History of the Celtic Blue Rock Festival
The festival is held on the tranquil Llanfyrnach fields straddling the county border between Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire. CBR Festival has over 8,500 loyal supporters with volunteers, sponsors, artists, performers, traders for whom the Celtic Blue Rock Community Arts project has become an extraordinary event on their annual events calendar. This is the only event of its kind in south west Wales where performers, artists, volunteers and organisers give their time totally free of charge.
Pre HistoricThe site of the festival is ancient Mooreland and has evidence of settlements dating back to the Iron Age. The myths of the Celtic Warriors – “Mabinogion” and tales of the Celtic underworld of Annwn mention the Preseli Hills and areas close to the festival field. As with the ancient people the modern day communities from around the festival site believe in the impotence of supporting your neighbour and safeguarding your community. The Celtic Welsh Language continues to be the prominent language of the area and can be heard on the festival field with bands performing in Welsh. The Preseli Blue Stones were beloved to have magical healing powers and transported in pre historic times to form the inner circle of standing stones in Stone Henge. There is a Standing Blue Stone on the festival filed. Supporters of the festival have now development of a Healing Zone within the festival which again connects us with the ancient heritage.
Pre Celtic Blue Rock
After a few years of being in the wilderness of attending outdoor festivals, Bill Davies a local farmer, was watching the Glastonbury Festival on the television in June 1997 and suddenly decided that he would attend the 1998 Event and along with his wife Eirlys made the journey to Somerset and realised what he had missed all those years. In the year 2000 they decided to try and become part of the Glastonbury Event by applying to be traders and were indeed lucky to be offered a pitch for the now famous Tea and Toast stand. This experience proved to be exactly what he required to decide that an out door event would be beneficial to West Wales music scene.
2001
In 2001 Bill Davies applied for an Occasional public entertainment license for a festival in July 2002. There were objections from the Police, Fire Authority and local authority departments so the application went before the Licensing Committee. The Responsible authorities had three concerns regarding the 2003 Festival, It was held next to an industrial haulage yard, there were power lines crossing the venue and they had concerns it was a two day event. Bill Davies promised the committee that if he could not implement all the conditions within the Licence, if granted, that the Event would not go ahead. The Licensing committee granted the Licence for the Festival. Bill Davies realised that some of the conditions within the Licence could not be implemented in time for the end of July and therefore kept his promise to the Licensing committee and cancelled the Festival.
2003
In 2003 Bill Davies, again applied for an Occasional Public entertainment Licence for a one day Festival on a different part of the farm to be held on 26th July. This change was to eliminate the concerns showed by the Responsible authorities. The new venue was away from any industrial yard had no power lines crossing the Arena and would be a one day Event. The 999 capacity Licence was granted, for an event named "The West Wales Rock and Blues Festival." All the conditions on the licence was met. The Event was attended by 380 people and 80 staff and performers.
2004
In 2004 Bill Davies who was a Hermon Primary School Governor representing the Crymych Community Council, realised that the full to capacity school was being forced to close by the Pembrokeshire Local Authority. Since all local Parents and friends of the school were prepared to fight the closure in the High Court in London, it was decided that any profit from the 2004 Festival at Trefawr would go towards the save the school fund. A committee of twelve was formed for organising the Festival. The twelve members between them had a vast amount of knowledge for arranging an Event such as this. The name of the new event would be The Celtic Blue Rock Community Arts Festival. The Event would be a Free community Festival with a capacity of 999 but there would be an envirnomental charge of £10 for car parking which would go towards the cost of running the Event and a system such as this would also encourage car sharing. Although the entertainment was only for 12 hours on Saturday, on the advice of the Licensing team of Pembrokeshire county council the public were allowed to camp overnight. A transient total of 1220 attended the Event throughout the Saturday with a total of £2400 raised for the school fund. All the volunteers including all committee members gave their time for free and also the Bands that played on the stage also gave their talent free of charge.
2005
The 2005 Event saw an increased in capacity to 2500. This was as a result of the Blue Rock Festival, fast becoming a popular event across all sections of the community. The actual attendance was excellent again having a free entry Festival and a transient audience. The Festival was now increasing the site area as the Kids entertainment and workshops area, the craft area, the Eco zone and festival markets were increasing. The site was now approximately 11 hectares including car parking and camping.
By the Autumn of 2005 the B
enefit Gigs that the Celtic Blue Rock Festival were organising in the local village halls were becoming popular by both performers and audience and were instrumental in covering the small loss that the Festival suffered in August 2005.
By the Autumn of 2005 the B
enefit Gigs that the Celtic Blue Rock Festival were organising in the local village halls were becoming popular by both performers and audience and were instrumental in covering the small loss that the Festival suffered in August 2005.2006
Before the 2006 Celtic Blue Rock Festival, the Country had seen the introduction of the new Licensing Act 2003 which meant that the Festival committee applied for a Premises Licence for Land at Trefawr, Llanfyrnach. The new Licence was for a 4999 capacity Event. The Event had now increased the licensable activities by providing Friday and Saturday Entertainment which proved to be a popular way forward. The amount of Caravans and Camper vans entering the site had increased from previous years and the organisers had to open their overflow area for the increased camping requirements. The Event was attended by 4500 people again the audience was transient. By now there were five live music venues within Licensed area. The musicians were almost all from the West Wales three Counties. By now the Celtic Blue Rock Festival was attracting a large number of market stalls and caterers, and along with the very popular Children's workshops and Entertainment zone, Craft, Eco, Displays, demonstrations and street performers the Event was especially attractive to a Family audience. The committee decided that any surplus money from the Event would go to the Make a Wish charity and they were invited to the Festival to fund raise from their own stall. A total of £1600 was presented to the Make a wish Foundation at the Celtic Blue Rock Festival AGM.
2007
In June 2007 the Celtic Blue Rock Festival was granted a new Licence by the Local authority which allowed a 9,999 capacity and during the Event there were 7,500 festival goers attending. Each visitor had to have a voucher many of which were purchased prior to the event and were exchanged for a coloured wristband on site. The Celtic Blue Rock team of almost 500 volunteers put on an amazing show, festival goers, performers and volunteers alike enjoyed themselves and feedback from the event was absolutely positive. In 2007 CBR generated over £500k for the local economy and raised the profile of perfomers.
The CBR waste policy for the 2007 is now used by CYLCH an all Wales Recycling Agency as a case study blueprint policy for their small events guide. This was printed in early 2008 and has been distributed throughout Wales and has been passed to other event organisers throughtout the UK.
2008
Early in 2008 a series of banner design and production workshops, funded by Dyfed-Powys Police, were run by two festival volunteers who worked with Llanelli's DRR probation art group. The results of these workshops were unveiled on site and donated to the community festival’s 'Kidzone' and the 'Craft Area'. Over 7,800 people attended the 2008 event with over 100 acts performing over the three days. Although the weather was very much against us the feedback was once again very positive with early requests for tickets and trading pitches for the following years event.
Celtic Blue Rock exists solely to give the local community a platform to stage, perform, participate and enjoy three days of entertainment across a broad spectrum that would otherwise be unobtainable for many. Figures just released (October 14th 2008) show that Cardigan tops the county’s child poverty league. CBR Festival is dedicated to offering an open-to-all event, keeping a free event policy for those aged 12 and under while helping to alleviate child poverty and exclusion period.
2009
The crowd that came to the Fesival in 2009 were confronted by an amazing array of entertainment in the extended site, including the Cromlech big open-air stage, the wonderful Glam Rock Bar, the colourful Annwn stage. Also the long list of West Wales talented bands on the Rhiannon and Taliesin stages while top acoustic sets were performed at the Derwen marquee. The Dance tent was as popular as ever. Also at the Festival were the Transmutants with their wacky style vehicles and weird and wonderful wandering minstrels. The Craft, Kidz and Eco areas were making a real impact on the families and friends that were there. All of this was acheaved during the worst Summer storms ever.
To be continued….