PEOPLE can celebrate the ancient and modern links between Cornwall and Wales, with their Celtic roots, and mark St Piran’s Day at a new event.

The two-day Kevrennow Festival will be held at venues in St Austell on Friday, March 6, and Saturday, March 7, to highlight the cultural, academic and economic connections linking Cornwall and Wales.

There will be musical performances, storytelling and poetry, as well as talks about Cornish and Welsh history.

The festival is being organised by researchers at the University of Exeter’s Institute of Cornish Studies and the Rescorla Centre.

The Welsh Government and Cornwall Council have an agreement to promote greater cultural, academic and business links.

The White Hart is backing the initiative in St Austell town centre. (Picture: Andrew Townsend)
The White Hart in the centre of St Austell will be hosting festival events. (Picture: Andrew Townsend) (Picture: Andrew Townsend)

Dr Garry Tregidga, co-director of the Institute of Cornish Studies, said: “This year's inaugural Kevrennow Festival is being held in association with the St Piran's Day event in St Austell. It is a community-based event that brings together an impressive team of speakers who will explore links between Cornwall and Wales in the past and present with a rich programme of music, song and storytelling.”

Gorsedh Kernow grand bard Jenefer Lowe will open the festival on the Friday afternoon and later there will be an evening social in the White Hart in St Austell town centre with storytelling, poetry and singing.

On the Friday afternoon, Dr Merv Davey who will speak about the horse skull “obby osses” of Wales and Cornwall that are used to celebrate midwinter. Dr Davey will discuss the origins of the “osses” and the links between these “liminal beasts”.

Dr Davey is a past grand bard of the Gorsedh Kernow, the folk tradition recorder for the Federation of Old Cornwall Societies and a member of the Cornish national music archive team. He completed a PhD with the Institute of Cornish Studies researching folk song dance and identity in Cornwall and has written a range of articles and books on Cornish folk tradition

Author and fisherman Lyndon Sid Allen, the founder of the St Austell History Group and the Charlestown Old Cornwall Society, will speak about his Cornish and Welsh ancestry and his family's maritime heritage on the Friday.

Dr Huw Evans, a lawyer and expert on Welsh affairs, will speak on the Saturday about the Cornish and Welsh diaspora.

The St Piran’s Day parade will be leaving from Aylmer Square in the White River Place shopping precinct. (Picture: Andrew Townsend)
The St Piran’s Day parade will be leaving from Aylmer Square in the White River Place shopping precinct. (Picture: Andrew Townsend) (Picture: Andrew Townsend)

The St Piran’s Day parade, which is being organised locally, will leave from Aylmer Square in the White River Place shopping precinct at 1.30pm on the Saturday.

After the parade, as part of the Kevrennow Festival, there will be a music and social session featuring Richard Trethewey, Ryb An Mor, Bagas Crowd and Maryanne Thomas at the White Hart.

Later in the day, at 7.30pm, there will be performances from Welsh folk singer Catrin O’Neill, the Imerys Mid Cornwall Male Choir and Ryb An Mor at St Austell Parish Church.

The Imerys Mid Cornwall Male Choir is carrying on the traditions of the pit and works choirs in the Clay Country. The choir was formed in 2008 by the merger of St Austell Male Voice Choir and the Imerys Engineers Choir.