As well as musicians and poets there will also be medieval re-enactments, a Welsh learners tent, Welsh choir, folk dancing, storytelling and facepainting in the Yurt, drum workshops, Urdd Gobaith Cymraeg (under 12’s fun activities), scouts campfire songs… and more! 

Programme of great acts performing in the main marquee are:

1 - 1.15pm - Sophie McKeand (poet)

1.20 - 1.50pm - Andy Hickie

2 - 2.30pm - The Roseville Band (acoustic set)

2.40 - -3.10pm - Stacey Cohen

3.20 - 4pm - Dawnswyr Delyn (Welsh dance)

4.10 - 4.30pm - Rhys Trimble

4.40 - 5.10pm - Mice on the Mouse Organ (Mike Payne solo set)

5.20 - 5.50pm - John Lawrence

6 - 6.30pm - Meilir Tomos

6.40 - 7.10pm - Heal the Last Stand

7.20 - finish - Parti’r Pentan Choir

Come along with your friends and family, bring your own seats and a picnic. Refreshments will be available in Kings Christian Centre. The closest car park is Griffiths Square off Clayton Road behind the top end of High Street.

The event is organised by Mold Town Council and Cittaslow Mold with help from a host of organisations including Mold Round Table and the Rotary Club of Mold, Caffi Florence who provided the pancakes, Vaughan Davies and A & L Hughes Funeral Services who donated the prizes, Graham Smith the MC, and Flintshire County Council who own the Square. Reverend Brian Acty from Tyddyn Street Church explained the Christian significance of Shrove Tuesday. Members of various Slimming World clubs from the area came along to give information on weight, Body Mass Index (BMI) and healthy eating.

The adult race was won by a team from Vaughan Davies and Dodd’s auctioneers in a blistering 1.07mins. Phil Rycroft left shoe leather on the paving with an impressive pit stop at the apron change. This team were disqualified last year when Martin Jones failed to tie his apron but there were no mistakes this year!

The children’s team were Amelia, Chantelle, Jacob and Lily, with the super-fast winning time of 1.05mins, the fastest time of the day.

The second Potato Day in Mold organised by Plant Heritage (National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens) was a great success. Visitors to the event at St Mary’s Church Hall, Mold were able to select their seed potatoes from a huge array of over seventy mouth-watering varieties. Featuring Rebekah’s old fashioned/unusual vegetable seed there were also onion sets, garlic, rhubarb, and strawberries on sale.

Cittaslow Mold had a stand at the event with information on sustainability, including a water butt made from recycled plastic that Flintshire County Council sells to residents at a discounted price of £20.50 for the set.

Plant Heritage has other events across North Wales during the year phone 01978 761083 for details, or visit their web site www.nccpg.com

Established in 1979 as a Christian response to poverty, Traidcraft is the UK’s leading Fairtrade organisation. It has shops throughout the UK selling crafts, tea, coffee, cotton goods, and many other items made in developing countries. The proceeds of which improve the lives of people through their incomes and better working conditions.

One Traidcraft’s Fairtrade Fortnight initiatives is the Big Brew. An event which happens all over the UK – in schools, churches, workplaces and family homes – to host a Fairtrade tea party. The idea is to encourage the purchase of Fairtrade teas and coffees, promote more Fairtrade products, and support overseas development work of Traidcraft’s through fundraising. The aim is to raise £50,000 and to serve 150,000 cuppas.

www.traidcraft.co.uk

Fairtrade Fortnight has been celebrated in Flintshire at a wide variety of events. Wales is the world’s first Fairtrade (FT) nation and does much to help relieve poverty in developing countries.

One third of the world’s population live on less than 2 dollars a day and by buying FT we can help to ensure poor farmers get a better price deal for their crops. Many local health food stores and supermarkets now stock a wide range of FT products such as tea, coffee, chocolate, bananas and sugar – look for the FT symbol.

Nuts may not be a crop associated with FT. So cashew nut producer Juan Louis Aviles, from El Salvador came to Mold Town Hall to speak about his organic farm which sells to FT and is also part of the farmers’ co-operative Liberation Nuts. Other cashew farmers in El Salvador get 14$ for 50 kilos, whereas FT pay 22$. Juan’s farm employs over 300 workers and his contract with FT enables him to pay them a fair wage and also helps his community with projects such as building a new island bridge.

Harry’s Nuts are Fairtrade salted cashews and peanuts bought from co-operative nut producers –  Liberation Nuts. Comedian Harry Hill takes no money from this and has put his name to it in order to support the farmers. He is involved at many stages of production – the nuts are cooked longer so they taste extra crunchy.

This co-operative owns 42% of the companies shares (the rest are owned by ethical investors). The company is a CIC – a Community Interest Company – which means it is run to benefit a community of interest, in this case small holder nut farmers and gatherers in the developing world.

Liberation supplies Brazil nuts, cashews and peanuts to UK supermarkets including Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s. It also supplies own branded nuts to Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and other outlets including Harry’s Nuts! 

Because the company is co-owned by farming organisations the farmers have a real say in decisions.

www.chooseliberation.com

Despite the snow people turned up to watch a cheese-making demonstration and to buy fresh eggs, jams, chutneys and relishes, bread, olives, vegetables, various meats, pies, cheeses, cakes, prepared packed meals and carved crafts. Hot drinks and snacks were also available as usual in a small café area.

The Farmers’ Market takes place every third Sunday of the month, from 10am to 2pm. Look out for the signs at the crossroads in Northop and at the college entrance; follow the road around the site and there is ample parking provided.

There are Celyn Farmers’ Markets at St. Mary’s Church Hall, Mold (opposite the Police and bus stations) on the 1st Saturday of every month from 10am to 2pm – and at Grosvenor Garden Centre, Wrexham Road, Belgrave, Chester on the 2nd Friday of every month between 10am and 3pm.

The Food Standards Agency has published new research about country of origin labelling. The Agency wanted to find out more about how people understand and use food labels. The results will help to inform discussions about a European proposal on food labelling. Key findings included:

• there is awareness of ‘origin labelling’, but it is not a main concern for consumers when shopping
• when asked on which foods they would like to see origin labelling, people most frequently mentioned meat and meat products
• price and food safety information on labels were considered by consumers to be, on the whole, more important than country of origin labelling
• consumers are confused about whether ‘country of origin’ refers to where animals are born, raised or slaughtered or whether this refers to where a food product has been produced.

European labelling rules being proposed will require businesses that make origin claims to provide further information, so that people will know where their food actually comes from, not just where it was processed.

www.food.gov.uk/news/

The public can return waste batteries to any shop that sells portable batteries (except small retailers who sell less than 32 kg of batteries a year). Flintshire County Council has collection points at their Recycling Parks.

www.netregs.gov.uk

• In Wales, 200 million disposable nappies are thrown away each year –  that’s 400 every minute – and for every potty trained child, around 5,000 nappies will have been sent to landfill. Using real nappies can be up to half the cost of disposables so it really is worth replacing disposables with real nappies.
• When your children are drawing or colouring, encourage them to use both sides of the paper. Try some alternative arts and crafts using items such as empty washing up bottles and kitchen rolls that would otherwise have been thrown in the bin?
• Donate any unwanted toys to local community groups or charities.
• Don’t waste money buying the latest children’s books which are likely to be read once. Instead, pay a visit to Mold library where you can borrow them free of charge.
• Wherever possible, buy wind up toys to help you reduce the number of batteries you use and have to dispose of.
• Growing your own vegetables can be a fun activity for children and will also help to save you money and unnecessary packing.
• Use your own shopping bags or a ‘bag-for-life’ when visiting the supermarket or use the doorstep delivery service
• Try keeping a waste diary for a week to see exactly what you and your family are throwing away?

To learn more about how you can help future generations by reducing, reusing and recycling your waste please visit www.wasteawarenesswales.org.uk.