Well. What can we say?! This was the biggest and, surely, the most exciting venture that the choir has ever undertaken. The Festival has been running for nineteen years and has not had a male voice choir since the very first event. We took 42 choristers, which was an amazing achievement, and the party totalled more than 70 altogether with wives, partners and friends. This was originally put to the choir over twelve months previously and the dedication and financial commitment by the choristers, committee, and musical team, was outstanding. 

We left Swansea at 4.00am on Monday 20th and travelled to Gatwick for our flight to Grantley Adams Airport where we were met by Carol Anderson, the festival organiser. When we arrived, we had a quick change and went to the opening party at the hotel, The Coconut Court Beach, where we received some free cocktails and were entertained by a local band. The following day was spent acclimatising and enjoying the lovely weather. In the evening we were invited across the road to ‘Jake’s’, where we met the Minister of Culture and the Creative Economy for Barbados, Mr John King. We were entertained by ‘Riddell Fiddles’, from Selkirk, and lead by Sheila Sapkota, who were also taking part in the festival, and there were more free drinks on offer. 

On Wednesday we had our first concert at St Patrick’s Cathedral, and met up with Sister Pauline, who was the head of St Patrick’s Junior School. Sister Pauline was also from Scotland and had been playing guitar with Riddell Fiddles, the night before. The concert was scheduled to start at 1.00pm, and this was the first time that we realised that Bajan time was fairly relaxed, as the buses to take us to the concert didn’t turn up until 12.45pm…and then there were not enough seats for everyone, so they had to make 2 journeys!! The concert eventually got underway at 1.15pm. However, it was a lovely event where the local school choir sang ‘Loch Lomond’, in a wonderful Scottish accent, accompanied by Sister Pauline and they also did a few dances. They then sang ‘Beautiful, Beautiful, Barbados’, which we had learnt and were able to join in with them. We then sang three items, but, because all the windows and doors were open and a breeze was going through the cathedral, the acoustic was lost. Rhian and Nick also had problems with their music being blown around! The concert finished with the combined pipers from the Reading Scottish Pipe Band and the Strathallan School Pipe Band, under their Musical Director, Craig Muirhead. What a wonderful sound! The rest of the day we had to ourselves, so it was back to the beach for more sun. 

On Thursday we all made our own arrangements. Some of the party went on the ‘Cool Runnings’ Catamaran and had a wonderful day swimming with turtles and taking in the lovely coastline of West Barbados. They stopped outside the Sandy Lanes Resort, where all the celebrities go, and had lunch on the boat, followed by more swimming. Another small group went on a trip around the island provided by ‘Dale’, a local driver, and organised by Pete Beales. This was quite an experience where Dale took them around several Rum Shacks, and they met with Nigel Benn’s auntie! They also visited the oldest church on the island and saw where Rihanna was brought up – and visited more Rum Shacks! Others just stayed by the pool and beach and soaked up the sun.

Our main concert of the tour was held on Friday evening. It was at the Walled Garden Theatre, which is a relatively new venue. We had a sound check rehearsal at 4.00pm and everything was fine, except that there was no staging for the choir to sing on. The event was organised by the Rotary Club of Barbados South and started at ‘about’ 7.00pm. The concert was opened by Donny Hughes, a well-known Scottish DJ and we sang our normal items and included ‘Yellow Bird’ which we had learnt for the tour. The concert also featured ‘Sing Out Barbados’, under their director, Keith Squires. They were beautifully dressed in colourful costumes and sung a variety of Caribbean songs, many being acted out and very funny. They finished with ‘Beautiful, Beautiful, Barbados’, a song which was far more popular than we thought, when we learnt it. We were going to sing 

it as our penultimate item in this concert, so Nick made a bit of a joke about the fact that we had learnt this song, had been beaten to sing it, twice, already, and had travelled 4,000 miles!! We were not going to leave without singing our version – so we did, and the audience loved it. We ended with ‘An American Trilogy’ and received a standing ovation from the large audience. Attending the concert was the British High Commissioner to Barbados, Ms Janet Douglas, CMG who enjoyed it very much.

For our last official concert, we travelled to St Thomas Church, in the district of St Thomas, which was about 30 minutes away. We were informed that the concert was to start at 6.00pm, but, again, we were in Bajan time and we did not leave the hotel until 5.30pm! However, when we turned up at the church there were only a few cars in the car park, and we were informed that the concert did not start until 6.30pm! We had a few problems when we arrived, as the keyboard did not have a sustain pedal with it, and again, no staging. A pedal was located and brought to the church, and at first did not work, but eventually this was rectified. Singing with us were three combined church choirs who opened the concert. We started with ‘Cwm Rhondda’ and blew the audience away with our ‘Amens’, with the boys, Rhian, and Steve, on their church organ, making a fine sound! Quite a few of the church choir’s members were singing along with us as well. This was a lovely, intimate evening with the locals lapping up the unique sound of a Welsh Male Voice Choir, and the boys were on fine form. Rhian had further problems with the keyboard later on, when it suddenly went ‘honky tonk’ halfway through one of our items!

 We had some more leisure time on Sunday to soak up the sun (boring – isn’t it!) and in the afternoon we had the final party at the hotel. Carol Anderson and Donny Hughes kept things under control and a few presentations were made to the pipe band MD Craig Muirhead and to our MD Nick. We gave a few more renditions and the pipers also played. Further entertainment was provided by Riddell Fiddles and we lined up around the pool to sing ‘Three Little Birds’ accompanied by them. We then went down to the beach for a final ‘photoshoot’ and sung ‘Beautiful, Beautiful, Barbados’ accompanied by our own ukulele band! (See the Youtube clip)  We finished with our own National Anthem. This just about brought our trip to an end, as the next day saw our party break up, because about half were going home and the rest staying for another week.

 We spent the morning around the pool on the last day and the ones that were leaving were waived off and went to the airport. What happened next was a flash of inspiration! In the corner of the departure lounge was a piano and, after a few rums, Nick thought it would be a good idea to attempt a ‘flash mob’. Not everyone was keen at first, but we did it and immediately people were recording it on their phones. Of course, we sang ‘Beautiful Barbados’, with Rhian on the piano and the locals loved it. Before we knew it, someone had put it on Facebook and, after a week, it had 30k views!! (See the Facebook clip)  It has also appeared on many other Facebook sites, including the main ‘Visit Barbados’ page. A great end to a fabulous week.

For those who stayed a second week, the highlight must be a visit to the hotel by Sir Garfield Sobers, a true legend of West Indies cricket. He is, of course, synonymous with Swansea, where he hit six sixes off one over, by the luckless Malcolm Nash, at St Helens. He was a real gent and spoke with the boys for many hours and even joined in the singing.

The Celtic Festival, Barbados will be remembered for a long time to come and we must thank Carol Anderson for inviting us and looking after us while we were there. There are so many other people to thank for organising this trip. Our hard-working chairman Mike Phippen, who was not able to come, but turned up at 3.30am on the morning we left, to see us off, and secretary Alan, who liaised with the travel company to get us all there. Our treasurer Lawrence, who has handled an incredible amount of money. Our new fundraising committee and established Ladies committee who raised a substantial amount for the trip. Our sponsors Swansea Building Society and Red Dragon Flagmakers, Clydach who loaned us the Welsh flag. The choristers’ wives and partners and the choristers themselves for making it such a success. Finally, to Nick, Rhian and Steve for their commitment and enthusiasm to get the choir ready for such occasions. The choir has come so far over the last ten years or so and a trip of this magnitude was out of the question back then. Where many other choirs are struggling, we keep on striving to attract new members and will try to arrange more exciting trips in the future.