leswyl 2026 will also see the launch of the charity’s single
Daring to Dream, the emotional health charity, has launched Lleswyl 2026, a landmark live wellbeing festival that will bring people together across Wales in an evening of connection, creativity and collective care.
At the heart of Lleswyl is Daring to Dream’s commitment to supporting adults living with illness through its ‘Spaces to Talk’ and ‘Spaces to Sing’. These initiatives address an often-overlooked truth: illness does not only affect the body, but it also carries an emotional weight that is too often unseen and unsupported.
Around 1.2 million adults in Wales – almost half of the adult population – are living with illness, meaning nearly every family, street, workplace and community is touched by illness in some way, highlighting the urgent importance of emotional health support.
To highlight its work and impact over this time, Daring to Dream is launching Lleswyl 2026, a free, inclusive festival event which will stream live from 7pm on Friday 20 February 2026.
For the first time in its five-year history, Lleswyl will be a hybrid event. It will broadcast live from the Paget Rooms in Penarth with a studio audience, while again welcoming viewers from across Wales and beyond online via YouTube, and at no cost for online participation.
Lleswyl 2026 aims to ensure that the charity’s often deeply impactful work, becomes better understood by the wider public. Much of the charity’s work happens quietly behind closed doors, in hospitals, at bedsides and in one-to-one conversations. Its impact is profound for those involved, but often invisible to the wider public.
Lleswyl 2026 will be hosted once again by Siân Lloyd, Jason Harrold and Tumi Williams, bringing five years of Daring to Dream’s ‘spaces to talk’ and ‘spaces to sing’ into the light for everyone.
The event will provide an evening of outstanding music with a diverse line-up of amazing artists as Lleswyl 2026 reprises acts from its festivals including Afro Cluster, the haunting Casi Wyn with Sinfonia Cymru, the sounds of New Orleans with Band pres Llareggub, co-founder of the new Black Welsh Music Awards Ify Iwobi, Caldicot’s very own Rusty Shackle, the amazing N’famady, cover band Soul Lotta Funk, folk from icons Ar Log, Dr and the Medics and many more.
The music is blended with inspiring conversations between the hosts and invited guests, including clinicians, patients, families and carers, who will all share uplifting stories about living with a health issue, illustrating the vital role of emotional health in recovery from illness and in living life to the full while dealing with chronic or life-limiting conditions.
This year, the event will also launch Daring to Dream’s new charity single, a track written especially by Lylia Young a Bridgend College undergraduate music student. Lylia is part of a team of musicians who deliver Daring to Dream’s ‘Space to Sing’ in wards at Princess of Wales Hospital, Bridgend.
Daring to Dream’s founder Barbara Chidgey said: “To live as well as possible with illness, people need not only clinical care but also emotional support and ‘spaces to talk’ about what it feels like to live with illness, its treatments and its impact on daily life.
“We really want the wider public to hear us, to hear our voices as we discuss what it feels like living with illness with live guests who will join us on the night – patients, their families, carers and clinicians. We also want everyone to enjoy so much joyous music, being together and realising they are not on their own with illness, because they are part of our community.”
Barbara added: “Lleswyl 2026 will be a celebration of the work we do and continue to do. It’s inclusive, accessible, free and offered in an environment that anyone can tune into. We’re delighted to showcase Lylia’s wonderful track, which she has written specifically as a charity single in support of Daring to Dream.”
Lylia said: “It has been really fulfilling to write this song and contribute to a worthy charity doing amazing work.”
Lleswyl 2026 is on Friday 20 February 2026 at 7.00pm, live from the Paget Rooms, Penarth and live streamed on YouTube – Lleswyl 2026.
