WELSH may be a minority language but a festival saw to that by encouraging hundreds of people to speak and learn it.

More than 200 people hurried to Newport's first Welsh speaking festival to celebrate Welsh culture on Saturday.

Gŵyl Newydd, which was held at Malpas Court, gave people the chance to socialise and have fun with a variety of activities - including singing - in a completely bilingual setting.

Elin Maher, who is the festival's secretary, said: "The main focus for the festival is to promote the Welsh language in the city.

"We want families and learners to have the opportunity to hear it being spoken.

"This is the first festival of its kind here. We have had the Eisteddfod in the past, but the difference is that this festival is just for Newport.

"We were eager to have Gŵyl Newydd here because these festivals are growing across the whole of the country."

The 46-year-old, who is a Welsh speaker, described the event as "successful".

"We have singers, dancers, theatrical production on the Welsh language, games and lots of other activities," she said.

"We want to show that the language is a vibrant language in Newport. The 2011 census recorded a few thousand of Welsh speakers in Newport. It is a sizeable chunk and we now have new Welsh speaking schools.

"We have had hundreds of people turn up for our festival and they seem to be encouraging it.

"Considering this is the festival's first ever event, I believe it has been successful."

Newport City Council’s Welsh language champion Councillor Jason Hughes introduced three new short films at the festival.

Developed as part of the council’s Becoming Bilingual/ Bod yn Ddwyieithog campaign, they showed Newport parents talking about their families’ experience of life in Welsh medium primary schools.

The campaign, one of the strands of the city’s five year Welsh language strategy, aims to raise awareness of Welsh medium education.

To find out more information, visit the website www.gwylnewydd.cymru