Sneak Peek at Wales’ Big Events for 2010
New York, NY – February 5, 2010 – Wales doesn’t like to brag, but Wales is definitely proud to be the Host Nation of golf’s premier team event – Ryder Cup Wales 2010; the home of the Hay Festival of Literature & Art, called the “Woodstock of the Mind” by Bill Clinton; the venue for Wakestock, Europe’s largest wakeboard music festival, and the Abergavenny Food Festival, noted by the Guardian as a “food festival so mystically lovely, so unspoiled and evanescent that it’s like a farmers’ market in Brigadoon.” And for something uniquely Welsh, there is the World Bog Snorkelling Championships.
Topping the news for Wales’ yearlong events calendar is Ryder Cup Wales 2010 taking place October 1-3 at the Celtic Manor Resort. Not only is this Wales’ first time hosting golf’s most important team event, it is the first time in Ryder Cup history that the host resort created a course specifically for the event. Celtic Manor’s Twenty Ten course and club house, built at a cost of ВЈ16 million, is designed to provide a supreme challenge to the world’s best players in match play conditions. Ryder Cup packages are available and the course is open to the public for play. Visit www.rydercupwales2010.com and www.golfasitshouldbe.com.
Entering its 22nd year, The Hay Festival of Literature & Art, set for May 27 -June 6, 2010, is the planet’s most happening literary festival and the place to be for all things bookish. The list of Hay attendees is a who’s who of the most acclaimed authors as well as philosophers, politicians, poets, actors and rockers. Check out www.hayfestival.com
Abersoch on Cardigan Bay in North Wales hosts Wakestock, Europe’s largest wakeboard and music festival. This year’s Wakestock Festival takes place from
July 2 – 4, 2010. Check out www.wakestock.co.uk to catch the wave and feel the vibe.
Food-loving travelers (who isn’t?) seeking a mouth-watering, down-to-earth, commercial-free Welsh food festival should mark their calendars for September 18th and 19th, 2010, the dates for the 12th annual Abergavenny Food Festival, a fabulous mix of ingredients and people. www.abergavennyfoodfestival.com .
And for something completely different and uniquely Welsh, there is the annual World Bog Snorkelling Championships on the last weekend in August. First held 25 years ago, this uniquely Welsh sport involves a race through a 60-yard peat bog. Participants come from around the globe to don snorkels and flippers and see who can cut through the bog in record time. Bog enthusiasts may also enjoy the Bog Snorkelling Triathalon and the World Mountainbike Bog Snorkelling Championships. www.green-events.co.uk
With four sheep for every person and 641 castles in a nation the size of the state of Massachusetts, jaw-droppingly stunning scenery and the friendliest bunch of people imaginable, Wales is worth getting to know. For more events and happenings in 2010, visit www.travelwales.org .
About Wales:
1. Wales and England and Scotland are the 3 distinct countries that make up the island of Britain.
2. Wales – about the size of Massachusetts – is “a peninsula on the western flank of England, facing Ireland,” as writer Jan Morris aptly says.
3. The people of Wales are called Welsh; many still speak the ancient Welsh language (and English).
4. Wales will host golf’s Ryder Cup competition in 2010, the sporting world’s third-most watched event – October 1-3, 2010 at Celtic Manor Resort located near Newport in South Wales.
February 5, 2010
Posted in: Wales