Lampeter Reunion 2024

With a mix of the more traditional activities combined with some new features for 2024, there really was something for everyone. As usual we encouraged alumni to build their individual reunion weekend by choosing any of the activities which appealed. All activities were optional - alumni were welcome to join in as much or as little as they liked.

 

Our opening evening featured the regular Lampeter Society reunion Friday night pub quiz. Big thanks to Chris Deacy for his inaugural stint as quiz master, and congratulations to our winning team, the Seven Samurai. The Friday evening meal was a Chinese Banquet, fortune cookies included!

 

We welcomed Reverend Steven Brett (1998) to the reunion as our preacher at Saturday morning’s Commemoration Service and the Rt. Rev. Dr. Richard Fenwick (1966) who gave this years organ recital. Thank you to you both for taking part in our celebrations.

 

Lampeter’s very own ‘Would I Lie to You?’ took place in 1822 on the Saturday afternoon. Attendees told a lie or truth relating to their time at Lampeter and, in true David Mitchell and Lee Mack style, the audience posed questions to try to work out whether they were telling a lie or the truth! The audience were treated to a story of selling a sausage roll to the lead singer of the Manic Street Preachers and someone’s tall tale of having their signature sent into space. It was an interesting opportunity to find out some revealing truths about former students!

 

Our guest speaker at the reunion dinner this year was music journalist, writer and broadcaster, Pete Paphides (1992). Pete spoke about his time at Lampeter and his early musical influences, and briefly mentioned some of his famous interviewees during his music journalism career, including half of ABBA and the BeeGees! We were extremely fortunate to hear from Pete and I know his talk was a real highlight of the weekend for us all.

Thanks to the Roderic Bowen Library and Archives who once again collated a fascinating exhibition for us in the Library and Archives; this year on the theme of ‘food’. On show were some beautiful food-related books from the Special Collections as well as an online and physical archive exhibition about food at St David's College. The Archives have some wonderful archive material including photographs, menus and excerpts from the college magazines and Students' Union Handbooks which were fascinating to see.

 

Sunday morning featured an interactive creative writing masterclass from UWTSD Creative Writing lecturer, Dominic Williams. Dominic is co-director of the Dylan Thomas International Summer School, a 12-day intensive residential course which welcomes students to Lampeter from all over the world to focus on the extraordinary landscape of Wales as a catalyst for creative writing. Dominic’s session was a true highlight of the weekend and we saw the creation of some reunion based masterpieces, which will be available in the next edition of The Link!

We officially closed the weekend later than in recent years. Our final activity was a gentle walk on the Sunday afternoon; a good opportunity to walk off our Sunday lunch.

The Reunion was a great weekend which we all thoroughly enjoyed and we look forward to next year.