Malad Valley Welsh Festival

The Malad Valley Welsh Festival takes place on the last Thursday, Friday and Saturday of every June. This year it falls on June 28-30.
“Today Malad Valley has the largest per capita concentration of people of Welsh ancestry outside the country of Wales itself,” said Jean Thomas, the Welsh Festival chairperson. “For that reason, many residents of the Valley wanted to reestablish their Welsh roots. In 2005, after a 90 year break, this annual cultural event, now called the Malad Valley Welsh Festival, once again became a reality,”
Thursday is Family History Day. Ladder Day Saint family historians from Salt Lake City will hold a workshop at the LDS Stake Center. The workshop specializes in Welsh, Irish and English family history and offers lunch to those who attend.
Friday, food stalls and homemade craft booths are set up in the city park. That afternoon at the park, the senior citizen center will host a community lunch.
Later that night, four musical performances will perform at the amphitheater in the city park: a women's choral group called Reflections; the Malad community choral group, run by Ralph Bennett; the elementary 4th grade choir and another youth choir.
There will be speakers at the amphitheater Friday and Saturday talking about Welsh history. Dr. Ron Dennis will speak on the persecution that drove people to the Malad Valley. Lucie Washbern will play the harp then speak on why the harp is important in Welsh history. Erin Thomas, a collage professor from California, wrote a book about the area in Wales where most of the ancestors from Malad are from. She will present her book and then have a book signing. Debra Baldwin, a part time professor at Utah State University, will teach a workshop in the Welsh language.
“My favorite part of the festival is the speakers,” Jean Thomas said. “I always learn brand new information that I never knew.”
The following activities will be available to the public throughout Friday and Saturday. There will be a quilt show at the Senior Citizen Center sponsored by the Oneida Quilters Association. The Iron Door Play House will show a film festival of Welsh documentaries. The Oneida Pioneer Museum is open and Luke Waldron will be conducting tours of the Osmond cabin where Olive May Osmond was raised. Pedigree charts and family heirlooms from 15 of the original Welsh pioneer families are displayed in the cultural hall of the LDS 2nd Ward building and tours of the 130-year-old Presbyterian church are held.
Saturday morning the festival committee will host a community breakfast at the city park. Also that morning, a Biathlon will take place in town, organized by Bobby Summers.
All day musicians and dancers will perform on the amphitheater in the park. Celtic musicians called Leaping Lulu are playing along with two other bands. Traditional Celtic dance groups from Boise and Logan will perform and a piano duet concert is also scheduled to happen later that day.
“Every year there are new singers performing, people presenting and dancers dancing,” said Debbie Horsley, Welsh Festival committee member. “It makes every year better than the last one.”
A horse drawn wagon ride takes tourists to historical sites throughout Malad for the duration of Saturday. Rob and Sherrie Wangsgard will drive the wagon ride while Larry Thomas and two other town historians take turns narrating.
“We love meeting all of the fun people and kids that are back visiting and have old family stories about the town to tell,” Sherry Wangsgard said.
There will also be heritage and pioneer games for kids to learn and play all day. The games are sponsored by the Malad Middle School Math Counts Club — supervised by Tracy Ward and Kathy Atkinson.
To wrap up the festival, a male vocal concert is held at the Presbyterian church on Sunday.
Each year the festival committee tries to spread word of the event by local radio, magazines and newspapers. This year they are trying to branch out to media around Salt Lake City in the hope that more people will attend the event.
The record of people to attend the festival is 1800. Last year only 1400 people attended. This year, the committee hopes to have more people come than ever before.