North American Festival of Wales (NAFOW) 2017 in Rochester NY

Is anybody else planning to attend the North American Festival of Wales (NAFOW), which will be held this year in Rochester, New York, over Labor Day weekend (August 31st - September 3rd, 2017)?

I’ll be there, and thanks to the generosity of the NAFOW organizers, I’ll again be setting up a SSIW table in the “marketplace” and running a couple of SSIW taster sessions. Various combinations of SSIWers have done all those before, very successfully. You can read about them in this article I wrote about the SSIW table at NAFOW 2015 (doubleclick on the article to magnify it for easy reading).

It would be great to have SSIWers – at any level! – spend some time sitting at the table just to chat with folks and tell them about the course and that yes, it really is possible to learn Welsh sitting in your living room in Ohio or Florida or Alberta. No stress, no rigid schedule. Just, you know, come hang out. I’ll bring handouts and such.

I’m also exciting to announce that NAFOW 2018 will be in my town, Washington DC (well, okay, it’ll be in the Virginia suburbs of DC)! I am really, really interested in having good language-related seminars as part of “our” NAFOW. Welsh has become one of the most dynamic and active elements of our local society.

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Good to promote this in the next email, @Deborah-SSi? :slight_smile: :star2:

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Wow - that is quite a testament to your energy, and that of others that you have inspired / been inspired by. Da iawn, Diane!

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Diolch, Iestyn. What is is, I’d say, is a proof of concept that we have taken to heart in our local Society: The way to get events going, and keep them alive, is for one or two people with a passion for them to make them a personal project.

We started with me, another learner (non-SSIW), and a native speaker having a beer in a local Irish bar, and then we drove that forward. We have been enthusiastic about promoting our Welsh language conversation group anywhere we can – at local Celtic festivals, on our Facebook page, at every meeting of our larger Society, and of course here on SSIW. I and that other learner have attended almost every group gathering for the past 6 or 7 years. Consistency matters and pulls in other people.

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Annwyl Tahl,

That sounds great! I live in Bermuda,which is less than two hours by air from D.C. My wife Wynne is from Wales and we will be taking our children and grandchildren there for July. My parents were also from Wales. We probably will be unable to attend the meeting in Rochester but would
like to learn more about the meeting in Northern Va. and your Welsh Society.

Hywel.

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Dear Tahl,

My wife and I are planning to come to Rochester for the festival. We saw a flyer for it at the NAFOW tent at the National Eisteddfod in Abergavenny last August, and as it happens our younger son lives in Rochester.

I don’t know if we’ll be able to sit at the table for a long time; we’ll be visiting our son that weekend too. But we will certainly say hello and chat for a while. Hope you have a lovely day.

Morgan L Evans

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Terrific! Yes, as we have more info to share about NAFOW 2018 Washington, I’ll definitely put it here. You can also keep an eye on www.nafow.org. Right now that’s all about Rochester, but it will switch after September.

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(Sorry for the poor formatting of replies – I’m using an out of date browser, and can only see a few of the Forum’s buttons.)

Morgan, it’ll be great to meet you in Rochester. I won’t be at the table full time either – in fact I’ll be more often at the table next door to it, with info on NAFOW 2018 Washington – but I’m sure we’ll find time to connect. :slight_smile:

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No worries re: reply formatting. It looks fine to me. It’s not outside the realm of possibility that we’ll show up in DC in 2018 as well. We live in southcentral PA, so that’s even a closer drive for us than Rochester.

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So, NAFOW 2017 starts next week! Anybody other than Morgan & his wife planning to attend?

Look for the SSIW table in the Marketplace. There will be some SSIW logo stickers – wear one, and maybe you’ll find another closeted SSIWer! – and I’ll be running two SSIW meetups/taster sessions (Fri 5:00-6:00, Sun noon-1:00, in the Strong Boardroom).

If I’m not at the SSIW table or the NAFOW 2018 Washington DC table next to it, I’ll be wandering around somewhere. I look more or less like my profile pic. :slight_smile: Please do say hi!

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Diolch o galon i ti, Diane! :star: :star2:

Bydda i’n dod â fy nghwraig a fy mab ddydd Sul. Dydy nhw ddim yn siarad Cymraeg, ond dw i’n gobeithio bod nhw’n ffeindio fo’n ddiddorol.

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Great, so you’re coming to sing in the Gymanfa Ganu? That’s what’s on on Sunday.

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I hope all’s going well for you @tahl and the sprained ankle is holding up OK. Don’t overdo things!

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Wnaethwn ni. Wnes i mwynhau’r canu yn fawr, ond wnaeth fy nghwraig yn meddwl fod o’n dipyn rhy hir.

How did it go? Any feedback? Hope the ankle let you enjoy it @tahl

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@tahl If I owe NAFOW and the SSiW stand for all the signatures on the petition for decent funding for S4C, and the really meaningful comments, mainly from Portland, Oregon, but elsewhere too… well D iolch yn fawr iawn, iawn! Any chance of pictures one year?