About

Gwanwyn is a month-long national festival held across Wales in May each year celebrating creativity in older age. The festival began in 2007 and is supported by Arts Council of Wales and Welsh Government.

Gwanwyn, which means spring in Welsh, celebrates older age as a time of opportunity for renewal, growth and creativity. Our aim is to offer opportunities for greater participation by older people in the arts, whether visual arts, drama, storytelling, music, literature, photography, dance or film.

During May, groups and individuals join together in a wide range of venues and locations across Wales in an explosion of paint, clay, photography, theatre, dance, creative writing, film, storytelling, and much more. It is a time for performance, exhibition, workshops, discussion, networking and most importantly fun!

Gwanwyn includes commissions and collaborative events as well as events organised by a wide range of cultural and community organisations. Gwanwyn provides an opportunity to showcase and celebrate the very best of creativity as we age!

Gwanwyn also provides the opportunity to highlight and promote the participation of older people in the arts throughout the year. For more information about ongoing projects head to the Projects pages to find out more about projects like cARTrefu, In your Mind’s Eye, Tactile Art and Death Cafe.

Anybody and everybody can get involved in Gwanwyn at some level, whether as organiser, participant, performance, audience or critic.

You can browse all the events that took place in previous festivals on the FESTIVAL page, or browse current events on our EVENTS page.