Northamptonshire company Neptunus, which provides the National Eisteddfod with the infrastructure on the Abergavenny Castle Meadows’ site, was chosen by the festival organisers to create the temporary venue following Neptunus’s success at providing state-of-the-art hospitality facilities during the Rugby World Cup 2015.

This is the first year Neptunus has provided the infrastructure to The National Eisteddfod of Wales.

The Northamptonshire-based company already supplies facilities to The Urdd National Eisteddfod, one of Europe’s largest touring youth festivals, and has been awarded a three-year contract by organisers of the National Eisteddfod which is being staged this year from July 29 to August 6.

The festival centrepiece is a new state-of-the-art studio-style pavilion with improved acoustics for the thousands of performing artists.

April Trasler, Managing Director of Neptunus, said, “One of the key priorities was to upgrade the main performance pavilion which has historically been staged within a canvas ‘big-top’-style tent.

“We have built them a new pavilion in our award-winning Evolution II range which is far more robust with excellent acoustics and lighting, and is more akin to a permanent building.

“The pavilion is built in the same style of structure that we used for last year’s Rugby World Cup at Twickenham for which we won a national award. The National Eisteddfod of Wales organisers visited our Twickenham facility and were extremely impressed by the high quality and the superb acoustics within the building.”

Huw Aled Jones, Head of Technical Operations for the National Eisteddfod of Wales, said, “Regular Eisteddfod visitors and performers will see that we have made exciting changes to the infrastructure of this year’s festival to enhance the overall experience.

“Our new temporary structure supplier Neptunus have brought a fresh new look to the Eisteddfod with their modern and sophisticated product range.

“In particular, their Evolution system brings significant improvements to the environment within our main performance pavilion – enabling us to improve the all-important acoustics, lighting and flooring that is so vital to performers and for the audience’s enjoyment.

“Four Alure Globe structures have also been incorporated into the festival lay-out to provide a new-look entrance and exhibition area, and to significantly improve our studio facility and another of our performance theatres.”

The 3,000 square metre pavilion, which stands on nine metre high legs and can accommodate an audience of 2,000 people, is just one of more than 30 temporary structures covering over 11,500 square metres which forms the Eisteddfod village.

The pavilion is a clear span structure with opaque roof skins and a load-bearing roof for essential stage and broadcast lighting.

Neptunus’ structures will house concerts, exhibitions, ceremonies and competitions with thousands of performers taking part over the eight-day festival.

Cultural events cover all genres of entertainment including performances by theatrical groups, dancers, choirs, folk singers, popular musicians, brass bands, classical artists, comedians, poetry recitals and scripture readings.

There will also be arts and crafts exhibitions and science shows. Neptunus is also supplying facilities for cafes, media studios and Green Rooms.

This year is the first time The National Eisteddfod of Wales have been held in Monmouthshire for more than 100 years and is expected to attract up to 150,000 visitors.

Ms Trasler added, “We have built an excellent reputation in recent years with our role in supplying structures to The Urdd Eisteddfod and we are sure that our reputation with be further enhanced at The National Eisteddfod of Wales.

“Our clear span Evolution range with rigid, high-quality flooring and load bearing roof makes it the ideal product for the performance arts where good acoustics and solid floors are so important for the artists.”

Since it was introduced to the UK the Evolution has become Neptunus’ flagship product and the structure of choice for organisers of major shows, exhibitions, sporting events and product launches.

It is widely regarded as the most technologically advanced structure available in today’s market with the appearance of a permanent building which means it can be adapted for both long-term and short-term accommodation requirements.