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A cropped event poster with the words PARTY; PWLL; PONTY, written in capital letters across three lines and the Parti Ponty logo and website address partiponty.cymru in a purple circle.

Orchard Media & Events Group, Your Pontypridd & Menter Iaith Rhondda Cynon Taf

The Challenge

  • To promote the Welsh Language.
  • To increase brand awareness and showcase services.
  • To develop new partnerships.
  • To develop skills opportunities.

The Solution

Recognising the value of Parti Ponty, Rhondda Cynon Taf’s only Welsh Language festival, a partnership was formed between Orchard Media, Your Pontypridd, and Menter Iaith RCT for the first time in 2022. Parti Ponty promotes the Welsh language and normalises bilingualism through the arts. Following a three-year hiatus, the event returned in 2022 for its 30th anniversary celebration.

CultureStep investment funded Welsh language activities and entertainment.

The Results

An estimated 7,000 people attended Parti Ponty in person, with additional numbers enjoying elements, such as the evening gig, via live stream. This includes 370 children who were able to attend the lido for free, many for the first time despite living locally.

As content and media partner, Orchard Media created a showreel of the event for future promotional use and engaged with young people in the community through the Welsh language to promote opportunities within the industry.

Your Pontypridd engaged businesses in the community with Welsh lessons, enabling staff to greet customers in Welsh.

The relationship between the partners has gone from strength to strength.

The Endorsement

Orchard Media is a company that is proud to promote the Welsh language, and is supportive of events in non-privileged areas. Many of the staff speak Welsh and Orchard is keen to help provide a platform to celebrate and promote the Welsh language. Parti Ponty was an opportunity for Orchard to raise brand awareness and showcase its services and content to a wider audience. The main benefit of the partnership for Orchard is to unravel long-term relationships in the area providing opportunities for skills development through the initiative communities.

Rob Light, Director of Content, Orchard Media and Events Group

Your Pontypridd BID promotes the business sector of the town of Pontypridd whilst engaging with the events taking place there. They unite the business community and the intention through this partnership was to offer employees of the businesses the opportunity to have Welsh lessons (at the request of the business community) and the Initiative supported this. It gave the opportunity to negotiate with the businesses to come up with special offers to encourage the people who came to Parti Ponty to visit the town, and started the conversation about next steps to build relationships with the Welsh language, while also bringing the community into a more central part of Parti Ponty.

James Payne, Projects Officer, Your Pontypridd

The support of Orchard Media and Your Pontypridd BID enabled the Initiative to offer a wider programme than planned – an extra day of events with Ponty’s Pool Party, a partnership with the ParkRun in Pontypridd to offer a different element and include it as part of the day’s celebrations, as well as the town tour, so that the linguistic awareness is visible for longer than just a day in the park. The support from CultureStep enabled us to engage with new audiences and communities for Parti Ponty 2022, and over 370 local children enjoyed a free session at the Lido, Pontypridd, having fun surrounded by a Welsh environment of Welsh language music. It also enabled us to offer a cultural experience to the Pontypridd ParkRun runners, an opportunity for the volunteers to be part of Parti Ponty, helping us to break the barrier that it’s a Welsh Festival for Welsh speakers only, and we were also able to offer a bigger programme of activities for families with the support. In addition to the financial support, more importantly, the scheme has helped Menter Iaith Rhondda Cynon Taf to build a stronger relationship with the business partners and their wider audiences. It certainly made a big difference to Parti Ponty 2022 – diolch!

Osian Rowlands, Chief Executive, Menter Iaith Rhondda Cynon Taf