Culture

Cardiff music festival announces second wave of artists ahead of event this autumn

02 Sep 2026 3 minute read

A crowd surfer in the audience at Tramshed for Getdown Services as part of Sŵn. Image credit: Charlie Barclay Harris

Nation.Cymru staff

Cardiff’s Sŵn festival has unveiled the second wave of names for its 19th edition, taking place across the city over Thursday October 15th to Saturday October 17th.

Returning once again in the beefed up format of three full days of programming that made 2024 and 2025 banner years for the festival, Sŵn 2026 is packed to the rafters and is proudly part of Cardiff Music City Festival (2nd-17th October) for the third year running, building an ambitious annual collaboration in Cardiff across two weeks, which includes Llais and the Welsh Music Prize.

Founded by Huw Stephens in 2007, and led by the Clwb Ifor Bach team since 2018, this year’s Sŵn programme brings together local, national and international artists, presenting some of the most exciting new names from Wales and beyond.

Staying true to Sŵn’s vision of nurturing local talent and discovering an audience for a wide range of artists, the three-day festival is a great opportunity to find your new favourite artist.

Joining the likes of Cerys Hafana, Ifan, Casi, Pys Melyn, WRKHOUSE and Tokomololo, to name only a few artists already announced, a plethora of local Welsh talent has been added to the lineup today including the band spewed forth from the magical moorlands
of Pembrokeshire, Dewin; emerging lo-fi songwriter, Tesni; and the frantically fantastic four-piece, Ffenest, fresh from their Welsh Language Album of the Year shortlisted album, ‘Emynau Anghyflawn’.

With strong emphasis on highlighting emerging new talent, Sŵn 2026 will also welcome new names to the festival this October, including Welshpool-born Leeds-based folk Americana artist, Neve Cariad, and Cardiff’s cult favourites and hazy melody-makers, Pypi Slysh.

Sŵn conference

This year’s Sŵn Connect conference is also now announced for Friday October 16th at Cornerstone in Cardiff.

Speakers are expected to be unveiled soon, with a mixture of seasoned industry voices and fresh perspectives for those looking to break into, or just understand more of, the Welsh music industry.

Sŵn 2026 is once more multi-venue across all three days of programming. Venues this year include: Tramshed, Clwb Ifor Bach, St. John’s Church, Jacobs Basement, Fuel, The Canopi, Tiny Rebel, Little O’Neill’s and Porter’s.

Adam Williams, Head of Music for Sŵn, offers the following on this year’s festival: “We’re really excited to unveil the second wave of artists for Sŵn 2026!

“This year, the festival returns with three full days of new music in 9 different venues across Cardiff – with over 150 artists performing across 10 amazing stages.

“There’s really something for everyone and we can’t wait to welcome you all to Cardiff in October.”

Tickets for Sŵn are on general sale now with instalment plans available, while day tickets are available for purchase too. Visit the festival’s site for ticketing options and more information.

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