Various venues, Womanby Street, Cardiff
Fri 26-Sun 28 Aug
Cardiff’s annual inner city takeover returns, a contender to Swn festival with a strong lineup in its own right. It takes place across Womanby Street’s venues, including The Full Moon, The Moon Club, Fuel, Clwb Ifor Bach, Four Bars at Dempseys, Urban Tap House and the City Arms, plus the Busker’s Revenge Pirate Ship and an outdoor stage. The music curation is aided by the knowledge of the peeps at Bubblewrap Collective, Young Promoters Network and the Blue Honey crew amongst many others – it’s a real family affair. There are plenty of Cardiff favourites on the lineup, from party-happy skankers Junior Bill, fresh from a showing at Boomtown Fair, to the sleazy rockabilly blues of Johnny Cage And The Voodoogroove.
The biggest draw is Richard Dawson: a wonderful, unique singer-songwriter who might change the way you feel about folk music, if that’s what you can describe him as. His performance at Camarthenshire’s Dinefwr festival back in 2014 laid waste to the genteel crowd with a set of truly raw songs that veered between beautiful acappella works of throaty, poetic discordance and distorted guitar mangling. Check out the lineup to find plenty of other excellent bands, from Ffug to Featherjaw, and plenty of names you might not know. And if you really can’t find anything that hits the spot, there’s a beer festival, roving performing artists and street food aplenty.
Tickets: £20 weekend/£10 per day. Info: [email protected]
words GWYN THOMAS DE CHROUSTCHOFF