Review: Gwyl Tawe Festival, National Waterfront Museum, Swansea

Pierre Donahue

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Gwyl Tawe Festival was held on Saturday at the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea. The now annual, free one day event celebrates and promotes music sung in the Welsh language, and is run by Swansea based charity Menter Iaith Abertawe, which translates as Language Initiative Swansea.

A packed crowd was in attendance to hear Super Furry Animals front man Gruff Rhys, along with Adwaith, Mari Mathias, Los Blancos and Mali Haf among others, some of the best music Wales has to offer right now. Menter Iaith Abertawe, also runs Ty Tawe, the independent Welsh shop and venue just off the Kingsway in Swansea city centre. This has long stood alone as a well attended, but somewhat niche venue where Welsh is spoken and sung, in a city where English is definitely the predominant language. However over the past 10 years there has been a significant increase in the number of Welsh speakers in Swansea and the success of this event shows that Cymraeg is no longer a minority language here.

But Saturday it was all about the music, and Mali Haf is emblematic of a new breed of Welsh artists proud to perform in their language. Fresh off winning a slot at Glastonbury Festival after impressing judges and coming runner up in their Emerging Talent competition, Mali really is an exciting live performer. Listing influences such as Gwenno, Kate Bush and Björk it’s clear she has taken a leaf out of their book with an emphasis on theatrical expression and her show is really captivating. Definitely one to watch.

Mari Mathias is a busy bee and is seemingly everywhere right now. I last saw her perform with another favourite of mine, psychedelic folk rock band Mwsog. She’s a growing star on the Welsh scene for good reason, and is an effervescent performer. Her storytelling explores the mysticism of ancient Celtic folklore and she’s a joy to watch live.

Lifting the tempo, Los Blancos are the embodiment of the quiet confidence that underpins the Alt/Pop scene growing rapidly in Carmarthenshire. Their brash style and DIY approach embodies the left field American alternative scene of Mac Demarco, Pavement and The Replacements and they get us all in the mood to let loose a little.

Adwaith also from Carmarthenshire have had an impressive few years, from winning the Welsh Music Prize, to being BBC 6 Music playlisted and supporting Manic Street Preachers on their UK tour. They go from strength to strength and it’s clear the years on the road and performing on big stages has had an effect. They prowl the stage like a pack of caged tigers and quite simply own it. Whipping the crowd up to great applause. But musically they have really upped their game and their excellent new track MWY demonstrates the ambition they are showing to their ever evolving sound.

Sadly, I had to leave before headliner, legend and Super Furry Animals front man Gruff Rhys took the stage. But Gruff, who has flown the flag and been at the forefront of Welsh language music for over 30 years, is always consistently great live and from all reports it was a fittingly good end to proceedings.

This free family friendly event gets bigger every year, and has something for all ages. I have only listed what I saw. There was also a whole part of the programme dedicated to schools, cinema and workshops. Whilst it may be targeting native speakers, I don’t speak Welsh and really enjoyed myself. Good music is good music. However, that being said, they also catered for people like myself, with a bilingual introduction to performers which I thought was a nice touch. It’ll be interesting to watch Gwyl Tawe grow. Its success shows it’s clear that not only is Welsh music and the Welsh language in a really great place, it’s in a really great place in Swansea too, and that has not always been the case in Wales’ second largest city.