For the past 23 years the West Wales Wellbeing and Craft Show has offered countless people an insight into the powers of complementary healing.
But this weekend founder and organiser Rosemary Griffiths has confirmed that this year’s show will be its last.
“It’s a very sad and emotional time for everyone who’s either been involved with the show in the past, or who’s involved with it involved today,” commented Rosemary.
“But sadly the Brithdir hall, which is where the event takes place on the Pembrokeshire County Showground, is being taken over on a long-term lease which means that next year’s event will be unable to go ahead.”
Rosemary, a Pembrokeshire Reiki pioneer who has been at the forefront of the county’s complementary healing and spiritual awareness for several decades, launched the West Wales show towards the end of the 1990s.
“As soon as I started practicing reiki, I realised how many people were interested in the treatment but I also began finding out about all those other healers and mediums who are based around us here in Pembrokeshire,” she explains.
“This was when I decided to hold Pembrokeshire’s very own wellbeing event. And that first one was in my house.
"A lady with the crystals took over the kitchen, there were mediums in every bedroom, and I was doing my reiki in the sitting room.
“It started at nine o’clock in the morning and everyone was still there are 1am the following day. I made a huge pan of cawl and people just kept on coming in and having a great time finding out about all the healing that was available.”
From there the event moved to a hall near to the train station in Haverfordwest and, as it began to grow, it eventually moved to the showground in 2003.
“Initially we were in the pavilion but as time went on, we had to put up marquees to accommodate all the different stallholders.
“And so when the Brithdir Hall opened in 2007, we were the very first event that took place there. And we’ve been returning twice a year ever since.”
Today, the West Wales Wellbeing Show is attended by around 70 stallholders with between 500 and 600 people attending from all over the UK.
A range of holistic healing is practiced here as well as a huge selection of healing-related products and crafts which are for sale. The practitioners also have a celebration where they send energies up to the spirit world.
“This year our energies will be going to Palestine and the Ukraine, together with all our love for the people who are having to endure those terrible atrocities,” continued Rosemary.
“Yes, the Show has come to mean a great deal to so many people, and I dearly hoped I’d be able to help it reach its 25th year. But sadly, because we no longer have a suitable venue that’s large enough to hold it here in Pembrokeshire, it has to end.”
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