Voice of Real Australia: Online eisteddfod brings joy to isolation life

You might think eisteddfods were on the back-burner across the country at the moment.

Maybe you've even put away the guitar or the piano is sitting gathering dust. But it doesn't have to be that way!

Families like The Bells, from Gunnedah, pictured above, have been using their coronavirus isolation time to join in on a great initiative - a virtual eisteddfod.

With some creative thinking, the Gunnedah Eisteddfod conveners have moved their event online and it's been so successful they've doubled their normal yearly entries and got submissions from all over the country.

One of the three conveners, Lucy Ravenwood said the premise was to support the development of musicians, and create employment in the arts.

"I think in supporting the development of young musicians and providing encouragement to keep playing, they are using their time at home wisely and not just for themselves," she said.

"Some of the biggest sections we have are in family entertainment or siblings doing duets, we've had great levels of registrations in those, (they are) really getting creative with their own families."

Registrations are now closed, and as Ms Ravenwood pointed out - the adjudicators are going to have their work cut out for them before announcing the results on July 1.

The story is only available to our subscribers but we thought you might enjoy the picture anyway.

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