Here is an article about the Sŵn Festival from a lovely contributor to our magazine…
Now in its 7th year, Sŵn Festival once again took over the city centre last weekend for 4 days of live music and fringe events scattered far and wide across the city at venues including Cardiff University’s Great Hall, Clwb Ifor Bach, Chapter Arts Centre, Gwdihw, Dempsey’s, The Moon Club and St John’s Church. Co-curated by Radio 1’s Huw Stephens and Cardiff based promoter Jon Rostron, Sŵn Festival celebrates the best music coming in and out of Wales. Alongside bigger names such as Mr Scruff, Ghostpoet and Everything Everything, there were many local artists in the line-up comfortably staking their territory: Radstewart, Samoans, Nanook of the North and Greta Isaac all put on memorable performances, and 17 year old Cardiffian Kizzy Crawford absolutely stunned her audience with her soulful, mesmerizing set on Thursday.
Staying true its aim to celebrate Welsh culture, there many Welsh language artists also performing at the festival, from the traditional folk of Gwyllt to the fresh psychadelia of Sen Segur and R. Seiliog. From further afield, Japanese heavies Bo Ningen stormed Clwb Ifor Bach for the second year in a row on Friday night, who were followed by the Nordic psychedelic post-rockers Pinkunoizu, and I still can’t heard right after hearing the uncompromising walls of white noise and brutal vocals from LA based electronic-rap outfit Clipping.
As always, there was no shortage of talent playing this year’s festival, and the swirling mix of great gigs and Cardiff’s lively nightlife made for a memorable weekend for many. A lot of bands playing almost anonymous sets last year such as Drenge, Palma Violets and Peace have all gone on to become indie poster boys in the short time since they played last year, so who knows which future stars you might have caught this year?
Stephen Springate
