Heritage Days & Welsh Fest Smashing Sucess

On March 24^th of this year, for the first time in over 100 years, Welsh was heard spoken on the streets of Rockmart, Georgia. The St. David’s Welsh Society of Georgia joined with the Rockmart Historical Museum, the Rockmart Public Library and the Euharlee Valley Historical Society to organize and stage the first Rockmart Heritage Days and Welshfest and based on the reception it is now being called the First Annual Heritage Days & Welshfest.

The day started with the dedication of the Rockmart Historical Museum, housed in the historic old Municipal building. The museum features displays and information from all periods and groups in the city’s history. The Welsh Society presented an 1804 Welsh language Bible and a Hymnal to Jean Laltrello, museum co-ordinator as part of the dedication ceremony. The building is just one of the local public buildings being remodelled by the city to be put new uses instead of being either left vacant or torn down.

The festival brought together a wide cross section of community based organizations in this city of about 4000 people in west Georgia.  The local community chorus did a concert of favourite Hymns all set to Welsh Hymn tunes and the Arts Council painted the Draig Goch on local slate and Welsh dragons on children’s faces. Euharlee Valley group offered a wide variety of information on the founding of this area of west Georgia, especially the coming of the Welsh and the founding of the Welsh Chapel.

The Welsh Society offered a mix of fun and education will help residents better understand the rich heritage of Wales and of the Welsh presence in the Rockmart area. Welsh-born Jenny Hubbard Young led a class on how to speak some basic Welsh Phrases to 9 energetic festival goers.  The local market may have a run on lamb chops and leeks after a very entertaining Welsh cooking class.

The Welsh Society's President, Karl Welsher, said: "Our information booth offered a wide selection of free information on Wales and the Welsh and a collection of Welsh gifts as well.”   The Ninnau, the Welsh American Newspaper, provided free copies of their newspaper for festival goers. Next to the information booth, a Taste of Wales table was set up with samples for everyone to try; the salted almonds made with Halen Mon’s smoked sea salt stole the show.

The Euharlee Valley Historical Association proudly showed off the renovated Van Wert Welsh Chapel during the afternoon. Esther Stroud, a former resident of the Welsh colony in Patagonia and native Welsh speaker, in her Welsh costume joined Civil War enactors to lead tours to highlight some of the many Welsh and Civil War graves in the chapel’s cemetery.  The St. David’s Welsh Society recently decorated many of the graves with Welsh flags.

The Atlanta area Celtic band ‘the Ballybeg Band’ along with Welsh folksinger David Llewellyn provided an afternoon musical entertainment at the daylong festival. Earlier in the day, Harpist Linda Carter provided musical backdrop to those visiting the Historical Museum.