Click Above to Support the Left Coast Eisteddfod

The time is rapidly approaching for the West Coast to host its Celtic eisteddfod and Welsh cultural festival. With your help, a potent element of Celtic tradition will build firm foundations here in these far western lands uniting with the already present rich Irish and Scottish music and Celtic games we know so well.

As we prepare for the music and Saturday events along with special appearances by authors during the week of the Left Coast Eisteddfod and Wordstock, the annual book fair for the Pacific Northwest. each of you figure in the preparation process. A part of the effort involves updates on sponsorship and fundraising. We have prepared to enter two bids for grants, have commissioned an authentic Welsh Love Spoon for online auction, and need your assistance to garner support by voting in the grant process for the Meriwether Lewis Memorial Eisteddfod Foundation--our non-profit organization. You can vote for us in the first of these by clicking on the button at the top of the page. More details can be found on this page:- http://americymru.ning.com/profiles/blogs/please-vote-for-the-left-coast . All we need is your vote!!

As many of you well know, the Celtic revolt has come to North America with the revival of the Welsh Eisteddfod in North America! Our first event, the Left Coast Eisteddfod, Portland, Oregon, Oct 4-9, with main events from 7-9, features music and the bardic arts. This is the first of what we hope will be a network of eisteddfodau throughout North America. What we do with the Left Coast Eisteddfod will affect the spread of traditional eisteddfodau elsewhere.

As one might expect of the Welsh, here in North America, an eisteddfod or cultural festival, is about where we are, not an imagined past in another land. So, while cross-Atlantic ties form an essential element, our festival is about life in the western regions of North America infused with Celtic themes from both Europe and the Americas.

We will be sending out regular updates about how we can pull together to launch our new appreciation of Celtic culture and the bardic arts, not only here in North America, but as our part in the broader world-wide movement for Celtic Revival. This period is critical to creating an successful event for everyone, particularly those traveling thousands of miles and kilometers to attend and help make history.

Yours in Land, Sea, and Sky,

Dean Edwards

Left Coast Eisteddfod, Western North American Gorsedd, and North American Druidry Information is available on AmeriCymru.ning.com and in Facebook on the AmeriCymru Left Coast Eisteddfod page, the Left Coast Eisteddfod group, in Civic Druidry, and various groups of North American Druidry.