

The Mentrau Iaith encourage and promote the use of Welsh in our communities and we will symbolise this by offering visitors a small package of sunflower seeds from Thursday onwards, encouraging everyone to plant the seeds, and see them bloom and enriching a garden or window sill. We will be asking people to tag us in messages on social media to see the growth of all sunflowers using #BlodynHaul.