Swansea Bay's creative week at Eisteddfod yr Urdd 2025

Swansea Bay University Health Board staff have been offering advice and support to families and children about health, wellbeing and arts at the Eisteddfod yr Urdd in Margam Park and will continue to do so for the rest of the festival.

NHS bodies from across Wales and Swansea Bay UHB are sharing a stand at the event to inform and teach children and young people about health and wellbeing in Wales and their local area.

The funding for the stand comes from contributors across various NHS bodies and Welsh Government and the Swansea Bay contribution is through external grant funding via the Arts Council for Wales.

Eisteddfod yr Urdd is a youth festival that takes place in various locations around Wales every year -this year it is in Margam Park.

It celebrates Welsh language, art and culture with around 15,000 children and young people taking part in competitions ranging from singing, recitation of poetry, dance, performing arts, right through to literature competitions where one of the highlights of the week will be the Chairing of the Bard on the Friday afternoon.

Over the course of the week the festival will attract around 100,000 visitors to the area.

Swansea Bay UHB is there to raise the profile of the Welsh language in the NHS and show the health board’s commitment to incorporating it into all services it provides.

So far this week, staff at the stand have spoken to many children, young people and their families while hosting a range of thought-provoking activities.

Since the festival started on Monday (26^th of May), the School Nursing service, Digital Services, Speech and Language and Vaccination teams have been at the stand to provide information, demonstrations and activities for children to enjoy and learn.

Swansea Bay’s Arts in Health team are there all week inviting children to participate in art workshops and make their mark on two large art installations.

The first art installation is a large sticker board, with children invited to write their names on a small sticker and stick it onto the montage board. They then connect it with coloured lines to their personal priorities. This activity is meant to help children think about what they prioritise in life, such as community, family, self, and the planet.

The second art installation is a wellbeing sculpture that children have built at the stand. The sculpture is made from hundreds of coloured wool strings. Each colour of the wool represents five wellbeing activities, playing and outside space, healthy eating, sleep, family and friends and finally, sports. Children were then asked to wrap each colour around the sculpture with their most important wellbeing activity at the top.

One child put food as the most important as they love Sunday roast dinners, while another child ranked playing as their most important activity because they love playing the ‘stuck in the mud’ game.

Angharad Higgins, Head of Quality and Safety at Swansea Bay said: “It has been great so far, the children have been really engaged in the activities.

“It has been great to hear their thoughts and why they have chosen which wellbeing activity as most important to them.”

There are still a few days left of the festival; the last day is on Saturday 31^st May 2025. Until then, many Swansea Bay UHB services will continue to be at the stand such as Vaccinations team, Burns Department, Mental Health, Help me Quit, the Welsh language service and Arts in Health.

On Friday 30^th May there will be a performance by the West End star Mared at the stand.

If you are visiting the festival, be sure to visit Swansea Bay University Health Board at the NHS Wales stand to say hello to the staff and see what activities are on that day to get involved in.