14 choirs descended upon Llandudno this weekend for the 21st annual North Wales Choral Festival. The festival warmed up on Friday evening with a concert by Loreto Secondary School from Co Cork, Ireland at the St George’s Hotel. Other choirs from around the UK & Ireland joined them in the Daytime Competition on Saturday, competing in 4 classes: Youth, Mixed, Ladies & Male Voice. Choirs were allowed to sing 2 songs each to a panel of adjudicators, who then chose a winner from each class to go forward and take part in the Evening Winners concert.

The first choirs to face the adjudicators were from the Youth class, wghich included Anglesey’s Côr Ieuenctid Môn; Loreto Secondary School, Ireland; Lyndon Vocal Ensemble, Colwyn Bay and their older counterparts Rydal Penrhos. The adjudicators commended all of the choirs on the sincerity of their performances, but named Côr Ieuenctid Môn as class winners.

The second class up was the Mixed section, which included The Cahirmee Singers from Ireland; Cantorion Rhos, Wrexham; The Liffey Choir, Ireland and last year’s class winners Côr Y Gleision of Cardiff. Again, the quality of all the choirs was extremely high, however, another North Walian choir: Cantorion Rhos were chosen to progress to the evening concert.

After lunch it was the turn of the Ladies choirs, including: Côr Merched Bro Nest, South Wales; Glenalua Singers, Ireland and the Sonata Ladies choir, again from Ireland. All of the choirs performed valiantly, but only one could go through, with Côr Merched Bro Nest being chosen as class winners.

The final group of the day was the Male Voice class and this turned out to be the closest of the day with the Betws-yn-Rhos MVC, Kidderminster Male Choir and Co. Sligo Golf Club MVC all competing against each other. All of the choirs brought something different to this class, with performances ranging from traditional Welsh arrangements to Sea Shanty’s and even a rendition of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody thrown in for good measure. Both of the losing choirs could count themselves unlucky , as either could have won the section on another day, however, a decision had to be made and the Co Sligo Golf Club Male Voice Choir took Ireland’s hopes through to the evening concert.

All of the winning choirs came back full of energy on Saturday evening, which was transmitted to the audience who gave the arena in Venue Cymru an electric atmosphere. Each choir was given 15 minutes singing time in front of the adjudicators before they were presented with their winners trophies by Cllr Glyn Jones, Chairman of Conwy County Borough Council.

All of the choirs supported each other throughout the festival, which was played out in a marvellous spirit. At the end of the day though, there had to be a winner and after much deliberation the adjudicators chose Co Sligo Golf Club Male Voice Choir as the 2008 North Wales Choral Festival Overall Winners. They were ecstatic with their win, as were the audience who nearly took the roof off at the announcement!

The festival is continuing to grow and couldn’t take place without the support of its sponsors: Conwy County Borough Council, Stena Line, North Wales Pioneer, Pianos Cymru, Design 2 Print and the St George’s Hotel. More sponsors are always welcome to help the festival develop further and place itself firmly on the International Choral Calender.

Next year’s festival is scheduled to take place on Saturday 7th November, 2009 and there will also be other concerts throughout the town. All choirs are welcome to take part, and if you would like any further information please contact Alun Pritchard on (01492) 575948.