Last Saturday and Sunday the Colorado Welsh Society participated in the Colorado Scottish Festival in Highlands Ranch.   I believe that this was our strongest showing at any festival to date.   Our booth looked good and the Colorado welsh Society Folk Dancers performed on both Saturday and Sunday.   Another highlight of the festival was John Good, half of the Phoenix based musical group “Oceans Apart”, coming over to our booth on Sunday afternoon and playing the Welsh Bagpipes for about 15 minutes.   John is originally from S. Wales and is probably the only player of the Welsh Bagpipes in the USA – yes there really are Welsh bagpipes!!!   John and Oceans apart will be coming back to Colorado for the Estes Park games, so you still have an opportunity to hear these unique pipes in person.   The feedback we get from the organizers and other participants such as the Clans is that the Welsh Society belongs at this festival, we are a Celtic Nation and they welcome our increased activity each year.

        Pictures of our booth are attached and dance pictures will follow soon, showing the dancers new skirts, phase one of planned more authentic costumes for the group.

        I would like to thank all those who helped make this weekend a success :
Carol Baxter – Dancer
Betty Brown – Booth
Nanci Craig – Booth and Sound Assistant
Richard DeTar – Dancer and Booth
Alan and Victoria Evans – Dancers, this was Victoria’s first performance
      with the group, unfortunately Alan had to sit this time out due to
      injury but is hoping to make his debut at Estes Park.
Judith James – Dancer and Booth
Sam Kuntz – Dancer and Booth
Rhonda Lyles – Dance Group Director
John and Kate Merkling – Dancers also making their debut performance,
      thanks also to their son Neil for sound assistance on Saturday.
Powie and Virginia Moncure – Dancers, also making their debut
      performance
Dennis Spindle – Last minute substitute dancer
Dale Summers – Booth
Brigid Warnock – Booth

        Special thanks must to Rhonda for leading the dance group rehearsals through the year, and to Kate, Judith and Virginia for making the skirts, and to Ron Tomacik and Terri for providing live accompaniment for some of the dances.

        I would also like to thank those members of the society who came to the festival to watch the dancers thank you; we appreciate your support.   We would enjoy seeing more of you on the festival grounds, at the booth or cheering on the dancers.   By increasing our visibility we can attract more members and grow our activities.   Hopefully we will see you in Estes Park in September – join us for the parade.

Hwyl – Elis.