As we come to the end of our run of summer fesivals, we look back once again at days well spent. At laughter, enlightenment, and hangovers from hell. One friend that has been missing from our lives this year, however, has been Chris Watson. Without him there have been no hippos laughing, no volcanoes erupting, no terraces chanting and no hungry vultures picking zebra carcasses clean.
Thankfully, we were able to nab him for our last hurrah of the season – The Good Life Experience – where he’ll be closing our stage on Sunday evening with a brand new 60-minute presentation entitled ‘Swnt Enlli – The Dragon’s Path’.
Bridge over Afon Dyfi. Artist unkown
In Chris’s words, this is what we can expect:
“Imagine rainfall gathering on the hills above Hawarden and starting a journey into the West; tiny rivulets of clear water seeking a way through sphagnum moss, sedge grass and turf which is mashed and trampled under the claws of black grouse as they jump, bubble and hiss in ritualistic displays.
Below, the tree line and a deep, dark wall of conifers hosting an unseen community of needle songs in the canopy high above. The mood changes with the failing light an hour before sunset, when Bran the raven returns with his ancient cousins Huggin and Munnin, Odin’s eyes and ears, their conversations punctuating the stillness long into the night.
The rainfall, now part of the meandering Afon Dyfi, wraps an arm around the oak woodlands of Ynys-hir which features a sparkling chorus the Druids would have recognised. After dark, the coded pulses of ace predators stalk these open forest glades. The estuary, caught by the tide, flows west, curlew and redshank peppering the silt and ooze by the margins.
The rainwater, now seawater, mixes and merges in Cardigan bay carrying the siren voices of grey seals into Swnt Enlli, the Sound of Bardsey. This is their island retreat where the dragon waits to battle the demons which will come out of the West after sunset.
Follow the dragon and go with the flow.”
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Chris’s performance takes place at 4pm on Sunday 18 September.
See the full lineup for our stage here. Tickets + more info available here.
