Featured Events in Brecon in July, 2025 (July Updated)

Community Choir Leader, Beth Allwood will deliver a 2 hour gospel singing workshop. Open to all ages and abilities, this will be a relaxed introduction to the uplifting joy of Gospel music that promises to leave you with a smile on your face and gospel choir sway in your step. The last half hour of the workshop will form part of the Festival Choir Trail with Festival visitors arriving at St Mary's to enjoy the singing. Information Source: Brecon Choir Festival | eventbrite

Start your Saturday with four choirs singing uplifting harmony together! In a unique one off concert, Alive & Kickin’ Community Choir Brecon, Theatr Brycheiniog’s Uplift Choir, Merthyr Aloud & the Whiterose Singers New Tredegar will sing as one choir, drawing on traditions from around the world, led by local choir leader & singer/ songwriter Tanya Walker. Information Source: Brecon Choir Festival | eventbrite

The festival’s Grand Concert will see the BBC National Chorus of Wales, conducted by Adrian Partington, perform Carl Orff’s powerful Carmina Burana at Brecon Cathedral. The dramatic piece, famous for its “O Fortuna!” opening, will also feature a local children’s chorus and soloists from Continuum, favourites from last year’s festival. The first half of the concert includes a special premiere peformance of the R.S. Thomas poem 'Song' by Lucy Walker, as well as performances of There was a Garden by Alex Mills and Strange Light by Jeremy Thurlow both set to poems by Thomas. The winner of the 2025 Young Singer Award will also sing a solo as part of this magnificent concert. Information Source: Brecon Choir Festival | eventbrite

Do you find that your voice is tired and your throat sore after a rehearsal? Do you dread high notes? Do you wish you knew how to make these problems better and unlock some of that potential that you think you might have but are unable to achieve? Gigi Galletta delivers this two hour workshop aimed at singers of all levels of experience and ability interested in learning the techniques they need to enhance their vocal health, range and stamina.With a focus on the fundamentals of breathing, resonance and support, and understanding your body and vocal physiology, Gigi's techniques have been honed in a career spanning over 40 years of vocal education. Her successful approach has enabled many past students to go on to study voice at all the major music colleges in the UK. Come along and see if you can learn something that will make you a happier and healthier singer! Information Source: Brecon Choir Festival | eventbrite

Hear the final concert of the 2025 Brecon Choir Festival at Brecon Cathedral as the junior chorus of Only Boys Aloud present their show after a week long course held in Brecon Expect a variety of choral music from traditional male voice choir repertoire and classical favourites to musical theatre showstoppers The Aloud Charity changes the lives of young people across Wales using the power of group singing. Their activities offer unique opportunities for children and young people aged 9-25, providing them with the self-confidence and skills they need to fulfil their potential. The Academi was established in 2011 to offer more expert and individual tuition to members of Only Boys Aloud (OBA) who have shown the greatest commitment and musical potential. Aimed at the more mature OBA members, the week-long, intensive residential course provides advanced training in all aspects of general musicianship, singing and performance. The OBA Academi has produced a transformation in the boys who attended over the last 14 years, and this in turn has had a demonstrably positive impact on the overall OBA choir. The Academi is funded by The Mosawi Foundation and is heavily subsidised to make it affordable to the whole group. Bursaries are also offered to ensure maximum access and participation. Members of the Academi have had many incredible experiences which include performances at 10 Downing Street, Festival Interceltique Lorient, the Japanese Embassy, London, and the Coronation Concert at Windsor Castle. Information Source: Brecon Choir Festival | eventbrite

Information Source: Brecon Choir Festival | eventbrite

Information Source: ROC Adventure | eventbrite

Join outdoor Wild swim & kayak specialist Angela Jones at Brecon for an exciting day of adventure on the River Usk. What's included: Swim & Kayak event led by highly qualified & fully insured outdoor adventure expert Angela Jones Welcome & safety briefing Guidance on swimming & paddle techniques Explore Wildlife and enviroment of The Usk Water safety support team ( if more than 6) Equipment hire incl (kayak, paddle, life jacket,tow floats) wetsuit hire availible Suitable for all abilities Over 18s (for insurance purposes) Equipment & What you need to take part Arrive in casual training clothes - Weather depending kit for day Trousers and a long sleeve top & fleece Waterproof jacket (essential) Water bottle Swim hat /goggles(optional) Towell wetsuits (can be hired £5) Suitable sensible swim footwear with a good grip (essential can be purchased £35 on day ) Towel,swim costume ( plase wear swim suit under your clothes) Information Source: Angela Jones | eventbrite

Join outdoor Wild swim & kayak specialist Angela Jones at Brecon for an exciting day of adventure on the River Usk. What's included: Swim & Kayak event led by highly qualified & fully insured outdoor adventure expert Angela Jones Welcome & safety briefing Guidance on swimming & paddle techniques Explore Wildlife and enviroment of The Usk Water safety support team ( if more than 6) Equipment hire incl (kayak, paddle, life jacket,tow floats) wetsuit hire availible Suitable for all abilities Over 18s (for insurance purposes) Equipment & What you need to take part Arrive in casual training clothes - Weather depending kit for day Trousers and a long sleeve top & fleece Waterproof jacket (essential) Water bottle Swim hat /goggles(optional) Towell wetsuits (can be hired £5) Suitable sensible swim footwear with a good grip (essential can be purchased £35 on day ) Towel,swim costume ( plase wear swim suit under your clothes) Information Source: Angela Jones | eventbrite

Step into this summer in partnership with plants, exploring how our native flora can help us to better know ourselves and rekindle our relationship with our wild and precious world. Guided by veterinary surgeon and acupuncturist Emily Valentine Powell and storyteller and ethnobotanist Pridie Tiernan, this unique whole day experience will immerse you in a world heady with Meadowsweet and bright with the light of St John’s Wort...all safe in the embrace of meadow, hedgerow and ancient towering Ash and Oak. A rich mix of plant ID, herbal medicine practice, foraging, folklore and storytelling, this workshop is a celebration of the power and magic of our native plants to support and revitalise our bodies and souls. Through careful identification, gentle sensing, collective exploration and shared practical experience, we will engage deeply with our seasonal native flora. Beginning with an introduction to the five elements in Traditional Medicine, Emily will lead us in exploring our own elemental balance, and gift us a taster of moxibustion (the ancient practice that uses plants to access energy within the body). We'll then embark on a journey about the farm to delve deeper into the elemental nature, folklore and uses of Oak, St John's Wort and Meadowsweet, and sit beneath the boughs of some of our oldest trees for some spell-binding storytelling. The day will feature plenty of opportunity to discuss our three star plants, considering them on a practical, elemental and sensory level, and, in doing so, deepening our relationship with each. What better way to immerse yourself in that bounty of green this summer? No previous experience of traditional medicine, foraging, plant medicine or botany is required. This day is very much about beginning, and/or deepening, your relationship with wild plants, and a chance to spend time together celebrating them. Your hosts: Emily Valentine Powell is a practitioner of Acupuncture and Moxibustion , a veterinary surgeon and farmer committed to a deeper exploration of indigenous plant medicines in the UK, weaving them into her practice and acknowledging our native flora as guides when it comes to including magic and spirituality in dialogues around health.  As a vet and farmer she has spent over three decades immersed in our plant and animal communities and absorbing their teachings - unwittingly at first, but over time more consciously. The timeless wisdom of Traditional Chinese medicine has provided Emily with the rhetoric to include spiritual (or those less tangible) elements into our frameworks for health and healing, firmly rooting our health back into the domain of our wild but perfectly balanced planet earth . In her healing work Emily has long been drawn to our native plants and the resonance and language we share with them. She encourages more conscious dialogue with the natural world , as a tool for understanding how we personally resonate with our environment and to illuminate areas we may have become blocked or discordant. This workshop is an opportunity to create a space where we can begin to better understand the elemental carnival in which we partake, from the moment we take our first breath until the last .  Pridie Tiernan is a storyteller and ethnobotanist committed to reconnecting us with the plants we once used to nourish, nurture and heal. She weaves a rich mix of oral storytelling into the teaching of wilderness skills; rekindling our relationship with the natural world and empowering us to feel at one with the wild. As a storyteller , she has spent many years performing stories that create a sense of familiarity and connection with nature, especially in those that gift us the opportunity to explore the concept of the "wild woman" - that powerful, untamed force connected to the natural world that can be both nurturing and fierce, instinctual, passionate and creative. Her work encourages a reconnection with that wildness - rediscovering our feral inventiveness and power - through the sharing of ancient stories and the teaching of practical survival skills. As an ethnobotanist , Pridie has long been fascinated by the power of plants . Her sensory herbalism, seasonal woodcraft and rewilding workshops, draw our native flora onto centre stage, embracing them as a potent way of gaining insight into ourselves and our place in the world, taking control of our bodies , and tapping into the magic of the natural world . This retreat takes place at her home in the heart of the Black Mountains—a safe and beautiful space where the sharing of stories and ancestral skills brings people together in community and encourages a change in the way we interact with nature. Here, we can return to that state of ‘awakeness’ we once enjoyed when we thrived in the wild - all senses firing, the herbs and flowers our allies, and the powerful, untamed force that is our wildest self fully embraced and unleashed! Information Source: The Wild of the Words | eventbrite

Information Source: Creative Wellbeing Circle | eventbrite

Panel discussion led by Susan Fogarty on how a great religious poet, R.S. Thomas, made Wales the scene of an epic struggle against The Machine. Hear from writers Grahame Davies and Peter Finch on how their personal encounters with RS inspired their own writing. Information Source: Brecon Choir Festival | eventbrite

Enjoy the opening of the 2025 Brecon Choir Festival with Mendelssohn’s monumental oratorio, Elijah, performed in the awe-inspiring surroundings of Brecon Cathedral. • A special festival choir and Brecknock Sinfonia with renowned soloists will bring this dramatic biblical tale to life. • Conducted by Robert Evans, Musical Director of the Brecon Singers. Information Source: Brecon Choir Festival | eventbrite

Join outdoor Wild swim & kayak specialist Angela Jones at Brecon for an exciting day of adventure on the River Usk. What's included: Swim & Kayak event led by highly qualified & fully insured outdoor adventure expert Angela Jones Welcome & safety briefing Guidance on swimming & paddle techniques Explore Wildlife and enviroment of The Usk Water safety support team ( if more than 6) Equipment hire incl (kayak, paddle, life jacket,tow floats) wetsuit hire availible Suitable for all abilities Over 18s (for insurance purposes) Equipment & What you need to take part Arrive in casual training clothes - Weather depending kit for day Trousers and a long sleeve top & fleece Waterproof jacket (essential) Water bottle Swim hat /goggles(optional) Towell wetsuits (can be hired £5) Suitable sensible swim footwear with a good grip (essential can be purchased £35 on day ) Towel,swim costume ( plase wear swim suit under your clothes) Information Source: Angela Jones | eventbrite

Watch four singers take up the opportunity for a masterclass with singing teacher Lis Priday with audience members having the opportunity to watch and listen the development of each singer’s piece. Lis was a member of the Monteverdi Choir for 30 years and a founder member of the Cardiff based Welsh Baroque Soloists. She taught singing at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and spent several happy years teaching at Christ College in Brecon. Each August Lis teaches at an international summer school for singing students from Conservatoires all over the world. Sue Bird will be the accompanist, Sue is an experienced teacher in her own field and seeks to create a high energy, inspirational teaching space in which pupils develop exciting and new connections with their repertoire and musicality.  If you are a singer who would like to be part of the masterclass please contact the Choir Festival organsiers: planning@breconbuzz.co.uk Information Source: Brecon Choir Festival | eventbrite

Upper voices consort The Hildegard Singers bring their ethereal sound from Cambridge to Brecon Cathedral Be the first to listen to a new commission of R.S. Thomas’ “Strangers,” composed by Sarah Henderson as part of the festival theme Experience a unique showcase of rarely performed upper voices repertoire in an ancient setting Information Source: Brecon Choir Festival | eventbrite