A spectacular lantern parade through the streets of Fishguard will kick off this year’s Ar Ymyl y Tir 2026/On Land’s Edge Festival on Friday night (September 25).

Organisers of Fishguard and Goodwick’s art and cultural festival have teamed up with Cardigan’s Small World Theatre to celebrate Fishguard and Goodwick’s historical link to the filming of Moby Dick in 1954.

The team at Small World have been busy building a large scale Moby Dick lantern that will lead the parade.

They have also led school and public lantern-making sessions so that dozens of school children and members of both communities can join the parade with their own ‘fish and ships’ lanterns.

The parade will begin at 7pm from Ysgol Bro Gwaun and make its way through Fishguard, via West Street and High Street before arriving at Lota Park.

It will enter Lota Park from the High Street street side entrance and will head down the tree-lined avenue and as it starts to approach the Gorsedd.

On Land’s Edge Festival committee members Dr Patrick Thomas, Blanche Giacci and Dianne Kalvik show their appreciation for Fishguard’s new Moby Dick mural created by Lloyd the Graffiti.
On Land’s Edge Festival committee members Dr Patrick Thomas, Blanche Giacci and Dianne Kalvik show their appreciation for Fishguard’s new Moby Dick mural created by Lloyd the Graffiti. (On Land's Edge)

There will be a surround sound system playing an immersive sonic soundscape of whale sounds and ambient music created by award-winning sound artist Dan Jones from ap-proximately 7.20pm onwards.

And to round off the parade the Fishguard Folk Singers will be singing a short round of shanties and songs from the seas in the centre of the Gorsedd Circle from 7:45pm.

Then at 8.30pm Theatr Gwaun will host a staged reading of an abridged version of the Orson Welles play – Moby Dick Rehearsed – using local actors (including no fewer than four former town mayors of Fishguard and Goodwick).

It was in 1954, while working on his role of Father Mapple in Moby Dick, that the great actor and director wrote a play based on Herman Melville’s classic novel.

It is set in a New York theatre where a company of actors are rehearsing a production of King Lear.

One of the actors has written a play based on Melville’s book, and persuaded the company’s director to let him organise a read-through.

Together they conjure up the Pequod’s fraught journey through stormy seas, as the search for whales turns into a desperate hunt for one particular whale...

This amateur production of Moby Dick – Rehearsed is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals Ltd. on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.co.uk

Moby Dick, the classic 1956 movie about the great white whale’s running battle with Captain Ahab’s ship the Pequod, will also have an historic homecoming this weekend.

For the John Huston-directed epic will be shown at Fishguard’s Theatr Gwaun – the same venue where cast and crew viewed each day’s rushes during filming in Fishguard Bay in 1954.

The premises of butcher James Morse opposite served as an unofficial office for cast and production staff during the eight months of production.

Moby Dick poster
The poster for the movie Moby Dick (Ar Ymyl y Tir)

And on Saturday afternoon the movie – starring Gregory Peck as Ahab and Richard Basehart as its narrator Ishmael – will return to Theatr Gwaun’s big screen as part of Ar Ymyl y Tir 2026/On Land’s Edge Festival.

“It seems truly fitting that a movie which first took shape here in Fishguard should form an integral part of a festival marking the 70th anniversary of its cinematic release,” said festival chair Dr Patrick Thomas.

“There is sure to be a great atmosphere in what promises to be a packed theatre on Saturday afternoon – a few tickets are still available, but they’re selling fast!”

Moby Dick will be screened at Theatr Gwaun at 1.30pm on Saturday, September 26.