Review: Sŵn 2024 – the best yet?

Simon Thomas

It’s always the same dilemma with the Sŵn Festival – where to begin.

On picking up your wristband, you are presented with a schedule of all the acts performing over the three days and a map. Then it’s over to you!

This year, the festival ran from Thursday to Saturday, with some 10 different venues across the city of Cardiff staging events.

You’ve got the epicentre of it all in Womanby Street, with Clwb Ifor Bach, The Moon and Fuel literally just a few steps away from each other, with Tiny Rebel and wristband pick-up point Mad Dog Brewery just a decent punt of a rugby ball away.

If in doubt over which way to turn next, you can just stand in the middle of the street and listen to the strains of bands on either side of you and make your choice.

Then, a bit further afield, you had the biggest venue, the Tramshed, which staged the headline acts, as it were, plus Jacob’s Basement, Porter’s, the Sustainable Studio and Cornerstone.

Stunning

A converted neo-Gothic church on Charles Street, Cornerstone is a stunning venue, complete with stain glass window, which served as an ideal setting for the respective solo projects of Idlewild frontman Roddy Woomble and Radiohead drummer Phil Selway.

It also staged the Sŵn Connect music industry conference, which was a nice change of pace, with the session featuring Selway and Lily Fontaine from English Teacher being particularly illuminating.

Hearing artists speak about their musical journeys and the industry provided a fascinating accompaniment to the sounds and sights of the weekend.

As for those sounds, by my reckoning, there were something like 150 different acts performing over the three days, taking in just about every genre of music, from guitar bands, to electronica, to singer-songwriters, to hip hop, to folk and everything inbetween.

It’s obviously impossible to see more than a fraction of everyone on show, but almost inevitably you find yourself trying to catch as many as you can.

Spoiled for choice

You find yourself gripped by a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out), wondering what might be going on elsewhere.

As a result, you will sometimes give a band just one or two songs to win you over before heading for the door to sample something else. It’s a bit brutal, but such is the nature of multi-venue festivals. You are just so spoiled for choice.

The other side of the coin is when you pop in to see a band with the intention of just staying briefly, only to remain for the entire set.

A case in point were The New Eves from Brighton. Greeted by a cello centre-stage on walking into the top room at Clwb, you sensed you were in for something different and so it proved with an eclectic mish-mash of folk, punk, yelping and assorted strings from the all-female four-piece. You have to see it to believe it.

The contrasts and unexpected treats offered up by Sŵn was further illustrated by Cardiff’s The Family Battenburg being next up downstairs. They weren’t even on the original bill, but served as a very welcome late addition with their Zutons turned up to 11 old-school garage rock and roll.

In terms of stumbling upon something surprising, Spielmann’s set at The Moon was another real plus. In pin stripe suit and baseball cap, singing along to a backing track, the solo artist from Leeds was a delight with his banter and sardonic musical take on life.

There was also a first for me, with a lunchtime gig. I reckon 12.30pm has to be the earliest I’ve ever seen a band play live, but it was worth getting there early to see She’s In Parties perform at Clwb on Saturday.

Dramatic

From Essex with an Irish-born singer in Katie Dillon, they share their name with a Bauhaus song from the 1980s and their music has a suitably dramatic sweep, with echoes of The Cocteau Twins, Slowdive and The Sundays.

Cardiff’s own Half Happy also bring back memories of The Sundays, which is always a good thing, and they are just getting better and better, as demonstrated by their two dream-like shows over the weekend.

As for the better known acts down at the Tramshed, Cardiff’s Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard and Manchester’s Jane Weaver were very different, but both excellent on Friday night, while Saturday’s bill was something special.

First up was Hamish Hawk from Scotland, with his dramatic baritone and energetic hurtling around the stage, while his lyrics are like nothing else you will hear. The fact one of his tracks is titled “The Mauritian Badminton Doubles Champion, 1973” gives you an idea of what to expect.

Next up were Carmarthen’s Adwaith – now a four-piece with the addition of a second guitarist – who have already received plenty of plaudits, twice winning the Welsh Music Prize, and you sense more awards will follow given the tracks they played from their upcoming double album.

Then, finally, my weekend concluded with English Teacher. Booking the Leeds-based four-piece proved a real coup for Sŵn as it was followed by them winning the Mercury Music Prize for their debut album This Could Be Texas.

That success generated a huge crowd at The Tramshed which was packed by the time they took to the stage.

Just five months ago, they played to half as many, if that, at Clwb. Sometimes moving to a much larger venue can be daunting for a young band, sometimes they can rise to the occasion.

That latter was very much the case with English Teacher who looked totally at home and born for the bigger setting, with Lily Fontaine’s confidence and stage presence having grown further in just the short time since they were last in Cardiff, while her vocals absolutely soared.

It had the sense of a real event and they have the look of major stars in the making.

So that was that. For me, it was the best Sŵn yet, with so many quality artists and such a huge variety of musical styles.

Huge credit must go to the organisers and all the volunteers, as the event ran so smoothly and so efficiently. It is rapidly developing into one of the finest multi-venue festivals in the UK.

Sŵn is Welsh for sound or noise and it really was a wonderful weekend of noise around the city of Cardiff. Roll on next year!