An Eisteddfod (pronounced “eye sted fud”) is a century-old Welsh competitive festival of literature and the performing arts. Capturing the essence of this ancient Welsh tradition, the Tri-Valley Eisteddfod aims to provide kids K-12 an opportunity to share their arts and learn from one another. Young artists may enter to compete in a variety of categories that includes singing, dancing, instrumental performance, and poetry and be judged by esteemed community members and qualified experts from the Tri-Valley. The competition will be held at the Windemere Ranch Middle School Multi-purpose Room on Friday, January 29, 2010 from 4:00PM to 9:00PM. The deadline for registration is January 22, 2010, and the entry fee is $2 per participant. The cost of admission to the event is $3 per person. For more information about this exciting performing arts competition, please visit the Tri-Valley Eisteddfod website.

About the Organizers

The Tri-Valley Eisteddfod is the answer to a Destination ImagiNation (DI) Main Challenge by six Windemere Ranch Middle School and one Dougherty Valley High School students. Destination ImagiNation (DI) is an after-school program where students work in teams to solve mind-bending challenges and present their solutions at Tournaments. DI students learn creative problem solving and collaboration skills that will help them to be successful throughout their lives.

Over 100,000 students in DI teams of two to seven students participate in more than 30 countries. The Dublin and San Ramon area has 27 teams that were created thanks to the leadership and vision of Dublin Pathways founder Sharon Kovalevsky.

“The exponential growth of teams within this area and the world has been due to the DI program’s ability to provide students with intellectual opportunities to develop academic and performance arts skills while playing and learning with friends,” noted Kovalevsky.

Each Tournament is composed of a Main Challenge that students have a few months to work on and an Instant Challenge that the students need to solve on the day of the Tournament. Krupa, Emma, Manasi, Ashley, Ritu, Kumkum, and Rutuja are the seven organizers of the Tri-Valley Eisteddfod, and they have taken on the challenge of producing a K-12 performing arts talent competition for the Main Challenge of this year’s DI Tournament.