A CAMPAIGN to raise £300,000 for the Urdd Eisteddfod is three-quarters of the way to its finishing line.

Denbighshire’s Urdd Eisteddfod 2020 Appeal has raised 72 per cent of its target sum for the major Welsh youth festival, which is set to be hosted at Kilford Farm on the outskirts of Denbigh in May.

Every year the host county of the Eisteddfod is tasked with the challenge of raising donations, in which fundraising committees are set up in towns and villages to stage events to contribute to the overall amount.

The Urdd Eisteddfod is one of the biggest youth festivals in Europe and attracts around 90,000 people every year.

Dyfan Phillips, headteacher at Ysgol y Llys who chairs the Urdd Eisteddfod 2020 Appeal, said he hopes the festival will have a “lasting legacy” in Wales.

“The Eisteddfod is an adrenaline rush of Welshness and hopefully it will bring a new generation of Welsh speakers,” he said. “The Eisteddfod is not just for Denbigh but the whole county and it will attract people of all ages.

“Many villages across the county have already met their fundraising target, or are 80 or 90 per cent of the way, so it is going really well.”

The appeal’s next fundraising event will take place in Rhyl featuring the award-winning choral music of Cor Dydd, a mixed choir of 50 voices from Cardiff which performs classical and contemporary works. The choir won the BBC Radio Cymru Choir of the Year in 2003 and has since travelled to Hong Kong, Barbados and toured with the Welsh Baroque Choir.

They will be followed by Cor Ruthin, which has won the National Urdd Eisteddfod mixed choirs competition six times and achieved third place at the Llangollen Eisteddfod.

The event will be hosted by Sgorio commentator Nic Parry at Rhyl Pavilion on Saturday, February 1.

Tickets cost £20 at Siop Elfair in Ruthin. Alternatively call Arwel Roberts on 07813550998.