The Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod 2005

It was July 2005. I must say that I was one of the luckiest people who flew all the way from Kuala Lumpur to step on Llangollen ground. The trip to the beautiful Welsh town was actually one of the highlights during my 10-day stay in Wales for the British Council sponsored media program in Cardiff University.

Yeah, I stayed for two nights in Llangollen to witness the spectacular event - The Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod - a world-renowned festival of music, song and dance. Competitors from more than fifty countries come together for one week to stand side by side through music, while each evening the Pavilion plays hosts to concerts by world-class artists.

It is a week long event (sadly I wasn't there for the whole 7 days), usually starting on the Tuesday, and ending on the Sunday of the same week. During the week, people from all over the world take part in musical and dancing competitions.

A parade, led by the Llangollen Silver Band, is usually held on the first day of the Eisteddfod week, in which both the locals and visitors, take part dancing, singing, and playing musical instruments, whilst marching the streets of Llangollen.

Llangollen (pronouced: khlang-gokh-len) is a small town in Denbighshire, north-east Wales, situated on the River Dee and on the edge of the Berwyn mountains. The town has for 60 years hosted the world event that has attracted between 2,000 and 5,000 competitors and as many as 50,000 visitors.

It was sure an overwhelming feeling as I was surrounded by so much magic! And below is the report that I submitted to my professor in School of Media, Journalism & Cultural Studies, Cardiff University.

FROM MERDEKA STADIUM TO LLANGOLLEN

INTRO: By the time I left Kuala Lumpur International Airport, in the evening of Saturday a week ago, a national celebration of Citrawarna Malaysia had just peaked to its splendour. Although I was disappointed for not being able to celebrate it, I was equally excited to attend The Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfodd.

- By HAMZAH ABDUL HAMID

In the Northeast of Wales, Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfodd is something long awaited by music lovers from all over the world especially from the Great Britain itself.

This is because the excitement of experiencing the beautiful traditional celebration organised by the organiser is a much sort of an awaiting event. Celebrated on the banks of the beautiful River Dee, the world comes to Wales and Wales welcome the world. And this is why I am here  - to celebrate diversities of culture and its uniqueness.

According to a journalist friend, and also told by some locals I met, 'Eisteddfodd' is a collective word to describe a festival and a competition. With around 3,000 years of history, this year's Eisteddfodd showcases participation and performances from more than 50 different countries.

Choirs, folk dance and classical soloist, to name a few, had taken the audience with so much enthusiasm and excitement in the 4,100 seater Pavillion.

As a platform to project Welsh entities to the world, Eisteddfodd is certainly an epitome of an effort. Apart from acknowledging the variety it delivers, there also lies an idea of emphasising the need in understanding each others differences regardless of culture, language or skin colour. It plays an important role to break the barrier of political background, and also ignorance.

On the other side of the globe, last week, Malaysians had celebrated the opening ceremony of Citrawarna Malaysia or The Colours of Malaysia in the heart of Kuala Lumpur.

It is one of the most extravaganzas that take place in the capital every year, showcasing the country's kaleidoscope of arts, culture and tradition.

Joined by a big number of participants and spectators from other South East Asia nations and as far as China and Korea, it reflects this year's theme which is 'The Colours of Asia in Malaysia'.

The grand event at the Merdeka Stadium was the kick off for a month-long celebration of the cultural diversity of the people who live in the 14 states that make up that multi-faceted country. In the past, they presented a spectacular show, with a continuous presentation of music and dance significant to their different states of cultures.

The performers entertained visitors with the exotic rhythm and movement of this magnificent mosaic of people.  For the fifth successive year, the people of Malaysia showed visitors from throughout the world that people of vastly different culture and ethnic backgrounds can live harmoniously and happily in one country.

What does this two festivals share in common? Or what message can we derive from the existence of these two celebrations? The world that we are living in today is becoming a 'global village'.

While a village traditionally refers to a small geographical area, what is happening now in this age of heightened globalisation and increase telecommunications is that time and space have been compressed. The world is now reduced to a village and what is happening in one corner of the globe affects or reaches the other corner in a blink of an eye.

Although multi-culturalism ideally refers to a high degree of tolerance and acceptance of diversity, it can also be seen as a way one cultural group (or one ethnic group) promotes its own culture and dominates others.

Thus, viewed this way, it is increasingly clear that it can lead to not only conflict, but domination and control. This is exemplified in a multi-cultural society that tends to ignore and banish any form of cultural identifications of its various cultural groups and created one so-called national identity. This so-called national identity is often the identity of the ruling group.

It is not an issue now whether multi-culturalism should be stopped or promoted. It is there to stay as it is almost difficult to find a community which exists in exile in this age of interconnectivity. Thus, an understanding of different cultures around us is important for some purposes.

Firstly, when we learn about other cultures around us, we gain insight of our own cultures as well. This enables us to compare our own culture with others and see the good and bad sides of our own culture. When we see our culture in absolute terms, there is a danger that it can lead to ethnocentrisms.

This is a situation in which we see our own practice is the best and to judge other cultures using the standard of our culture. In addition, by exposing ourselves to other cultures, we are also opening up ourselves for more choices to make in our lives.

Secondly, it avoids potential conflict due to ignorant and insensitivity to differences in other cultures. Conflict could arise in any multi-cultural society. This may be due to a lack of understanding among these cultural groups.

Without understand, there is also lack of tolerance, acceptance and respect of each other. There are many cases in which ethnic rife occurred in multi-cultural society. Ethnic cleansing and ethnic riots are some of the extreme examples of different ethnic groups not able to co0exist comfortably in one nation.

Therefore, in any multi-cultural society that stands a chance to lose its stability, be it economic stability, political stability or societal stability, each group needs to strive for a better understanding of the 'other' groups so as not to lose the stability the country enjoys.

Multi-culturalism is both positive and negative. While it fosters ethnic identity among members of its own group, if not careful, it can also breed hatred for and intolerance of diversity. One way of achieving understanding among various ethnic groups with different cultures is through education.

One of the important and effective education tools is none other than the media which is also the agent of socialisation equally important as the parents, family and schools.

Back to Eisteddfodd. I recall a moment when as I passed by a friendly group of choir girls from Trinidad and Tobago as they are waiting for their turn to perform on stage. They voluntarily cheered me up with a part of a melodious chorus.

So amused, I had to stop to capture them with my camera. So there I was, as a Malaysian, stood still on Welsh ground, listening to heavenly voice originated from an island from the Caribbean Sea.

Either it is Eisteddfodd in Llangollen or Citrawarna in Malaysia, the shared objective is to unite all type of people  from every single part of the world to listen, to experience and to cherish the true colours of unity and sincerity projected by one another.

When it comes to music, song, dance and arts, the world is an open stage for everyone to appreciate the flow of the universal language as well as to reward their senses.

I strongly believe that the only way to create a better place for human race is to accept our differences, rather than wasting our time looking for similarities.