TWO Llangollen giants are set to team up this summer to help mark two significant milestones for the town.
This July, Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod and Llangollen Fringe Festival will join forces to put on an event to remember.
This will be to celebrate the Eisteddfod's 75th anniversary, and the Fringe's 25th which combine to make a century of summer festivals in Llangollen.
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The Eisteddfod and Fringe are collaborating for the first time to produce Llanfest 2022 on Sunday July 10, the final day of the four-day International Llangollen Eisteddfod music festival, which runs from July 7 to 10.
Llanfest has become a firm favourite in the summer festival diary and this year there will be an emphasis on home-grown talent incorporating eclectic music, theatre and comedy.
Headliners, British indie three-piece, Amber Run, will deliver lush, cinematic alt-pop with a moody and introspective tone. Amber Run are supported by Welsh/Bajan singer Kizzy Crawford, described by Radio 1 DJ Huw Stephens as ‘real talent' and ‘wonderful' by Radio 4's Richard Coles and Elles Bailey, a smoky-voiced human dynamo, who straddles the worlds of Americana and the blues.
After an online event last year, organisers are thrilled to welcome back visitors to Llangollen.
This year's festival has been redesigned with a more compact site revolving around a single Pavilion music stage and a new in-the-round stage developed for spoken word events, offering a thought-provoking series of talks.
Two of the classical world's vocal powerhouses, Aled Jones and Russell Watson will be performing together for the first time to open the 2022 programme and further highlights include Grammy Award winner Anoushka Shankar with Manu Delago and the Britten Sinfonia .
Celebrating its 75th anniversary, the festival returns this year with a broad cultural programme that spreads the message of peace and friendship on which it was founded in 1947 after the second world war.
Each year around 4,000 performers from around the world and as many as 35,000 visitors converge on this beautiful small Welsh town to sing and dance in a unique combination of competition, performance and community spirit.
In recognition of the festival's founding principle to spread peace, visitors to the festival and Llanfest will be invited to write a message of peace on a luggage label and attach it to trees around the site to create a forest of peace.
Camilla King, executive producer of Llangollen Eisteddfod said: "For years the festival and the fringe have worked independently to help Llangollen to punch above its weight on the international music scene so it is exciting that for the first time we are joining forces to co-curate Llanfest this year.
"Together we will be bringing an eclectic and inspiring line-up of music, spoken word and comedy to north Wales in the spirit of peace and togetherness that the Llangollen Eisteddfod was founded on the 75 years ago and is now more relevant than ever."
Paul Keddie, chair of the Llangollen Fringe Festival, said: "Llangollen Fringe Festival is delighted to be working alongside LIME this year to gather everyone together on the Sunday of the Eisteddfod. 75 years of the Eisteddfod and 25 years of the Fringe gives 100 years' worth of experience to share with the world... it's going to be magical."
For more information and to buy tickets, visit www.international-eisteddfod.co.uk/whats-on/
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