Hundreds turned out to enjoy the stars of the Elan Valley in its first-ever dark skies festival.

Children made lanterns, adults attended talks, and a one-year-old was one of many to attend sold-out planetarium shows at the festival, celebrating one of the world’s best stargazing sites.

The Elan Valley Estate became the first privately-owned but publicly-accessible park to achieve silver-tier Dark Sky Park status in 2015, meaning the whole 45,000 acres is protected from light pollution.

Creating a sanctuary for wildlife and nature, visitors were able to walk amongst nocturnal creatures and listen to birds and bats during the festival’s wildlife walks, hosted by local experts Sorcha Lewis, Hazel Lee, Janice Vincett and Hsin-Jung Lu during the festival on the weekend of 27 March.

Over one hundred gathered to watch a lantern parade below Caban Coch dam, created with handmade lanterns by Llanidloes Cubs and Scouts in workshops led by artist Zoe Matthews, walking to the drumbeat of the Aberystwyth samba band.

Storyteller and harpist Mair Tomos Ifans held an outdoor storytelling event under the moon on Saturday night, sharing stories from Welsh and other European traditions relating to the moon, the stars and the night sky.

On Friday night, Holly Blackshaw and Toby Hay performed an acoustic set in Nantgwyllt Church, which was lit by lanterns, candles and fairylights.

Alongside all of this was an open day at the Elan Valley Visitor Centre, where visitors could take part in solar observation with First Light Optics, build a puff powered rocket with Mid Wales Astronomy, make stone circles to line up with the solstice, paint lanterns and find out about New Zealand’s night sky via a livestream talk with renowned astronomer, Gareth Davies.

The event was organised by the Elan Valley Trust, with partial funding from the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, supported by Powys County Council, Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, Tŷ Penbont, Lost Arc and CARAD.