First wave of Sŵn Festival 2026 performers announced

Sŵn festival has unveiled the first wave of names for its 19th edition, which takes place across Cardiff for three days this October.

One of Wales’ most highly anticipated music festivals, Sŵn is set to return on Thursday October 15 to Saturday October 17 in a 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, which also incorporates Llais
Festival 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.

As always, there’s a huge variety of local Welsh talent on display at this year’s festival, with some of the most exciting names in Welsh music announced in the first wave today.

Multi-instrumentalist and composer Cerys Hafana is a long-term favourite at Sŵn and their mediations on minimalism, traditional and avant-folk music are not to be missed.

Guitarist, vocalist and beatmaker ifan makes enchanting, alternative music that’s sure to win you over; staples of the Welsh scene Pys Melyn are back in town for those needing a fix of retro-tinged psych-rock, and rising bilingual alt-pop four-piece WRKHOUSE will leave you with hooks rattling around your head for days.

Also in Cardiff this October will be singer songwriter Casi, following the release of her debut album ‘Plentyn yr Haul’; the tender and addictive textures of North Wales’ SHINOBii, Tokomololo and his sumptuous beats, and alternative acts Chwaer Fawr, Asidhara and SHLUG.

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 delighted to unveil the first 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. We’re proud to promote new music and give a platform to the amazing artists we collaborate with throughout the year.

There’s also more to come so stay tuned, follow our socials and sign up to our mailing list to be the first to know!”

Sŵn festival remains as accessible and community-focused as ever – once again offering a wide array of schemes to make tickets as widely available as possible and to offer in-roads into the festival.

Payment plans for tickets are available as well as concession tickets for young people, students and Blue Light account holders, while volunteer programmes and the apply to play scheme will also return. S

ign up to the
mailing list to be notified about when applications open.

Full list of artists announced so far

2Charm | Asidhara | Bambees | Bathing Suits | Bel Cobain | Blood Wizard | Blue Amber
Bureau De Change | Cardinals | Casi | Cerys Hafana | Chwaer Fawr | Cowboy Hunters
Dana Margolin | Dermot Henry | Disgusting Sisters | Dove Ellis | Esmerelda Road
Fatale | Foot Foot | Glasshouse Red Spider Mite | Good Health Good Wealth
Heartpiece | HMLTD | Honeyglaze | Ifan | James Emmanuel | Lacuna | Lafant | Lauren
Auder | Little Grandad | Lo Rays | LSD and the Search for God | Lucia & the Best Boys
Maeve | Makeshift Art Bar | Modern Woman | Mould | Nation Unrest | PainKiller
Personal Trainer | Pyncher | Pys Melyn | SexyTadhg | Shaking Hand | SHINOBii | Shlug
Sold For Parts | Tai Haf Heb Drigolyn | The Dogs | The Joy Hotel | The Orielles
Theatre | Tokomololo | Tony Bontana | waverley. | Working Men’s Club | World News
Wrkhouse | Wyatt