Coming SWN
Festival date: 21st-23rd October
I met Rhys Ifans at SWN 2008. Well, I say met. I served him a pint of flat Stella, most of which I sloshed all over myself due to being minorly starstruck in his presence. Not that he was entirely present... He’d been playing at SWN with his band, The Peth (literally translated as The Thing, in Welsh) and had turned up at the SWN closing party to stagger all over Buffalo’s dance floor. I’m personally hoping we’ll have another meeting amongst the headphones at this year’s silent disco closing party so that I can meet him when he’s a little more, ahem, aware.
Although I imagine it’s generally rare to encounter a Hollywood star at SWN festival, you’re almost guaranteed to catch an artist on the cusp of fame. Previous SWN performers who have since made it big include Marina and the Diamonds, Yeasayer and The Cribs. It’s not just artists like these whose fame is growing either; SWN itself is growing in prominence year by year. Now in its fourth year SWN has extended its running time by a day, spreading itself over the 21st to 23rd October. It has also developed into a bit of a brand name with its founders John Rostron and Huw Stephens being invited to curate stages at other festivals, and with events separate from October’s SWN fest springing up all over Cardiff.
Individual nights aside, the original concept of SWN is to create a multi-venue festival that takes Cardiff by force over the course of a weekend. This is very exciting for fans of live music in Cardiff as not only does it present us with a dizzying array of shows to attend but it raises the bar for promoters in the Capital to produce events of this standard. It means that Cardiff can be recognised as a hub for live music in the UK, if only for a weekend. As Rostron himself put it so eloquently when guest-blogging about SWN for Guardian Cardiff "...for 72 hours Cardiff will be where music will be."
Music brings people together, promoting a sense of community and a celebration of culture. SWN is encapsulating this concept by ensuring that no music fan is omitted from enjoying the festival – whether they are under-18 or are into Welsh language music. In fact, Rostron and Evans have cross-referenced both of these demographics by creating DANOED at Millennium Music Hall, an all-welsh, all-underage section of the festival. There’s also another exclusively 14-18 event at this venue as part of SWN Underage with an Aled (Kids In Glass Houses) vs Sean (The Blackout) DJ set from 6pm-10pm on the Saturday night. Both artists are reuniting with the rest of their bandmates at other points during the festival in order to curate some mid-afternoon musical debauchery at Clwb Ifor Bach and Y Fuwch Goch (watch out for The Guns, they’re wicked).
TheSprout was at Under Construction Festival in August so we’re hugely excited that the guys behind it are curating their own line-up for SWN at Cathays Community Centre. Inconsiderate Parking and The Lay-Lows are playing at this ‘all-ages welcome’ festival sub-section. That’s another great thing about SWN - it mixes all types of promoters, from the relatively unestablished to BBC Cymru! The latter institution is taking over Canton’s beloved Chapter Arts Centre. With the recent closure of Barfly, SWN couldn’t have come along at a better time for Cardiff’s venues. As well as celebrating music in the City, it gives residents a chance to pay homage to the great venues we have and to remind us that we need to over rather than underuse them.
Anyway, enough babbling (you can tell I’m excited), how much dollar are the SWN guys trying to extract from your pockets for the privelige of attending? Check out the SWN website for complete costs and the full line-up and be sure to watch out for the exact timings of my personal favourites Sweet Baboo, Egyptian Hip Hop, and Lucky Delucci. Although don’t just go and watch a band on a recommendation, the beauty of SWN is that you can skip between stages and experience something new and unexpected.
P.S. Rhys Ifans, next time a bemused bartender serves you a
drink, it’d be nice of you to tip. Oh,
and see you at that Silent Disco, yeah?
Related Articles:
2 Comments – Postiwch sylw
Sam (Sub-Editor)
Rhoddwyd sylw 19 mis yn ôl - 6th October 2010 - 14:55pm
I'm looking forward to Stricken City, Let's Wrestle and TE3TH.Oh and Toro Y Moi at the opening party (only if chillwave is still cool in a couple of weeks though).
CLICdan
Rhoddwyd sylw 19 mis yn ôl - 7th October 2010 - 15:37pm
Linkage: --> http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=130942400291303