MANY hundreds attended the annual Raglan Music Festival, which took place over the course of the weekend.

People from all over the county flocked to the village for the three-day event, which was held at Raglan VC Primary School, Raglan Baptist Chapel, St Cadoc’s Church, The Ship Inn and The Beaufort, and included performances from a host of fantastic local acts and bands as well as pupils from both Raglan VC Primary school and Monmouth Comprehensive School.

The festival launched on Friday with an afternoon of musical entertainment at Raglan Primary School’s annual concert. Promoting and nurturing young talent is at the core of the Raglan Festival’s team mission, so this year £600 was donated to the school toward the school orchestra.

This was followed by a fantastic evening at The Beaufort on Friday night with local band The Lost Hoover Parts making their festival debut supporting a unique set of rock covers by Newport based band Taffy Was a Thief.

Thanks to Festival friend, Lloyd Jones, Saturday saw an evening of traditional Welsh hymn singing at the Gymanafa Ganu held at the Baptist Chapel followed by an awesome performance by Abertillery Orpheus Male Voice Choir at St. Cadoc’s church supported by Raglan based junior harpist Rosie Exton with lovely hand-bell music from local Raglan’s Millennium Chimes.

The main highlight of the weekend was the Festival’s street party held on the High Street on Sunday afternoon with many hundreds of people listening to a medley of Les Mis hits by Monmouth Comprehensive School, a choir of pupils from Raglan Primary School, Welsh folk tunes from young band Y Wal Goch and a fab performance from Monmouth’s Got Talent 2024 winner Florence Hill.

Later in the day international vocalist Kirsten Orsborn, the BBC Band and Richard Harris playing fantastic sets despite the grey skies, whilst children had fun in the Kids Zone with balloon modelling, face painting and magic with Simon Sparkles. Renowned local funksters, Soul’d Out headlined the festival street party with a fab energetic set of rhythm and blues getting everyone up and dancing!

Festival Committee Chair Col Knight said: "It was another amazing weekend here in the village, with so much local talent on display, ranging from the very youngest in the school, right through to our senior friends who are so gifted. It was fantastic to see everyone out on the High Street in Raglan for our Street Party enjoying themselves in with great music and a real sense of community spirit.”

The Festival Committee thanked everyone involved for their support over the weekend, whether it was local businesses that sponsored the event, with special thanks to all our sponsor, volunteers who stewarded the concerts, and to the people who attended the events, as without this support, the Festival would not be sustainable.

Col Knight added: "Having seen the Music Weekend as a great success, we now look forward planning to planning Raglan Day, in August, which will generate more community fun in the village once again."

Raglan Day will take place on Monday 26th August and will include music entertainment, a produce tent, dog show, local produce stalls as well as lots of fun for children and adults alike!

Visit the website www.raglan-festival.com and Facebook for more Raglan Day news.