The biggest music festival in the history of Cardiff starts this weekend

Jude Rogers

For this Welsh music lover, it’s been fantastic to see Cardiff have such a magical, musical summer. We’ve had Stevie Wonder and Alanis Morissette in Blackweir Fields, Fontaines DC in Cardiff Castle, Lana Del Rey and Kendrick Lamar at the Principality, and Oasis choosing our capital for their first gig in sixteen years. Liam Gallagher explained why in his unique way on X: because it’s “the bollox”.

Academy Music Group are also repairing and reopening the much-missed St David’s Hall, opening up the venue to a pipeline of bands who might not have made it over the Severn Bridge before, and spades have broken ground for Cardiff’s new 16,500-capacity indoor arena. The energy present in so many creative corners of Cardiff continues to pulse, from Cultvr Lab to Canopi to Fuel to Paradise Garden, and this year’s Cardiff Music City Festival, beginning this Friday (October 3), showcases the depth and diversity of music being created in our capital and beyond.

The idea for the Cardiff Music City Festival originated in 2019, following the publication of the Cardiff Music Strategy report, which embraced the concept of regenerating and developing the city around music. Cardiff Council knew it made sense to join up brilliantly curated events like Wales’ leading music discovery weekend, Sŵn, the Wales Millennium Centre’s week-long festival celebrating storytelling and the singing voice, Llais, the Welsh Music Prize (now in its fifteenth year, and being shown on BBC Wales for the first time next week) and international classical competitions like Cardiff Singer Of The World (hosting a gala concert of past winners in 2025, accompanied by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales).

Vital too was the need to give focus and financial support to Cardiff’s wider live music infrastructure, and make smaller venues feel a crucial part of this celebration of the city. Despite challenges including Covid-19, the after-effects of austerity, and the cost-of-living crisis, seventeen small venues were given Cardiff Music City investment funding last year, including Tudor Street’s Canopi, City Road’s Paradise Garden, Porters, the New Moon and the Royal Arcade’s The Queer Emporium. Some of the income generated from this summer’s Blackweir Fields concerts is also being reinvested in grassroots venues, local talent, as well as in parkland and green spaces.

“Cardiff Music City Festival really embraces the city as a whole,” says BBC TV presenter and 6 Music DJ Huw Stephens, who co-founded Sŵn in 2007 and the Welsh Music Prize in 2011, and broadcasts to the UK from Cardiff’s BBC Wales Cymru HQ. “There’s always something interesting going on in Cardiff. It’s such a spirited, independence-driven city with great underground promoters and a community where everyone knows and supports one another. We know there is absolute strength in power when everyone comes together.”

Last year’s festival theme explored artists pushing the boundaries of innovation. This year’s theme is even more urgent: to show how music can break down boundaries of division in a loud, chaotic world. Its opening weekend includes the inaugural Black Welsh Music Awards ceremony, being held at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama on 4 October. Cardiff Council also financially supports organisations like Tân Cerdd, which promotes Black music and culture in Wales, empowering local artists and advocating for diversity, and runs the monthly Neo-Soul Jam in the Chapter Arts Centre.

“Cardiff Music City Festival is so amazingly supportive of Black artists,” says Tan Cerdd’s artistic director and founder, Dionne Bennett, a busy performer and teacher herself. “The organisers know how important it is to embed and platform Black Welsh culture into the festival, and therefore into our culture ecosystem.” This isn’t just about opportunities for performing or infrastructure, Bennett says. “It’s about the community these events bring, and the social cohesion – that’s what music brings to people, and can bring to a city.”

This feeling makes Cardiff an exciting place to make music today, says bilingual singer-songwriter Lily Beau, who began making music at 12, supported by Cardiff youth organisation, Sound Progression. She returned to Cardiff after working for Sony Records in London. “Cardiff’s music scene genuinely feels more diverse than it’s ever been, and Black Welsh culture feels more tangible than ever. We now have heroes and peers to look up to, like Lemfreck and Aleighcia Scott [the former winning, and the latter being nominated for last year’s Welsh Music Prize]. It now feels it’s possible, at last, to be a thriving music-maker here.”

This year’s Llais week also features a diverse lineup of voices. Internationally renowned innovative artists, such as Meredith Monk, Beverly Glenn-Copeland, and Rufus Wainwright, play shows at the Wales Millennium Centre alongside homegrown, inventive talents like Cate Le Bon, Adwaith and Mared.

The Welsh Music Prize ceremony will be held on the Monday of Llais week, and filmed for BBC Wales in the gorgeous setting of the Donald Gordon Theatre, with tickets on sale to the public. Cardiff-born, globally-renowned bassist Pino Palladino will be present to receive his Welsh Inspiration Prize, as his regular collaborator, Miley Cyrus, recently announced to a viral reaction online, and the Triskel Award given to three emerging Welsh acts, SOURCE, Nancy Williams and Morn. To this judge, who has now been on the Welsh Music Prize panel seven times, last year’s event felt like an ambitious and thrilling step up to the big league. It was also better produced, and its range of nominees much more diverse and inventive, than in any of the six years when I was a judge of the Mercury Music Prize.

The three days of Sŵn feature even more prolific Welsh artists, including Gruff Rhys, Georgia Ruth and The Gentle Good, alongside rising acts like Adult DVD, Getdown Services and Moonchild Sanelly. “It’s really good for Sŵn to be part of a two-week celebration of all kinds of music at a time when old students are returning, and new students are arriving, when we can really focus on what the city has to offer,” says Sŵn and Clwb Ifor Bach founder, Guto Brychan.

Cardiff Music City Festival also supported Sŵn in launching Sŵn Connect last year, a two-day music industry conference offering networking opportunities for artists and professionals. This year’s two-day event, running on 16 and 17 October, sold out quickly, Brychan says. “There’s an industry focus in Cardiff now, which feels really positive for the future.”

Cardiff Music City Festival also loves to promote music as a transformative force, and as early as possible in its residents’ lives. Over the last two years, the Little Gigs project has delivered multiple mini-schools of rock across Cardiff, supporting kids in forming bands and performing at grassroots venues, providing expert mentoring support, and even helping them design their own merchandise. On 15 October at The Gate, Little Gigs Legends will showcase six bands from this project – yet another way in which the festival is inspiring future generations.

The sense that Cardiff has a long-term commitment to music as an agent of harmony and as a catalyst for change is inspirational, particularly in our challenging times. This ambition being rooted in homegrown creativity and curiosity also sends out a powerful message. “After a summer of big artists, it’s really exciting for people to have an autumn of intimate discovery,” Huw Stephens says, “and see what else Cardiff has for us, which is so much.”

For more information about Cardiff Music City Festival, go to cardiffmusiccity.wales

Jude Rogers’ top ten tips for Cardiff Music City Festival

6 October: Welsh Music Prize, Donald Gordon Theatre, Wales Millennium Centre (part of Llais). A celebration of the last twelve months of Welsh music in a fabulous concert-come-ceremony open to the public. Enjoy performances by Sage Todz, Gwenno, Melin Melyn and Panic Shack, meet Triskel Award winners Morn, Nancy Williams and SOURCE, and find out before anyone else who’s won the Album of the Year award.

7 October: Pino Palladino and Blake Mills, featuring Sam Gendel and Chris Dave, The Gate, Cardiff. His early evening gig may have sold out, but tickets are still available for a recently announced extra new late-night set for one of the world’s greatest bassists. Pino Palladino’s career spans from the 1970s Butetown scene through his unforgettable 80s bass sound for Paul Young and Phil Collins, his hip-hop days with D’Angelo and Common, his work on huge albums for Adele and Miley Cyrus, to his new album with tonight’s collaborators.

8 October: WRKHOUSE, ADJUA, Bruna Garcia, Casper James & two more acts TBC, at The Gate. A Later With Jools-style night celebrating six of Wales’ best new acts, supported by Beacons Cymru, Wales’ leading music talent development organisation, and BBC Horizons.

9 October: Meredith Monk at the BBC Hoddinott Hall, Wales Millennium Centre (part of Llais).: One of the world’s greatest vocal artists plays for the first time ever in Wales, bending the possibilities of the voice into ever fascinating shapes at one of her ensemble’s rare, intimate concerts.

10 October: Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Donald Gordon Theatre, Wales Millennium Centre (part of Llais).. A beautiful singer and composer of startling electronic music, much of it only rediscovered and celebrated in the last decade, the Canadian artist comes to Cardiff, playing with his wife, Elizabeth, in a rare and special concert.

10 October: Blodeugerdd: The Great Welsh Songbook at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Trumpeter Tomos Williams brings his new project re-imagining Welsh folk music to the stage, featuring a stellar set of musicians including Huw Warren (piano) Paula Gardiner (bass), Mark O’Connor (drums), Rachel Musson (tenor sax), and vocalist Eadyth Crawford.

11 October: DISCOMASS at St John’s Church, Cardiff. Turning the church organ up to 11, artists Richard Higlett and Chris Glynn present Discomass, three one-hour sets of celestial, sing-along disco, free and open to all, that pulls out all the stops.

12 October: Los Campesinos! at Cardiff University Students’ Union.“The 21st century’s most endearing cult band”, according to Pitchfork, return to Cardiff for a gig to remember during the city’s festival fortnight.

12 October: RÓIS at the Weston Studio, Wales Millennium Centre (part of Llais). One of Ireland’s most startling new talents, RÓIS brings together the Gaelic tradition of sean-nós singing, folk, electronics and jazz to cast the ancient music of Ireland in a dramatic light.

16-18 October: Sŵn, various venues. A £95 three-day ticket for Sŵn is an astonishing deal with hundreds of bands to choose from over the weekend. Welsh acts like Buddug, Peiriant and Tai Haf Heb Drigolyn play alongside alternative stars like Naima Bock, Kathryn Joseph and Squid in venues including Clwb Ifor Bach, Fuel, Boho and Porters.

Jude Rogers is the author of The Sound Of Being Human: How Music Shapes Our Lives. She is a writer, interviewer and critic for the Guardian, Observer, New Statesman as well as BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Wales