Big entries for Smallholder and Garden Festival
Ten dance groups from Wales, Scotland, England and France have been booked to perform and to provide dance ‘workshops’ throughout the weekend of the Royal Welsh Smallholder and Garden Festival on May 17 and 18. There will also be two dances for visitors on Saturday night – a ceilidh, in which inexperienced dancers can take part, and a Scottish country dance which will also be suitable for beginners.
The Celtic Dance Festival has been added to the range of entertainment planned for this, the eighth Smallholder and Garden Festival to be staged by the Royal Welsh on the showground of Llanelwedd, Builth Wells.
Livestock entries for the event have not been unduly affected by the impact of bluetongue disease which has restricted livestock movement in some parts of the country. Pigs are immune to bluetongue and pig entries have soared from last year’s 93 to a record 168. They have been relocated to a larger area in part of Exhibition Hall 2 and a demonstration entitled ‘Pigs in Woods’, where an actual temporary woodland has been created, will show how pigs clear rough and hard-to-manage land.
Sheep entries at the Festival number 337 and 32 entries of Angora goats and 84 of dairy goats have been catalogued. The Angora fleece competition has attracted 48 entries and there are 59 entries in the Angora goat craft section.
As well as the Garden Festival with nearly 40 competitive and other stands, 200 trade stands will be on view for visitors.
Sixty-five Farmers Markets in Wales will be represented in the Food Hall on the showground and visitors keen on vintage machinery will find much to interest them among the 147 entries.
The open dog show of over 230 classes has attracted more than 1140 entries.