FOLLOWING Cardiff hosting this year’s BBC 6Music Festival, Sŵn Festival will return this October full-scale for the first time since 2019, rounding off what’s been a remarkable year for Welsh music.
Fast becoming an unmissable highlight of the UK new music calendar, Cardiff’s Sŵn Festival today announces the first batch of names for its 2022 edition, taking place across the Welsh capital from October 21st to 23rd.
The tastemaker festival presents a perfect mix of established and upcoming artists for a celebration of the diverse, exciting nature of British music and beyond.
Speaking of this year’s festivities, Clwb Ifor Bach and Sŵn Festival live manager Adam Williams said,
“I cannot stress how excited myself and the team at Clwb are that we are able to bring Sŵn Festival back in 2022 in its fullest form. We are incredibly pleased to share the first wave of the 2022 edition with you. Booking the line-up is always such a pleasure and we are still somehow amazed by how many new artists there are each year. It is a total struggle to get them all on the bill. How many bands is too many bands?
“The festival has always and will always showcase who we believe are the future big festival headliners both international and Welsh artists. This year, Cardiff centre will host over 120 artists across 9 venues. Expect new spaces, friendly faces and a whole lotta pink!”
The festival’s opening night takes place on Friday, Oct 21st at the 1000-capacity Tramshed and promises a rapturous start to proceedings. The inimitable BC Camplight return to Cardiff for their biggest headline show to date in the Welsh capital, armed with an eclectic array of singer-songwriter classicisms, gnarly synth-pop and ‘50s rock’n’roll.
Joining them are hometown heroes Panic Shack who continue their breakout 2022 with razor-sharp indie-punk anthems galore. They said,
“Sŵn holds a special place in our hearts, we were given a slot in 2019 when we were fresh out of the Shack womb, having only played a handful of shows. We played to a packed downstairs Clwb Ifor Bach and it blew us away, it still ranks highly on our ever growing fave moments list.
To be playing again this year, at Tramshed (!) with a set of more than just our 4 raw (questionable) songs and the couple of covers we started with is super exciting and we can’t wait to add it to the list.”
Keeping things local, alongside the aforementioned Panic Shack, there’s a dizzying array of Welsh talent on display including the likes of Aderyn, Adwaith, Breichiau Hir, Lemfrek, Ogun, Plastic Estate, Sweet Baboo, Yxngxr1, HMS Morris, Mellt, Eädyth & Izzy Rabey.
Other acts include one of the most infectious, effervescent and active acts currently on the live circuit, London-based Cumbia pioneers Los Bitchos, Brighton’s Sea Power, Bristol’s Billy Nomates and Bodega, who bring a hit of NYC cool to the festival.
Adding to an already jam-packed first batch of names for this year’s festival, you’ll find the cathartic slowcore of deathcrash, the infinitely inspiring Alabaster DePlume, the gripping, disarming shoegaze of bdrmm, sleeze-synth art-pop from Home Counties, empowering indie rock from Glasgow’s Lucia & the Best Boys, ascendant West London rapper Jelani Blackman, the hi-fi symphonies of Strawberry Guy, the shamanic live lightning of Snapped Ankles, strato-pop stargazers The Orielles, blistering Krautrock from TRAAMS, irresistible and emotive pop from Wesley Gonzalez and the sparkling, motorik WH Lung.
