In 2024 Ffidil Fawr started as a a bit of an experiment. We wanted to see what would happen if we brought together Welsh fiddle players to celebrate, share and discuss the tradition of playing the fiddle in Wales. We wanted to create a space where everyone who enjoys playing Welsh music on string instruments could come together to learn and share tunes.
It has been clear for many years that interest has been growing in this area, yet we were missing structured ways of accessing the tradition. Ffidil Fawr was the first attempt at remedying this.
That first weekend in Plas Caerdeon was a revelation showed us that the appetite was much greater than initially expected.
In September 2025 we expanded the weekend and moved to a larger venue. We also invited Angharad Jenkins and Awen Blanford to lead their own classes. The addition of these two fantastic musicians immediately added to the incredible sense that a movement perhaps was beginning.
In March 2026 we were accredited as a Community Interest Company; this felt like the natural next step to helping support the fiddle weekend and to offer scope for a wider range of work with Welsh traditions.
Where it started
Ffidil Fawr CBC | CIC
As a community interest company our plan is to find ways we can create easier access to the Welsh tradition. We already create printed and digital resources, and we strongly believe that in order for this tradition to thrive it needs clear, usable resources that teachers and learners can rely on.
We want this work to travel beyond us.
We also want to invest in musicians and educators. Mentoring, training and reflective practice will be central to what we do both within Ffidil Fawr CIC and in our wider work: if more teachers feel confident delivering Welsh traditional music in schools, community settings and private studios, then the impact multiplies.
Ffidil Fawr is already more than a fiddle weekend or a social enterprise; it’s an invitation to help us bring people together through sharing the music of Wales.
What are we already doing?
Our fiddle weekend centres on bowed string instruments. The aim is to provide a space where people can learn and interact with the Welsh fiddle tradition at every stage of their journey.
The Ffidil Fawr weekend also provides us with a learning experience - we take our role as facilitators here incredibly seriously, and think hard about how we teach and share this music.
Using both notated music and oral learning in equal measure, and with an emphasis on enjoying technique, we encourage the improvisatory aspects of fiddle playing and learning as a group, because shared experience is at the heart of traditional music.
Who We Are For
Ffidil Fawr exists to benefit children and young people, adult learners, musicians and educators engaging with Welsh traditional music in Wales and beyond.
We care particularly about those who have limited access to high quality provision. That might be because of geography, cost, language or confidence. We want our spaces to feel open but serious. Welcoming but ambitious.
When someone leaves a Ffidil Fawr event, we want them to feel more capable, more connected and more rooted and able to enjoy Welsh trad music on their own terms.
As a CIC, our purpose is written into our structure.
Any surplus we generate is reinvested into developing new programmes, subsidising access and paying artists and educators fairly. We are not here to extract value from the tradition, butto strengthen it.
That means thinking long term. It means planning carefully. It means making decisions that serve the community first.
It also means being honest about standards; if we want Welsh traditional music to flourish, we have to treat it with the same seriousness and respect that other musical traditions expect as a matter of course.
Our Commitment as a Community Interest Company
Looking Ahead
We are still at the beginning.
In the coming years, we want to expand our programmes across Wales. We aim to deepen our pedagogical approach so that Welsh traditional string teaching has a clearer framework that others can adopt and adapt, and to publish resources that become staples in music rooms and homes. We want to create more supported pathways for young and emerging musicians.
Most of all, we want to see Welsh traditional string playing become visible and confident in everyday life; Neither niche not fragile, and not solely dependent on a handful of individuals.
That future will not happen by accident - it will happen because people choose to build it together.
Ffidil Fawr is our contribution to that work.
We also need to hear from YOU - please help us shape the future of traditional music in Wales by getting in touch and sharing your thoughts!