First time at Sŵn Festival: Uncovering Cardiff’s best-kept secrets

Amelia Jones

Sŵn Festival has always carried an air of mystery, with the feeling that only a select few know about the next big thing before the rest of the world catches on.

There’s something exciting about a festival built around discovery, where unfamiliar names on a line-up can soon become the artists everyone is talking about. Last year, bands such as Keo were part of that experience, going on to gain wider recognition and proving just how rewarding it can be to take a chance on a band you’ve never heard of.

This year, I was lucky enough to gain access to the multi-venue festival that transforms Cardiff into a playground for music lovers, with tickets selling out for the first time in its history, it really felt like an exclusive peek into a world of emerging talent.

Across the city, crowds moved between venues, catching snippets of sets and making last-minute decisions about where to head next.

Unlike larger festivals, where the experience can revolve around headliners and sprawling stages, Sŵn is all about the thrill of the unknown. It’s about discovering something unexpected, finding yourself in a packed room listening to a band you’d never heard of an hour earlier, and leaving with a new favourite artist.

With so much music happening across Cardiff, every turn offered the possibility of finding the next big thing — and every missed set felt like an opportunity you might never get back.

Running across three nights, Sŵn Festival offered plenty of opportunities to discover new music across Cardiff. Unfortunately, my own festival experience got off to a slightly delayed start, as a lack of trains running from my local station meant I missed the opening night.

While it was frustrating to miss out on the first evening’s line-up, there were still two nights of emerging talent to explore, and I was ready to make the most of what the festival had to offer.

Friday night

Indie ethereal rock band Theatre were first on my list, immediately drawing me in with their hazy blend of dreamy soundscapes and heavier, almost metal-infused guitar lines.

Their sound carried shades of Wolf Alice, particularly in the vocals, which balanced an airy, ethereal quality with an underlying edge. It was a captivating contrast, drifting between atmospheric indie rock and something far more intense.

A quick glance at the timetable revealed we’d already cut into Esmerelda Road’s set, prompting a frantic sprint across town to the unassuming Little O’Neill’s, but we were told that we were too late and the venue was packed out.

Rather than give up entirely, we joined the small crowd of late-comers that had gathered outside. We watched the band’s performance of ‘I Think’ through the venue’s windows, seeing their shadows flicker against the glass, a hazy silhouette of the gig unfolding inside.

We raced back to Womanby Street, which acted as the main hub of the festival to see what we could find next, only to stumble into the nightmarish world of metal artist Junkie Kut, whose unsettling face paint and eerie stage presence gave the performance an almost horror-film quality.

There was something genuinely unnerving about his appearance, which, paired with the abrasive heaviness of the music, made for an intense introduction to an act that felt worlds away from the dreamy indie sounds we’d started the evening with.

We didn’t stick around for long before heading across the road to Clwb Ifor Bach, where Jeanie and The White Boys brought a distinctly Amyl and the Sniffers-esque energy to the stage, fuelled by raw punk attitude.

Jeanie introduced each song with an exact retelling of the experience or emotion that had inspired it, offering a glimpse into the stories behind the music before launching into another chaotic performance, complete with rolling around on the floor and, at one point, spitting towards the front row.

Yet, despite the unpredictable theatrics, the crowd remained completely captivated, barely flinching as Jeanie threw herself into every song with an almost reckless abandon, embodying the kind of unapologetic stage presence that makes a band like this so compelling to watch live.

Next up were Mouth Ulcers, whose set felt as though it had been plucked straight from a Tim Burton film, with a zombie-like aesthetic that seemed to run through everything happening at Fuel that day.

Their music leaned into a dark, brooding atmosphere reminiscent of The Cure, particularly ‘A Forest’, with its hypnotic, shadowy sound and sense of unease, making for a fitting soundtrack to the band’s appearance.

We finished the night upstairs in Clwb Ifor Bach with American shoegaze band LSD and the Search for God. Whose sprawling, atmospheric sound felt like the perfect finale to an evening of musical discovery, blending the hazy, immersive textures of Slowdive with a vocal delivery that brought to mind the unmistakable tones of The Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan.

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The guitar work was particularly impressive, shifting between rapid-fire strumming and soaring, siren-like melodies that seemed to hang in the air long after each note had faded, pulling the room into a hypnotic wall of sound.

There was something almost otherworldly about the performance, as layers of distortion and dreamy vocals washed over the crowd, capturing the very essence of shoegaze and leaving us with a fittingly mesmerising end to the night.

Saturday day to night

We made an early start for Welsh band Maeve, who had packed out Tiny Rebel to the point that latecomers were left lingering in the corridors, hoping to catch at least a few snatches of the set. We squeezed our way towards the back, managing to catch a glimpse of their characteristically chaotic performance, which seemed to have the entire room wrapped up in its energy.

In true rock-and-roll fashion, the set ended with the guitarist Finlay “Che” Williams leaning in to kiss a friend in the audience before leaving his guitar abandoned on the floor, an appropriately unpredictable end to a set that had been anything but conventional.

Next up were Die Twice, playing only their second show in Cardiff, yet already drawing a crowd of devoted fans who hung on their every word.

The venue was packed, with an unmistakable sense of anticipation as they played their single ‘Trafalgar’, which was due for release later that week. Chatting to the band before their set, bassist Finn ‘Blue’ Lloyd said about their new music: “It’s quite heavy, it’s more  like what we play live.”

Guitarist Billy Twamley added: “I think after our last EP we wanted to just channel our old sound a bit more. The new sound is looking a but more feisty, and a bit more human.”

Watching them perform ‘Trafalgar’ live, it was easy to see what they meant, with the heavier guitar work giving the track a raw, almost confrontational edge that felt particularly suited to the stage.

There was a real sense that Die Twice were reconnecting with the sound that had first shaped them, and the crowd’s reaction suggested their new direction was already striking a chord.

Fans caught on Womanby Street:

We also caught Sold for Parts, an all-girl punk band bringing a welcome dose of attitude to Sŵn’s eclectic line-up, adding another burst of raw energy to a festival that thrives on showcasing artists who aren’t afraid to do things their own way.

From there, we made the trek across Cardiff to Jacob’s Basement to catch Waterpistol, a venue that felt like one of Sŵn’s best-kept secrets.

Tucked underground in a small, dark space, it had the sort of atmosphere that made you feel as though you’d stumbled upon something only a handful of people knew existed, which seemed fitting for a festival so centred on musical discovery.

Waterpistol approached their dreamy, sixties-inspired set with their usual enthusiasm, drawing the crowd in with their hazy melodies before getting the room rocking in no time.

Westside Cowboy were next at Tramshed, bringing the weekend to a close as the final act we caught at Sŵn and arguably the most highly anticipated of the entire festival, with a palpable sense of excitement surrounding their set.

Having only caught a brief glimpse of them at Green Man earlier in the year, I’d been keen to see them properly, and Sŵn offered the perfect opportunity to make up for it.

Their performance captured a sense of community that extended beyond the stage, as though the crowd were all part of something shared rather than simply there to watch a band play.

From hazy indie rock and gothic post-punk to chaotic punk sets and sprawling shoegaze, the festival offered a little bit of everything, with each venue bringing its own atmosphere and every act adding something different to the experience.

It’s this sense of unpredictability that makes Sŵn so special, turning a weekend in Cardiff into a treasure hunt for your next favourite band, and leaving you wondering which of the artists you caught this year will be the ones everyone’s talking about next.

You can catch a glimpse of the festival over on the Sŵn social media page.

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