Once a year, a four-day North American Festival of Wales is held in North America over the
Labor Day weekend. The festival starts on Thursday night with an opening ceremony and concert. The weekend continues with an evening
banquet sponsored by the North America Wales Foundation on Friday and a Saturday concert, generally featuring a Welsh male voice choir and soloists, both from Wales. Sunday is the defining day of the four-day festival which begins with a
bilingual church and memorial service. After a brief intermission, this service is followed by afternoon and evening sessions of the Gymanfa Ganu itself. A unique feature of the gymanfa ganu is the seating separation of
alto,
soprano,
tenor, and
bass singers into sections for the four-part harmony singing. And while the Gymanfa Ganu is conducted with the dignity of a church service, it is not unknown for the musical conductor to stop the singing when one or more of the voice sections wanders from the desired harmony and needs special attention. Interspersed between the formal proceedings are frequent sessions of spontaneous singing of favorite hymns. A Welsh
marketplace, offering Welsh products, artifacts, souvenirs, recordings, and books, is also available during the days of the festival. The
Welsh North American Association is the main organizational body responsible for putting on the event. ==See also==