Over one hundred people turned out to see Love Llandovery launched with grand aplomb at the Market Square on Saturday 14th August. A new Love Llandovery logo along with a giant heart-shaped collage of over 400 personal photographs representing what townspeople love about their town was unveiled, along with exciting news to launch the Llandovery Sheep Festival which is due to take place on 24th-26th September.
Love Llandovery’s visually attractive logo has been created in the traditional colours of Wales – red and green – that represent its cultural heritage which the town’s people hope will revitalise Llandovery as the quintessential Welsh town on the border of Bannau Brycheiniog National Park, in the County of Carmarthenshire. The logo will be used for all festivals, communications and promotional campaigns as a simple yet powerful image that people can easily identify with.
Nick Stewart, Collabor8 Project Officer for Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Authority said: “Love Llandovery is an incredible tribute to all the people in the town who form a vibrant and special community in this area. This new and distinctive brand identity focuses on building an awareness of Llandovery as a unique place to visit – an attractive and genuine market town famous for its droving heritage, offering a warm Welsh welcome to visitors. By focussing on their ideal visitors – those whose expectations match what the town has to offer – they can avoid being a bland ‘something for everyone’ destination”.
Fiona Walker, Chairman of Llandovery & District Chamber of Commerce said: “Love Llandovery is clear, dynamic, instantly recognizable and does what it says on the tin. Our priority markets are not just simply seeking a destination to visit, they want a destination they can get to know and love as we do. We have had so much support from the town’s people and Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Authority, and we can now look forward to marketing the Love Llandovery brand across the UK. We love our town and we hope visitors want to embrace what we love about it.”
Cllr Helen Wyn, Member for Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Authority said: “It’s been very exciting to see the whole town come together to support this vision of Love Llandovery. Encouraging the sustainable development and regeneration of Llandovery has inspired this community to create a unique brand – and this is something that Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Authority whole-heartedly supports. Working in partnership with the Llandovery and District Chamber of Commerce and the rest of the community has enabled us to share their vision and with the support of our Collabor8 project we have been able to provide valuable officer time and funding to help them achieve their goals. It will be very rewarding to work with Llandovery on future projects and events throughout the year.”
The logo was designed as part of a major initiative that is underway to transform Llandovery into a sustainable tourism destination. With funding and staff support from the National Park Authority’s Collabor8 project, a series of workshops were held earlier this year and an action plan emerged to address the development of tourism sustainably. The action plan highlighted an opportunity for Llandovery to capitalise on its distinct agricultural and droving links to develop an identity for the town.
As the first initiative under the Love Llandovery campaign, it was announced that the town are launching the first annual Llandovery Sheep Festival in September 2010 to celebrate droving, sheep farming and the wool industry. Two major sponsors of the Sheep Festival are Lloyds TSB and Barclays Banks. There is a long history of banking involvement in Llandovery; the Black Ox Bank was established in 1799 by a wealthy drover to give cattlemen somewhere to deposit their money avoiding being robbed on the droving routes – in 1909 Lloyds Bank incorporated the Black Ox Bank. As the countdown to the sheep festival overtakes the town; residents and local businesses are gearing up to 24th-26th September which has been planned to coincide with the National Coloured Rare Breed Sheep Auction Sale, to be held in Llandovery Market on Sunday 26th on the final day of the festival. This auction is the only specialist sale of coloured sheep in Wales. Mickey Gough who runs the National Coloured Breed Sale said: “The National Coloured Breed Sale is the biggest event of its type in the whole of the UK. It is a nationally recognised event traditionally attracting people from England and Scotland as well as Wales.” He welcomes the planned Llandovery Sheep Festival and said that, “This will complement the Coloured Breed Sale and we can hopefully work together to make it a success for the town.”
The festival will give the significant number of visitors that will already be in to the town more to see and do, and hopefully generate and keep visitor spending in the town centre. As well as providing a lot of fun things for children and adults alike to see and do, it will also hopefully educate visitors about sheep farming and the issues faced by sheep farmers who have seen the price of wool dwindle in recent times.
The festival is also being held around the time of National Wool Week, which is being held in October this year, part of the HRH championed Campaign for Wool.
For more information please contact Nick Stewart, Sustainable Tourism Officer (Collabor8 Project) on 01874 620 490 or Fiona Walker, Chairman of the Llandovery & District Chamber of Commerce on 07974 434 991.