Not to be confused with the historical
Ballarat Welsh Eisteddfods
The Welsh Eisteddfods of Ballarat was a series of traditional ''eisteddfodau'' founded by Welsh miners at Ballarat in the gold rush days and revived in the early 20th-century by some of their descendants.
History
Eisteddfods, the Welsh festival o ...
.
The Royal South Street
Eisteddfod, also known as The Grand National Eisteddfod of
Australasia, is held annually in
Ballarat
Ballarat ( ) is a city in the Central Highlands (Victoria), Central Highlands of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 Census, Ballarat had a population of 116,201, making it the third largest city in Victoria. Estimated resid ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
and is administered by the Royal South Street Society. South Street began as a debating competition run by the
South Street Society
The South Street Society was an organisation based in Ballarat, Victoria, which conducted a series of performing arts contests and concerts originally styled the "South Street Competitions", which developed into the "Grand National Eisteddfod", l ...
in 1891 and attained "Royal" status in 1962.
It soon grew and now includes public speaking, acting, singing, music, dance and calisthenics.
[2009 Annual Report, Royal South Street Society] Since 1965 it has been held in Her Majesty's Theatre Ballarat, Australia's oldest continually operating theatre. It was purchased after the South Street Society ran an appeal. Today Her Majesty's is the main venue for the Eisteddfod, but it was gifted to the
City of Ballarat in 1987 to enable government funding for major upgrades, restorations and maintenance work.
There were virtual competitions since 2020, but will return live in 2022.
Competitors
Notable competitors past eisteddfods include:
*
James Scullin
*
Alfred Deakin
Alfred Deakin (3 August 1856 – 7 October 1919) was an Australian politician who served as the second Prime Minister of Australia. He was a leader of the movement for Federation, which occurred in 1901. During his three terms as prime ministe ...
*
Mary Grant Bruce
*
Amy Castles
*
Joan Kirner
*
Denise Drysdale
*
David Atkins
*
Kiri Te Kanawa
Dame Kiri Jeanette Claire Te Kanawa , (; born Claire Mary Teresa Rawstron, 6 March 1944) is a retired New Zealand opera singer. She had a full lyric soprano voice, which has been described as "mellow yet vibrant, warm, ample and unforced". Te ...
References
External links
Royal South Street Society
Ballarat
Eisteddfod
Festivals in Victoria (Australia)
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