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Welsh delegate resigns from Lorient Festival Committee

David Petersen, who has led the Welsh delegation to the Festival Interceltique de Lorient, Brittany; for the past 17 years and has been involved in organising the Welsh presence at the festival for the past 28 years, has been forced by the Welsh Assembly Government to resign his position.

For 20 years, the artist / blacksmith, who lives in St Clears, was responsible for organising the Welsh Art Exhibitions at the Festival. He was one of the longest serving members of the Festival Committee and helped to shape the Festival as it is today.

Over 750,000 visitors attend the festival each year attracting 700 members of the international media generating massive publicity throughout the world. The festival, which is held in early August, is one of the largest Festivals in the world and certainly the biggest and most successful Festival celebrating Celtic Culture.

Every seven years, one of the Celtic Nations – Galicia is also included – is invited to be the “Featured Nation” at the Festival. David Petersen has twice been responsible for organising the Welsh presence at these occasions in 1997 and 2002. He has done the work voluntarily even without claiming expenses for his costs and travel.

Wales's First Minister, Rhodri Morgan, signed an agreement for 2008 to be the « Year of Wales ». This involved a commitment from Wales to fund a Pavilion, a Gala Night Concert and an Art Exhibition. All these in addition to the 'usual' Welsh talent at the Festival of a Harpist, a Male Voice Choir, several folk groups, an art exhibition, a Welsh language teacher and various other groups.

The European and External Affairs Division of the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG), coming under the First Minister's responsibility, was given the role of commissioning private contractors to organise the Welsh Pavilion. The project team, working on this on behalf of WAG, are Ifona Dealy (an Irish woman) and Jill Clements (an English woman).

The design and construction, as well as the content, were delegated to a private company called Push 4, based in Barry. The fee to deliver the Welsh Pavilion is £250,000. This same firm had been commissioned by the Scottish Government last year to deliver the Scottish Pavilion in the Festival for the « Year of Scotland ».

Many people were unhappy with last year's Pavilion. « Whilst it was large enough and situated in the very centre of the Festival, it left much to be desired, » said Mr Petersen. « The contract for the Welsh Pavilion was let before last year's Festival and therefore the results by Push 4 were unable to be seen by the two representatives of WAG. »

« The European Affairs Division explained to me that unlike 2002, when we had worked together to produce a highly successful “Year of Wales”, I WOULD NOT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE CONTENT OF THE PAVILION ».

« All of the content in the Pavilion and the groups performing would be determined by Push 4. »

Advice rejected

When it became apparent that Push 4 were approaching groups from Wales that play Irish music for example, Mr Petersen offered to advise Push 4 on the appropriate groups that would be appreciated at the Festival, but his advice was ignored and in most cases “the exact opposite was chosen”.

Push 4 then appointed Danny Kilbride as their music advisor on a fee of £4,500. He has a budget of £63,891 for the music content of the Pavilion. The initial list of groups to perform in the Pavilion included 7 bands that Danny or his brothers play in, according to Mr Petersen. One of these bands is being paid a fee of £20,000.

« Several of these groups on the list don't even play Welsh music », said Mr Petersen, « for example SILD boasts that they have “the finest Estonian fiddle player” in their group ! »
A further sum of £20,000 has been 'found' for the Gala Night Concert to be performed in the Grand Theatre in the centre of Lorient. A brand new venue which has been used in previous years as the opportunity for the Featured Nation to commission a new work to be given its World Premiere at the Festival.

Because of the time involved with commissioning such works, Mr Petersen, four years earlier, invited Alan Osborne, the talented composer and lyricist from Merthyr to write an Opera for this Gala Night Concert. In 2002 the then Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) Labour/Liberal administration completely supported the commissioning by David Petersen of a Dance/Theatre piece called Coeden Dân, which received great media and press acclaim, both for it and Wales as a Nation.

When the First Minister made it clear that this Opera was not going to be funded by WAG, but instead there was to be a concert of 'traditional music', then Mr Osborne was asked to arrange for an Oratorio to be performed. This would have to be funded by private sponsors, if it was to be staged in the Festival. The Festival committee were very keen to have a 'new' work premiered during the Festival, even if it was only an Oratorio.
Some success was achieved in raising funds and sponsors for this, but unfortunately events took over that made it impossible for it to be staged this year.

Again because of the time required for the Art Exhibition, several international standard artists had been contacted to provide suitable works for the “Year of Wales” a year before. Again in 2002 the WAG had supported Mr Petersen's suggestion, by funding an exhibition called Ystyr y Tir curated by Shelagh Hourahane, which featured several Welsh artists and was of an extremely high standard.

« However this year, Wales Arts International were told to organise the Art Exhibition by the Minister for Heritage, Rhodri Glyn Thomas, again without any consultation with myself, » said Mr Petersen.

« During a meeting with the Director of WAI, Eluned Haf, I was told that WAI are only supporting one artist this year, anywhere in the world and his name is Iwan Bala. This was the exhibition that was to represent Wales at the Festival. The collection of work that had been chosen by Iwan Bala was called Hon' »

Not Celtic

David Petersen also says :

— In his letter to me, the First Minister wrote that Iwan Bala is one of our leading contemporary artists who draws his inspiration from CELTIC and Greek mythology.

— I took the opportunity to view this exhibition and was appalled to find the 'Artist's Statement' on display. This stated The Celts have never existed, they are a modern construct, of a bogus generic ethnicity and might just as well call themselves The Atlanteans'.Several of his drawings are titled Nid Celt (Not Celtic).

— I wrote to Eluned Haf, pointing out that if this collection of work was to be shown representing Wales at the Festival, it could well be seen as divisive and in any case would be viewed as inappropriate for such an event. I was telephoned by John Howells, the Director for Culture at WAG, who told me that 'my attitude was unhelpful and that I was not to write such letters to his staff!'

— I then had to contact the artists that I had originally asked to prepare work for the “Year of Wales” and to explain to them that their work was now not being exhibited.

— Despite having given me assurances that I would be kept informed 'at all times' by WAG, I had received nothing from their officers for over three months and the Festival organizers were beginning to ask some very demanding questions about the Welsh representation.

The Director of the Festival Lisardo Lombardia and the past Director, Jean-Pierre Pichard had travelled over in September to meet the First Minister and the Minister for Heritage in Cardiff to ensure that everyone involved would be kept informed of everything that was being done from Wales. (For 2002 a working group had been set up and had worked successfully.)

Mr Petersen then met the Minister for Heritage, Rhodri Glyn Thomas, with John Howells and Antwn Owen Hicks from the Arts Council, to try and progress matters as he had repeatedly asked for information on who and what was to represent Wales at the Festival. The week previous to this meeting Mr Petersen had given three BBC radio interviews about the Festival. « I had found it very difficult talking about the various musicians who may or may not be performing ! » he said.

— At the meeting with the Minister for Heritage I was told that My attitude was unacceptable and that I should not write to officers in such a manner !. I was treated in a most disparaging fashion, which I took exception to. No acknowledgment of my past experience of organising very successful “Year of Wales” at the Festival, or of my 17 years as Leader of the Welsh Delegation was given by either of these WAG representatives and I was left with no alternative other than to resign my position.

— I informed the Director of the Festival of my decision and the reasons for it. He implored me to reconsider but understood the impossible situation that WAG had placed me in. Not only was I denied any information of what was being decided, but I was also not consulted about any of these decisions. I have worked as a volunteer for all these years and now several of my roles were being offered to people who had no knowledge of what was required by the Festival, for substantial fees.

At a meeting in Paris of the Festival Committee, David Petersen officially resigned his position as Leader of the Welsh Delegation and reluctantly it was accepted. Antwn Owen Hicks, who is employed full time by the Arts Council, was appointed as his successor.

Mr Petersen is still involved in I3C, the production company set up from the Festival to stage and arrange large scale Celtic events throughout Europe. The most recent concert was in Bercy stadium in Paris which staged the virtuoso Welsh triple harpist, Robin Huw Bowen on the same bill as Alan Stivell. The next concert is in Stade de Rennes in May, where the Flint Male Voice Choir are contracted to perform to over 28,000 people. Mr Petersen is also arranging for 150 of Brittany's business leaders to visit Cardiff on a trade mission in September.

Gwyn Griffiths

See on ( voir l'article ) the French translation.