Debbie Williams of Porthmadog won the Crown on her first attempt

The cream of the crop were awarded for their prose, drama, poetry and music talent at the six-day youth festival which was held this year at Margam Park near Port Talbot.

Five of the six main medals went to contestants with strong links with north west Wales while the sixth, the Welsh Learner Medal, was claimed by a Wrexham student.

The annual event is Europe's largest youth festival and celebrates the talent of the young people of Wales through music, literature, art, competitions, concerts and shows.

Nia Peris works as an editor at the National Assembly in Cardiff

First to take the honours in Monday's main ceremony was Nia Peris from the Nantlle Valley who won the Literature Medal for a collection of short stories and poetry under the title Cyfarwydd (Familiar).

"It's a great feeling to win, and to be able to tell people," said the young author who now works as an editor at the Welsh Assembly.

"It was very difficult going to work and not being able to tell them what I'd been doing, as I normally do!"

Passionate

Tuesday was the turn of Jack Price, from Wrexham, to shine on the Pavilion stage as he took the Welsh Learner's Medal for a piece of work on the flooding of the Tryweryn valley near Bala in the 1960s.

Jack Price is the first for generations in his family to reclaim the language

"He presented a passionate and wonderful poem and short story brimming with subtle descriptions and highly effective characterizations," said the adjudicators.

"The influence of the north east Wales dialect was clear in his dialogue and his recorded conversation."

The 18-year-old Yale College student hopes to go on to study Welsh at Aberystwyth University this year.

Luned Emyr, originally from Bangor, won the Drama Medal for the third time on Wednesday, this time for a monologue about a young girl dying of cancer.

Luned Emyr has just returned from studying film in Denmark

The adjudicators described her work as a story "written in a traditional form, mature, insightful and interesting".

A former student at the European Film College in Denmark, Luned is now a free-lance scriptwriter who has written for the Caernarfon-based drama series, Tipyn o Stad.

Pacifist

Another hat-trick was achieved on Thursday when Ifan Prys of Llandwrog near Caernarfon took centre stage.

His third chair was won for a work of poetry which is a satire on the Iraqi war, entitled Dur (Steel).

Pacifist Ifan Prys won his third chair

"I was very late starting to write - a fortnight before the deadline - and by then the troubles in Iraq was all that there was in news, so I couldn't write about anything else really," said the Bangor University student who describes himself as a pacifist.

On Friday, Debbie Ann Williams from Porthmadog received the Eisteddfod crown for three pieces of prose on the theme Llwybrau (Paths).

It was the first time the 22-year-old, who works for Menter Iaith Gwynedd (Welsh Language Initiative), has competed for the crown.

Angharad Lewis is training to become a teacher

Debbie says she writes for the "ordinary reader" and the adjudicators referred to her as a "mature and confident author."

Finally, Friday evening's Music Composer Medal winner was Angharad Lewis, originally from Pontarddulais near Swansea, but who has been living in Bangor for the past four years.