HRH The Prince of Wales will open the first-ever ‘Llangollen Online’ festival with a special message next week.

Last month, Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod (LIME) launched the event, which is a digital offering to bring together its global community following the postponement of this year’s festival.

Next week, in what would have been ‘Eisteddfod Week’, they have a programme of online activity to give a flavour of the International Eisteddfod to the many participants and visitors who usually descend on this picturesque Denbighshire town each July.

On Tuesday, there will be a special message from LIME’s patron, HRH The Prince of Wales. It continues a long relationship between The Prince of Wales, Charles, and the International Eisteddfod, which he has visited three times in the past.

During the most recent visit in 2015, The Prince was famously coaxed into dancing with members ‘of a Punjabi bhangra group from Nottingham, the Sheerer Punjabi dancers, as he waved off the traditional Parade of Nations.

There will be plenty of entertainment taking place throughout the week.

On Thursday, as part of the festival’s traditional ‘Peace Day’, online audiences will be treated to the premiere of a Global Peace Message.

The main feature will be a relayed spoken word performance of a specially commissioned poem, Harmoni a Heddwch’, written by Mererid Hopwood.

Those taking part in the message include LIME President Terry Waite plus children from Ysgol Rhostyllen, St Giles School Wrexham and Ysgol Dinas Bran.

The online premiere will also present the first performance of a new piece of music, sung by Wrexham soprano, Elan Catrin Parry, with words by Hopwood and music by Edward-Rhys Harry.

Mr Harry, Artistic Director of LIME, says: “We are delighted to open the week on Tuesday with a message from HRH The Prince of Wales. With Tuesday traditionally being our Children’s Day, we will also have the online premiere of our Children’s Day Message of Peace, elements of which will be included in our Global Peace Message on Thursday.

“This is the first time we have ever done anything like this and we are all so excited to be able to share it online with our international community. It has been amazing to have Mererid Hopwood create a new poem for us that has captured the essence of our festival, and we have been overwhelmed by the generosity of others who have given their time to help us create Llangollen Online. We feel very humbled and grateful and hope people enjoy the ‘flavour of Llangollen’ this year.”

Over the past month, people have been voting via Llangollen.TV for their favourite performances and moments from the last 25 years, from footage showcasing performers from 57 different countries and well over 10,000 competitors.

Tens of thousands of people have voted in five categories and the winners will be announced live on S4C’s daily show Prynhawn Da! as well as on Llangollen TV every day from Tuesday July 7 to Saturday July 11.

The week will also include the Young Peacemakers Awards, an online premiere of the Children’s Day Message and competitor messages from across the globe.

‘Eisteddfod Week’ will culminate in a 90 minute documentary on S4C on Sunday, July 12 at 7.30pm.