Malad Welsh Festival

I've wanted to go to the Malad Welsh Festival for years, but we always had something come up the one weekend in June that it's been held. This year, however, our neighbor and friend Sheila Hadden asked Seth if he'd be able and willing to play Welsh music with her as part of the musical entertainment at the festival, so we put it on our calendar and made a little trip of it.

Malad City was settled by Welsh Latter-day Saints, so several years ago the city decided to start a festival honoring those settlers. Sheila has attended for years and is, I believe, in charge of the music. She and Seth started practicing their Welsh music (Sheila on fiddle; Seth on guitar) months before the festival itself. Since Seth has Welsh Latter-day Saint ancestors, it was a good fit to have him come.

We left town on Thursday, June 27 and only had to stop twice to fix our trailer that we were hauling to the Devil Creek Reservoir campground: once to secure the window in the master bedroom that was flopping around in the wind, and once to use a hefty amount of duct tape to secure the siding that had start to peel as we drove. Thank goodness we had that duct tape under the dinette, or I'm not sure what we would have done.

Ana stayed home because she had a summer choir rehearsal over the weekend, but Seth, Miriam, Winnie and I got to our campsite and parked the trailer and got it ready before eating some dinner and going to bed.

Eating udon at the campground Thursday evening.

Winnie wading in the reservoir before going to bed.

The next day, we went to Malad to see all the sights: displays in the church with details about Malad's settlers, vendor booths at the city park, a walk to the Oneida Pioneer Museum and a nearby thrift store, a carriage ride (pulled by trucks instead of horses) through downtown Malad, multiple musical performers including Seth and Sheila, a drive out to Samaria to look through their pioneer park. That evening Seth, Winnie and I swam around in the reservoir back in the campground before going to bed.

Seth looking through his music in the trailer before driving in to Malad.

Checking out the displays in the church gym.

One of the vendors had pillows with place names and family names from around the area. I thought it was cool that they had both "Stone" and "Neal."

Miriam looking through a stereoscope at the Oneida Pioneer Museum.

The apron we found at the thrift store that fit Miriam's birth order situation perfectly.

Seth singing and playing. Some of their songs were instrumental, but some Seth sang ... mostly in English but a couple in Welsh.

Sheila and Seth on stage at the park with the Welsh flag in the foreground.

Winnie recording Seth's performance on my phone while Miriam watches.

Seth taking a rest after his set.

Riding the carriage.

Petting the lambs at the Pioneer Park in Samaria.

Playing in the reservoir. When the boats went by, it was fun to bounce around in their wakes.

Saturday we woke up, had breakfast and got the trailer hooked back up to the truck and pulled it into Malad with us. Grandma and Grandpa Scott showed up. They had invited my cousin Dennis and his wife Kathleen to spend some time with them, so they came over from Stone. My other cousin Lucinda and her husband Dave just happened to be at the festival this day as well since they had grandkids who had entered the art contest. Then Grandma Susan and Grandma Hendricks showed up.

Miriam spent a good chunk of the morning working on her summer school class. She signed up for a trimester of freshman biology over the summer, and with our D.C. trip, softball and all her other activities, she had to fit classwork in whenever and wherever she could. The utilized the campground and church wifi while we were out of town.

We spent more time at the booths (Miriam got a 3D printed Christus and a pocket watch from a thrift shop; Winnie got a 3D printed dragon and Seth bought me a 3D printed nativity set) and took a tour of the Presbyterian church in town, then watched Seth and Sheila perform the same set list as Friday.

Grandma Hendricks was very touched by the music that Seth and Sheila played. She said she hadn't heard some of the songs they played since her mom used to sing them to her as a little girl. (Grandma's mother Lula had heard the songs from her mother who immigrated from Wales when she was a little girl.) It was a very touching experience, and Grandma said she felt very close to her mother that day.

We bought food at the Taste of Wales booth. The sampler included cheddar cheese, cold leek soup, tea bread, a meatball and ... maybe one more thing? The best thing in there was definitely the tea bread, which was some sort of sweetbread with cranberries in it. The rest of it was fairly bland. I guess the Welsh aren't known for their food. Then the girls got to pick their real lunch from one of the food trucks, and they both chose mac and cheese from a barbecue place. It turned out to be a little warm for Winnie (it had cayenne in it), but at least she really liked the pulled pork on top of it.

Before we called it good for the weekend, Winnie changed into her swimming suit and participated in the Malad wrestling team dunk booth. She got dunked

Overall the Welsh festival was an enjoyable experience. I hope we can work it into our summer schedule in the future.