Imagine a city composed entirely of music for three glorious weeks. A city where basslines throb deep into the night, synthesisers buzz around arenas, concert halls and independent grassroots venues, and melodies sing out from street corners. A city full of unexpected happenings, exhilarating gigs and sonic art. A city where even the buildings pulse in time to the beat.
The city is Cardiff, and the festival is the new Cardiff Music City Festival
Supported by the Welsh Government and Cardiff Council, the festival aims to attract 20,000 visitors in its first year.
With just over four weeks until the festival begins on Friday, September 27th, a new wave of emerging and iconic artists, exciting events, music industry talks, and mind-blowing installations have been lined up in established and unconventional venues across the city.
Cardiff Music City Festival aims to celebrate artists who have pushed the boundaries of music production and performance and continue to do so, creating a space for new and established acts to inspire audiences, try new things, and deliver unique participation experiences.
Joining pioneering electronic artists, Leftfield and Orbital, the barrier breaking Ms. Lauryn Hill and The Fugees, genre-bending Irish rap trio Kneecap, and jazz poet and saxophonist Alabaster DePlume at the festival, will be:
- Local rapper Mace the Great was born and raised in Splott, the area of Cardiff celebrated in his Welsh Music Prize nominated album SplottWorld, but the last few years have seen him winning invites to the MOBOs and delivering storming sets at SXSW. Mace returns to Cardiff’s Tramshed on Saturday, October 5thin a stunning showcase of local Welsh hip-hop talent, also featuring Sage Todz and Luke RV, Aleighcia Scott, Adjua, Local Source and Silk Futures.
- Melting dancefloors from the moment his debut album True Colours dropped in 2002, Cardiff local High Contrast has been at the heart of the drum and bass scene ever since. One listen to the dirty bass and liquid grooves of soulful new single ‘Loved You So’ are proof that time hasn’t dulled his edge. High Contrast will invite people into his cinematic world to deliver an innovative live streamed event, direct from his studio on Saturday 28thSeptember, giving unparalleled insight into his creative genius.
Born in Guinea into a ‘djeli’ family with hereditary responsibility for preserving traditional Mandingue culture through the sharing of ancient rhythms, songs, and stories, N’famady Kouyate merges his traditional West African musical heritage with the classical European instruments of Sinfonia Cymru in a special performance at Porter’s in his adopted hometown on Wednesday, October 2nd.
Blurring the lines between techno and house, Frankie Rizardo has established himself as one of the Netherlands finest musical exports. A regular at nightlife institutions like Fabric (London), Amnesia (Ibiza) and Sound (Los Angeles), Frankie plays District in Cardiff on Saturday, October 5th.
Cardiff Council Leader, Cllr Huw Thomas, said: “Music is the beating heart of Cardiff and the first Cardiff Music City Festival is a key part of our music strategy to support every part of the city’s music ecosystem – from musicians to producers, promoters, venues and beyond.
“The whole city will be alive with music throughout the festival. It promises to be a really special few weeks. Music is such a powerful means of bringing people together and perhaps now more than ever, that sense of social cohesion is really important.”
The Welsh Government Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, Transport and North Wales, Ken Skates, said:”This brand new music festival is fantastic for Cardiff and I’m proud that we’ve been able to support the festival and elements of the city’s music scene over the years.
“It’s an amazing line up embracing all types of musical genres that will really showcase the city’s diverse range of music venues.”
Festival performances also include:
- Tân Cerdd presenting Children of Zeus & Guestsas part of an event showcasing an exceptional line-up of Black artists who are redefining the musical landscape. Organised by the superbly talented Dionne Bennett, guests include Lemfreck and Mercy Rose.
- A programme of dance and electronic events at Cardiff’s leading dance venue District, featuring Frankie Rizardo, Elkka and Bradley Zero.
- A showcase of Cardiff’s young talent, developed through the city’s new ‘Little Gigs’ schools programme aimed at nurturing young talent.
- A celebration of the Forte Project & Horizons ten years of nurturing Welsh talent featuring alumni including HMS Morris and Minas.
As well as a series of one-off unique performances and gigs, three long-established events in Cardiff and Wales’ cultural calendar will become vital parts of the bigger, ambitious celebrations under the Cardiff Music City Festival banner this year.
The Welsh Music Prize
The winner of The Welsh Music Prize, the annual award for the best album from Wales will be announced at Wales Millennium Centre on Tuesday, October 8th.
Llais
Cardiff’s annual international arts festival, Llais will light up Cardiff Bay like a living jukebox with a programme of adventurous live music from Thursday, October 10th– Sunday, October 13th.
Exploding into life with a double bill featuring two of the UK’s most incendiary musical forces, Bristol five-piece Squid channel a complex world of modern anxieties and foreboding futures through dizzying array of influences and a distinctly English lens while covering subjects ranging from domestic mundanity to standing stones and outer space. Keeping up the urgent intensity is Geordie Greep, lead singer of the fabled black midi renowned for baroque maelstroms and orchestrated mayhem.
Making their name as powerhouse legends of the UK DIY scene, Porridge Radio are one of the most talked about bands of the moment. The Brighton five-piece make their Cardiff debut on Thursday, October 10that Llais.
Adding to a line-up that already includes the singular talent of Joan As Policewoman, Llais sees a long-awaited performance by another original pop voice, Fabiana Palladino whose long-awaited debut album of “sublime 80s pop innovation”(The Guardian)has garnered a host of 5-star reviews for the prodigiously talented daughter of Cardiff-born session legend Pino Palladino.
One of the most acclaimed songwriters of recent years, Lisa O’Neill is a true raconteur whose poetic voice is steeped in the cadence of her native County Cavan. Feted by everyone from Cillian Murphy (her song ‘Blackbird’ features on the Peaky Blinders soundtrack) and Margot Robbie to theNew York Timeswho called her a “cultural hero and modern artist tapped into the ancient”, O’Neill’s highly acclaimed release ‘All of This Is Chance’ featured on many album of the year lists in 2023, includingBBC 6Music, MojoandSonglines.She brings her distinctive voice, “by turns raw and wild, warm and melodic, grief-stricken and exuberant” (The Guardian) to Llais on Friday, October 11th.
Also performing will be last years’ Welsh Music Prize winners, Rogue Jones. The experimental bilingual outfit return to Cardiff for the first time since 2017 to perform their album ‘Dos Bebés’ in its entirety. Audiences can expect special guests and additional voices to help bring their songs and stories about UFOs, computer science, witchcraft and Welsh independence to life.
Closing Llais will be Fantastic Racket: a showcase of iconic (& iconoclastic) voices from across music, books, art & beyond – a one-off (never to be repeated) whirlwind of fierce and fantabulous voices. Fantastic Racket is a series of unique performances from a phenomenal collective of best-selling writers, chart-topping musicians, cult champions, social media starlets, arts provocateurs, hip-hop supremos, poetic troubadours and the curious realms in-between. Strutting, sashaying, waltzing, gliding, galumphing, toe-tapping, catapulting or comet-ing to stage will be the likes of: Lady Leshurr, Sara Pascoe, Irvine Welsh, Hollie McNish, Easter Shah (Nadine Shah & Callum Easter), Emma Dabiri, Jackie Kay, Joelle Taylor + Russell Tovey, Carys Eleri and Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub) – plus short films by David Shrigleyand hosting words from Michael Pedersen.
Sŵn Festival
Established in 2007, Sŵn Festival: is an award-winning multi-venue music festivalthat focuses on new music, emerging artists and homegrown acts and has grown into one of the UK’s most eminent new music festivals.
Running fromThursday, October 17th– Saturday, October 19thSŵn Festival kicks off with Brixton born Wu-Lu, whose scathing intensity and anarchic spirit forces punk, grunge and hip-hop into a head-on collision. Joining Wu-Lu on the streets of Cardiff on the Thursday, will be London-based Welsh jangle-poppers The Tubs – the latest venture from Owen “O” Williams and George “GN” Nicholls, the primary songwriters behind the dearly missed Joanna Gruesome. Championed by the likes of Pitchfork, MOJO and Uncut the quartet’s music is so rich in earworm hooks it’ll still be rattling around your head come next year.
London-based multidisciplinary artist and the internet’s original pop princess, Hannah Diamond hits the Welsh capital on Friday as will Borough Council, whose austere, no-wave sound and frenetic live shows have seen them gain a cult following in their hometown of Hastings. Serving up grisly garage-rock and pop sensibilities on the same day will be Cardiff natives Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard, while laid-back melodies and wistful psychedelia will be provided by Welsh Music Prize nominees Pys Melyn.
Spanningcollegiate emo-rock, dream-pop and psychedelia, English Teacher’s sound demands attention – and got if from Rolling Stone UK, who described them as “a band with limitless potential and the ability to go anywhere.” With their latest album,This Could Be Texasnominated for a Mercury Prize, this could be the last chance to catch them before they go stratospheric. Other confirmed artists for Saturday include: dance-pop darlings Porij, the mesmerising Mary In The Junkyard, elusive and much-hyped London band, The Itch; fiery Brighton punks the Lambrini Girls whose thunderous recent single single ‘God’s Country’ has seen them lauded all over by the likes of BBC Radio 1, 6 Music and NME as well as sharing the cover of Kerrang! with alt-rock luminaries Sleater-Kinney and being nominated for a Rolling Stone UK Award.
Also joining the line up for Saturday will be Honesty; one of the most exciting and mysterious new fixtures on the UK live circuit, the Leeds outfit produce an audiovisual spectacle that mixes digital and analogue, found material and AI manipulation, a contemporary DIY attitude without the tired punk tropes.
Fresh from the release of his widely acclaimed latest solo album Strange Dance, Radiohead drummer Philip Selway brings his beautiful, dramatic solo work to this year’s festival. Dabbling in an array of genres from neo-classical to Krautrock, a live rendition is sure to be a highlight of this year’s schedule.
Sŵn Festivalwill also run the festival conference, including industry sessions, mixers and meet ups.
With a festival site thatstretches and sprawls through a labyrinth of spaces, busy streets and quieter corners, through Cardiff’s dynamic city centre to the glistening river mouth and freshwater lake of Cardiff Bay, Cardiff Music City Festival is reinventing what a music festival can be.
It’s this cityscape that will host a number of unexpected artistic interventions. Festival organisers are working withmulti-disciplinary artist and designerMark James, who has designed for the likes of U2, Underworld, Maximo Park, Das Koolies and Gruff Rhys, to create a unique audio-visual installation to be revealed during the festival.
A building-sized light projection by world-renowned and Cardiff based lighting designer Paul Johnson of NeonBlack, one of the lead creatives behind the Las Vegas MSG Sphere will pulse to the festival beat for the full three weeks.
In downtime between gigs, visitors to Cardiff will also be able to enjoy talks, meet-ups, industry sessions, socials, pop-ups and a vinyl bar, as well as being welcomed by Cardiff’s many venues, bars, coffee shops and hospitality venues.
