Our last day at the festival has come and gone. Relieved to not have the stresses of competition hanging over us, we woke up and had a slightly more leisurely morning. The kids really seem to be enjoying our dorm set-up. In the mornings, they are up playing cards in the kitchen and eating their breakfast! They've even gotten a little better at doing the dishes! This morning, however, a few floors were finishing watching their competition video from yesterday. Lots of giggles of how they looked but overall, pretty impressed with their performances!

We loaded up on the bus for one more drive to the festival. This morning we were performers performing in between categories for the judges to be able to discuss and come up with results! Bob was contemplating the program, but after yesterday's magical performance of Magic Strings, there was no way they were not going to leave without one more performance on that awesome stage. They were for sure leaving their mark at Llangollen!!

They did their set, beginning with Magic Strings, followed by Bells of Rhymney and did yet another amazing performance of both. Realizing it was their last performance as this Ensemble group, it was very emotional, and they really made it one of their bests.

We watched a bit more of the competition and then had the rest of the day until the parade to hang out on the festival grounds or walk into town for one last day to do some last minute shopping and just spend time together before the parade.

At 3:45 we met Gary at the bus to get ready for the parade that took us through the little town of Llangollen. The streets were lined with locals as all the participants of the festival walked through, singing, dancing, giving high fives and lots of smiles and waving. We all felt like celebrities! It was quite a memorable experience!!

Following the parade, we had dinner at the festival and then were back on the bus to head into town for our closing circle. The sense of pride that was shared was so amazing. To place second in this huge festival for both categories is quite impressive, something they all worked really hard for.

We said goodbye to the kids who were leaving us early to continue their travels and then were back on the bus to head to the dorms. It was an earlyish/lateish night, packing everything up for our early morning departure the next morning to catch our flight home. Everyone was quite tired therefore they got right to work so they could get to bed.

Breakfast was a quick bite, with loads of bars packed for the 3+ hour bus ride back to Heathrow in case anyone got hungry. Homeward Bound was sung to Gary, our amazing bus driver. He was left with an American flag, a tour t-shirt, a clicking chicken stuffed animal, a new name for the bus, "The Chicken Jesus Bus," and many memories. We were beyond lucky to have him the last week and spend so much time with him! Then we were off!

We cleared customs and were through the gate, receiving many hugs, flowers, and a huge round of applause. One last performance of Johnson Boys was performed and then we were off!

Click through the slideshow below to view some highlights from today: