Our first time at Cardiff’s excellent award-winning Sŵn Festival [established since 2008] which offered up circa 150 bands and artists across 10 city centre venues – including Tramshed, Clwb Ifor Bach, St John’s Church, Jacobs Basement, Fuel, The Canopi, Tiny Rebel, Boho Club and Porters – for its three day run between Thursday 16th and Saturday 19th October.
We chose the final day, Saturday, to check it out; catch a bunch of acts, grab some pix and tell you the skinny…
As with the beefed up 2024 edition of Wales’ premiere new music festival, Sŵn 2025 once again runs over three full days of programming and is proudly part of Cardiff Music City Festival, and included a two-day conference at two venues, for music’s movers and shakers.
The festival promised “an absolute explosion of the best Welsh, national and international talent across a plethora of Cardiff venues, from ascendant acts making waves on a large scale to brilliant Welsh artists taking their first steps towards bigger and better things: a platform Sŵn has long been renowned for”. From what we saw and heard, they delivered!
It’s like a smaller version of the brilliant Great Escape festival held across multiple Brighton venues each spring.
Lovers Skit from Sweden at Fuel got the crowd going with their unusual metal-infused electro-pop vibe. Lead singer Nathalia and guitarist Ove met in Stockholm in late 2020 at the tail-end of lockdown, and began making music together. Ove had been in hardcore bands and made a little music himself, but Nathalia had never tried; she began singing over his productions, and things snowballed.
They started a pop band inspired by the 90’s rave scene and in spring 2023, Lover’s Skit played their first show; now signed to 40 Miles, they’re one of Sweden’s fastest-rising bands. Nathalia Aránguiz has a crazy amount of energy and she’s dancing and jumping all over the stage. The crowd is feeding off this and loving it. Ones to watch.
Skank Diva raised the roof of Fuel rock club with their punk goods. Lead singer arrives with what looks like swimming goggles, holding a mannequin head. Mannequin head has beard and hair drawn on it with a Sharpie. Letters are also on it but can’t make out the words.
Big hard rock/punk influence here. Lots of tempo changes making the old school punk rocker in the crowd very happy. And the rest of us…
The Orchestra (For Now) – These Guildhall students and their Baroque-inspired post-rock have been intriguing and moving audiences across the country. Their Debut EP “Plan 75” is an endearing insight into the life of a young Londoner; filled to the brim with witty lyrics and niche references. Having not played Cardiff since they claimed the Green Man Rising crown last year, their hotly anticipated return to the Capital is a good one.
They reminded me a bit of Muse. Post apocalyptic grungy alternative sounds and quite cool. I think they have some potential. With their explosive rhythms and great vocals, its a bit odd to see the crowd just standing still. No goths here! Maybe they’re just taking it all in. Not sure. But the youngsters on stage are musically sound [excuse the pun]. Decent set and a large crowd at this upstairs gig in Clwb ilfor Bach.
Naima Bock in beautiful St John’s church. Great place for a gig, all acoustic stuff, but I thought it would be to see a rock act in here. Formerly the bassist in Goat Girl, she is in a duo here, and both have great voices, also a bit of help from the church reverb.
Taking some influence from the Brazilian music of her youth as well as more modern indie folk, with last year’s “Below A Massive Dark Land” being received as one of the best records of 2024.
It’s a calm environment in the church. A much older crowd here enjoying the music than the club venues, sat in the narrow pews of the church or the pop up bar from the side. Makes me wish the bar was a permanent installation in a church – might pick up religion again!
Lime Garden at Fuel drawing in a large female audience with their graceful melodies and sweet harmonies. Punk-pop vibe with a bit of an edge. Chatter about their ex-boyfriends before dedicating songs to them. Crowd loving it.
The hotly-tipped Brighton four-piece already have a critically acclaimed debut album “One More Thing” and sold out UK, EU & US tours already under their belt, yet they are still gigging with fierce intent. “I Want To Be You” stands as one of their catchiest songs. No strangers to Sŵn after their 2022 Tramshed appearance, the girls’ return to Cardiff was impeccably fun.
Badlands. Taking inspiration from the likes of The Cure and other traditional guitar bands, Badlands’ breezy tracks are grounded by lyrics that take inspiration from Springsteen with windy narratives covering themes of love and friendship. Badlands remain predominantly unknown to most.
Badlands at Fuel Rock Club reminds me of 90s college rock, but with a harder alternative/perhaps grungy twist. They’ve got a solid set, and they seemingly had parents and friends of in tonight. The band rocked their set.
Catty. Upstairs now in club Ifor Bach and it’s Welsh-born, much-tipped [inc by this magazine] Catty taking the stage. She’s pulled a huge crowd, literally out the door. Works the crowd to get them moving and screaming.
Rocky/pop electro type of genre. Talks a lot about ex-boyfriends in between songs and calls them out for being “pricks” before dedicating the songs to them. Gets a huge cheer from the largely female audience. Just her and a drummer on stage. Playing to tracks and the live drummer.
Grandma’s House upstairs at Clwb ilfor Bach are reminiscent of Hole. The lead singer with her raspy voice, the tone of the guitars and great drumming all reminded me of that era.
This band is solid and definitely a big crowd-pleaser. The Bristol-based punk trio have become synonymous with their speedy guitar riffs and sweaty live energy built on a firm DIY perspective from University.
The Gentle Good the Welsh band up at St John’s. Beautiful setting, especially now the sun has set. Larger crowd this time. Great lighting here, wish all the bands performed in the church as the lighting in most of the venue I went inside, was about as bright as opening the fridge door, but mainly very low red light which resembles a certain district in Soho, Hamburg or Amsterdam. So I am told!
The alias of Gareth Bonello, The Gentle Good has become a prestigious folk act in Wales, blending his robust melodies with immense guitar abilities. Having won the Welsh Music Prize in 2017 with “Ruins/Adfeilion” and a spot in the Top-5 folk albums of the year from the Guardian, Bonello’s achievements speak for themselves and he earns these accolades in his outstanding live set. The group is tight. And the crowd giving them a good response for each song.
Silverwingkiller playing to maybe 50 people downstairs at Clwb Ifor Bach. Manchester-based, high energy electronic two-piece. “Fusing world music with analogue arpeggiators, aggressive bass, live breakbeats and vocals in English, Mandarin and Shanghainese.” They tried their best to get what there was of an audience going, with what I can only describe as 90s fast-paced techno with lots of shouting over the drumming and electro’synths.
The vocalist dances and jumps a lot, and moved through the small crowd. I felt bad for them as they were the last set of the night, and the few people in the crowd were quite well-oiled shall we say, and generally I think by then everyone was keen to move on to the nearest pub for last orders.
Honourable mentions to:
The Sick Man Of Europe are inspired by 80’s European rock and rising from the depths of the London underground scene, and their set here opened up with the lead singer starting from the crowd. Created a circle of the crowd around him and moved around like his own mosh pit. The ground floor of Clwb ilfor Bach was packed.
Most people stood still and looking like they just were soaking in the experience, as the singer weaved his way through the crowd while the band played on stage. This venue has two floors: Upstairs had a larger capacity.
This band sounds like The Sisters Of Mercy and Joy Division had a baby. Hypnotic repetitive tones and they sounded cool.
Wing! upstairs at Clwb ilfor Bach is two guys with programmed laptop and live drums. The crowd liked them…
This trip-hop trio have had an immense few months, landing a support slot with Geordie Greep, releasing their debut EP “Missed it Just this Once” and winning the prestigious Green Man Rising competition last summer.
Morn upstairs at Clwb ilfor Bach brought in a good sized crowd. Punk metal type sound. The band is energetic and on point.
Very much a London post-punk influence here from this award-winning band, made up of siblings from Monmouth. They landed a collab’ on a single with Speedy Wunderground, the label that gave the likes of Black Midi and Black Country, New Road their start. Now based in London, Morn’s return to Cardiff was very welcomed.
Photos by Fred van Leeuwen
Words by Fred van Leeuwen and Steve Best
