Users with the right equipment can be sent a map of the maes (field)

Visitors to the National Eisteddfod in Swansea can receive up-to-date news about the festival on mobile phones if their phone has Bluetooth.

The information includes events, highlights of the day, competition results, and a map of the maes (field).

Devices with a Bluetooth chip, which can include phones and computers, enable information to be transferred by radio instead of cables.

On the eisteddfod field, the free-of-charge messages are available in a limited area of the site, near the science and technology tent.

No-one would ever think there would be a corner for Bluetooth, and then you walk past the tent, and your phone goes off Rhiannon Griffiths

Andrew Minton, director of animation company Moonoo, said: "It's an advice service to push people's knowledge of technology for the future."

He said Bluetooth was "short-wave radio transmission, similar to wi-fi", and was not yet widely used in the UK, but was used in America to provide information at fairs and conferences.

Robert Light from Greenfield Media added there had been a lot of interest from festival-goers, with approximately 180 messages sent out on Tuesday.

Actor Danny Grehan said it was a brilliant development

Rhiannon Griffiths, 22, from Swansea, said she found the service "really useful".

"My phone goes off every half an hour with incoming Bluetooth messages, and I've been receiving the results of all the competitions, and the gigs that are going on," she explained.

Ms Griffiths said the eisteddfod needed modern technology to "move along with the times".

"No-one would ever think there would be a corner for Bluetooth, and then you walk past the tent, and your phone goes off," she added.

Actor Danny Grehan said the service was "brilliant" for reminders of what was going on.

Visitors can find out more in the science and technology tent

"When I first saw it, it was like, what's all this about then," he said.

"It's a brilliant idea, something I think the eisteddfod should pick up on."

The eisteddfod's director, Elfed Roberts, said: "This is an experiment... it's an opportunity to try out the latest technology at the eisteddfod, and we're keen to do that.