Being a non-Welsh speaking Welsh person at a Welsh music gig

A trip to Llandeilo to the Gwilym Bowen Rhys Trio and Cadog

This weekend I went to see the Gwilym Bowen Rhys Trio (with support from Cadog) at a cafe in Llandeilo, a town about 40 minutes from Swansea.

I’ve seen a few Welsh language gigs recently, but this was the first one I’ve been to when the staff, crowd and bands spoke exclusively in Welsh.

I know a tiny bit of Welsh, but not enough to have a conversation. I probably understood less than 1% of the lyrics (and the chats that happen between the songs).

Growing up, I was sometimes around Welsh speakers. My grandparents and some of my cousins spoke Welsh. But generally it’s quite rare for me to hear people speaking it these days. Less then 30% of people in Wales can speak Welsh and I think it's less in Swansea.

I find listening to Welsh comforting, like I’m connecting with family and roots. But I also felt a bit embarrassed. It was a humbling feeling to be in my own country and not speak its language.

But, we were made to feel very welcome and anyone who chatted to us quickly switched to English when they could see our puzzled faces.

It reminded me that it’s a privilege to speak English and to be able to go anywhere and be understood.

You don’t need to understand the language being sung to enjoy music of course. It also helps that the band are amazing, the trio were made up of a singer on guitar, banjo and harmonica, a violinist and a harpist. They played some beautifully raw folk songs, that I think were a mix of traditional folk songs and new stuff they'd written.

Even though I’m not a Welsh speaker, I’m a proud Welsh person and it made think about what it means to be Welsh. And how Wales’s culture, identity and language are all connected. This is probably spurred on by listening to the For Wales, See Wales podcast recently.

I think it’s fair to say that a lot of non-Welsh speaking Welsh people look down on Welsh culture. It’s seen as twee and old fashioned. Or maybe too closely tied to feelings of exclusivity and nationalism. And I think this extends to a lot of people’s feeling about the Welsh Government.

But I’m hopeful things can improve. It feels like there is some momentum behind Welsh music at the moment, with bands like Adwaith getting picked up by the mainstream UK press. And I’m sure that music can be a gateway into Welsh language and culture for lots of people.

And finally, as someone who designs services that the public interact with, it made me think about what it must be like for people who live in the UK but don’t speak English as a first language. No surprise to anyone that there is a lot of improvement needed in this area.