From 30th July to 6th August 2011 it was Wrexham's turn to host the National Eisteddfod. It is one of Europe's oldest festivals and attracts around 160,000 visitors every year to celebrate the Welsh language and culture.

The NFU stand was present for the full week and hosted a wide range of activities for young and old alike. Visitors to the stand received free tea, coffee and biscuits. Also in the afternoons they were treated to locally made Welsh cakes, which went down very well indeed!

Food and drink aside, there was a children's colouring competition with a prize for the best picture. All entries were displayed on the wall, making a very colourful display. Other NFU activities included Annabelle the cow (who also made an appearance at Llangollen Food Festival), activity books, recipe books, grow your own lettuce seeds and stickers. All these things have one purpose, the promote awareness and encourage the importance of farming in the UK.

Also present on the NFU stand were two local Police Community Support Officers who were there to create awareness about rural crime, which is a growing problem. They were on hand to answer any questions and left literature about how to prevent people from being targeted and what to do if they are.

NFU Mutual were also there to provide information about our quality insurance products and promote our local service to new customers and existing policyholders.

On a personal note it was a great opportunity to practice some of my Cymraeg, I enjoyed walking around the variety of stalls and managed to find time to sample some of the tasty food on offer.

Overall it was a success and we will look forwards to welcoming the Eisteddfod the next time it is in Wrexham or Flintshire!

On the 15th and 16th October 2011 we attended the Llangollen Food Festival with the NFU Food and Farming Road Show Trailer.

We were one of 110 trade stands to attend the event which saw more than 8000 visitors over the 2 days.

Our stand was situated adjacent to the main entrance of the Festival and excellent weather helped bring people to our stand to enjoy the Road Show.

Let's Talk Farming is the theme of NFU's national Food and Farming Roadshow and the stand is designed to encourage families (in particular future generations) to value the importance of agriculture in the UK which has always been a top priority for NFU.

The Roadshow was fronted by Lancashire farmer Johnny Ball who travels up and down the country reaching out to a million consumers every year. Johnny explains to people why farming matters and the importance of quality food and a beautiful countryside.

Visitors to the stand received free giveaways including quiz books, recipe books, stickers and seeds to grow their own lettuce. Children could also have a go at milking our very own cow called Annabelle (albeit she was made from wood!) and they could have their photo taken in our farm scene.
Visitors could also enjoy the imaginary farm landscape backdrop of the trailer which came complete with an Astroturf floor, straw bale seats and a DVD playing clips of farm animals, crops and tractors.

The Road Show enables us to not only promote food and farming, but to promote NFU Mutual as an insurance company. We gave people leaflets promoting our insurance products and even gained several renewal dates from the weekend.