THE National Eisteddfod is coming to the Vale of Glamorgan in August 2012.

The Pink Pavilion and the many temporary structures that make up this vast annual national festival will be found on the airfield site in Llandow.

But first this coming weekend sees the Proclamation Ceremony in Barry. On Saturday (June 25) in King Square, schools and choirs will perform from 10.30am with the main Parade of the Gorsedd from 2.30pm.

No-one is more excited than Kay Holder, originally from Penarth, who had worked outside Wales for many years but came back to volunteer at the vegan stand in the Eisteddfod when it was in Cardiff in 2008.

She was so inspired by the Welsh culture so brilliantly demonstrated there, and the warmth of the welcome of Welsh speakers, that she decided to learn Welsh.

Initially teaching herself in England, Kay came home last year with the aim of achieving fluency and was so successful in this ambition that she has not only been named Welsh Learner of the Year by the National Institute for Adult Continuing Education, but chosen to be in the final four from whom the Welsh Learner of the Year in this year’s National Eisteddfod in Wrexham will be chosen.

The Proclamation Ceremony on Saturday will be held in Gladstone Gardens, Barry, with the traditional parade of the Gorsedd of Bards and other Welsh celebrities.

To be invited to join the Gorsedd is something similar to the Welsh honours list, and Kay looks forward to seeing many new faces on Saturday, who will share the welcome she experienced, and perhaps be inspired to share her passion for the language and music of Wales.

The Proclamation weekend concludes with a televised Dechrau Canu Dechrau Canmol in St Augustine’s Church on Sunday, June 26, at 8pm.

Kay will be singing proudly in the Eisteddfod Choir which will lead the singing of well-known hymns and will also sing Gogoniant i’r Ior (Halleluiah Chorus) and a setting of Salm 23 by one of the conductors Euros Rhys Evans.

You are invited to join in the congregational singing. Please come early to facilitate the recording. The programme will be shown on S4C later in the year.

“Croeso mawr i bawb”