PHILADELPHIA WELSH WEEK

Breaking new ground, the North American Festival of Wales (NAFOW) and the Welsh Society of Philadelphia came up with the idea to label all NAFOW events in Philadelphia this year, plus other local Welsh events, under the umbrella title of ‘Philadelphia Welsh Week’ with almost all the events being available to the general public.

 

Many NAFOW events were organized in venues outside the Doubletree Hotel and open to the general public - concerts and performances at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts and at Macy’s; a formal launch with the mayor at City Hall; Sunday's Gymanfa Ganu in Bryn Mawr; and coach and walking tours of the area. Most of the events inside the hotel were also made available to the public with a small daily attendance fee. 

 

Added to this, the Welsh Society of Philadelphia joined with local organizations to create extra public events around NAFOW. The week opened with ‘A Welsh Tract Day’ at Fort Mifflin followed by a pre-NAFOW screening of the film ‘Mr Jones’ arranged jointly with the Philadelphia Film Society and the Honorary Consul to the Ukraine in Philadelphia. Throughout the week, seven bars and restaurants in the city center served Welsh food and cocktails. 

 

With a great line-up of Welsh events available to all, together with 300 years of history of the Welsh in Philadelphia, we jointly undertook a media outreach program to promote ‘Philadelphia Welsh Week’ working with the local PR agent Paige Wolf Public Relations. 

 

The festival was an immediate success with the media both in Philadelphia and in Wales. 'Philadelphia Welsh Week' was included in most of the local online listings and society members carried out two radio interviews, one television interview, and an in-depth interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer. Members also did interviews for Welsh news and a popular chat show on Radio Wales.