Preview Sŵn Festival, Cardiff 22-24/10/09
By: Sofie Jenkinson
The atmosphere on the streets of Cardiff is starting to prickle with excitement – Sŵn festival is coming. And it’s coming soon.
Speaking of soon - just to remind you or in case you don’t already know Sŵn is a festival that takes place in various venues across the landscape of Cardiff. When talking about Sŵn verbally be sure to resist the urge to say it how it looks and actually just say “soon”, because that’s how the Welsh language rolls. It means sound, and hell…there is going to be a lot of that.
The run up to the festival has seen many gigs all over the shop including many hosted by Sŵn – who run gigs throughout the year on the side. Little tastepots of delight, wetting appetites for the main event. These special Sŵn hosted gigs have included performances from The Slits, Jamie T, Múm, Joy Formidable, Future of the Left, Crystal Antlers and Marina and the Diamonds.
In fact one cropped up only a couple of weeks ago as Clwb Ifor Bach played host to the beautiful melodies spun by Fanfarlo and First Aid Kit. The venue was enveloped in the perfect harmonies of the Söderberg sisters at first– both mesmerising and ethereal in equal parts. Followed by the moustache clad, foot tapping band of merriment of Farnfarlo by candlelight.
Later on in the week Oxjam began to really warm up the mean streets of Cardiff, well the epicentre at least, by taking over Womanby Street for their very own mini festival. Buckets of fun, second hand record stalls selling glorious albums from Embrace to Shooting at Unarmed Men for a pound a piece, faces covered in blue paint and the worlds longest freestyle rap (official world record ahoy) all included.
And there will, in fact, be a chance to get involved and score some more wonderful second hand records to re-love at the Oxjam record stall during Sŵn at Chapter Arts Centre on Saturday (24th) from 2pm-8pm. Once again all albums will be £1 and all singles will be 20p. You can donate by emailing oxjam.cardiff@gmail.com - anything unsold records will be donated to Oxfam stores.
We here at Rockfeedback are thigh slappingly, hat tippingly, over-the-top excited about Los Campesinos! hosting a stage in the belly of renovated church, The Gate. With a new album imminent, a brand spanking new member and support from the brilliantly creative Sparky Deathcap (possibly the next, more cynical Tony Hart, who is also the added bonus eighth member of Los Campesinos! during this tour) – this evening, on the final night of Sŵn, should be nothing short of spectacular.
You can listen to the new Los Campesinos! single here and if you want to find out more about their new band line up then please, I beg of you, watch this most fantastic explanation.
So without further ado, let’s put forward our weekend tiplets for Sŵn festival 2009:
THURSDAY
Shape present… @ Dempseys (Including performances from Islet and Them Squirrels.)
Wild Beasts @ The Gate
Gallops @ Barfly
FRIDAY
Gideon Conn @ Dempseys
Pulled Apart By Horses and Decimals @ Clwb Ifor Bach
Girls @ Y Fuwch Goch
Sŵn Bingo @ City Arms
SATURDAY
Los Campesinos! Present… @The Gate (Including performances from Dananananaykroyd, Copy Haho, Sparky Deathcap and Los Campesinos! themselves.)
Slow Club @ Dempseys
Stornoway @ Clwb Ifor Bach
Tickets are still available here as well as at various venues and record shops in Cardiff. 1 day wristbands are £17, 3 day wristband are £45 and entry to each individual stage can be bought on the door. For a full list of bands playing, check here.