With the new year looming, Buzz selects our Ones To Watch for 2024: some people and organisations who’ve been making things happen – and who we expect to kick on in the 12 months hence – across music, art, literature, film, TV, food, technology, business and community. Billy Edwards and Emma Way are your wordsmiths here.
VISUAL ARTS
JACK MOYSE
Earlier this year, Swansea’s Mission Gallery hosted local photographer Jack Moyse for an exhibition, What It’s Like (Being Me). A suitably autobiographical show, it highlighted his condition, facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD), and moved to Cardiff’s Ffotogallery in partially altered form as well as being covered by news outlets and Buzz alike. His sensitively composed black and white photos allowed Jack to immortalise the journey of coming to terms with his changing diagnosis.
Info: jackmoyse.myportfolio.com
CAITLIN FLOOD-MOLYNEUX
The last time we spoke to queer, non-binary Welsh painter (and Buzz Culture graduate!) Caitlin Flood-Molyneux in June, the artist traded in the Valleys for London, showcasing new and original body of work Suspended In Time with three other London shows on the way. Caitlin also provided artwork for Sam Grierson’s grief-stricken film The Programme.
Info: floodmolyneuxart.com
NATIONAL CONTEMPORARY ART GALLERY
Intending to decentralise access to visual art in the country as a whole, plans are for Wales’ national art collection – otherwise found in Cardiff’s National Museum and the National Library Of Wales in Aberystwyth – to be displayed in a nine-venue network of gallery spaces during 2024. The Teulu exhibition, running at Aberystwyth Arts Centre from now until April, aims to offer more family-friendly access to works from this collection.
Info: celfarycyd.wales
JERWOOD III
Artists nominate artists to create content for this nationally touring, independently funded exhibition: the third instalment of the Jerwood Survey showcases exciting, emerging artistic talent, and will travel across the UK in 2024 and ‘25. Opening at Southwark Park Galleries in London, it’s at Cardiff’s G39 from Sat 13 July to Sat 7 Sept, thereafter visiting Site Gallery in Sheffield and Edinburgh art centre Collective.
Info: here
NIA ALAVEZOS
One of the artists who directed and produced for 2023’s Cardiff Animation Festival, Nia Alavezos’ newest short and anime-inspired animation Passenger has been given funding from Ffilm Cymru Wales’ Beacons scheme, with extra support from BBC Cymru Wales and the BFI Network. Nia hopes the film will lead to future Welsh anime collaborations with Japan.
Info: here
BOOKS
MANON STEFFAN ROS
Winning the 2023 Yoto Carnegie medal for The Blue Book Of Nebo – her English-language adaption of 2018 novel Llyfr Glas Nebo – meant a great deal to Manon Steffan Ros. As mentioned in her July interview with Buzz, the title is the first translation to have won the award, voted annually by librarians; she also recently translated Eugène Ionesco’s surreal French-language play Rhinoceros into Welsh for Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru’s recent adaption.
Info: Twitter
DUKE AL
Working alongside the likes of the BBC and Beyond The Border as part of a Anti-Racism Storytelling Pathways team, and writing a poem for F1 superstar Lewis Hamilton, storyteller and spoken word poet Duke Al continues sharing performances of powerful stories, hoping to challenge convention and the world as we know it.
Info: Instagram
JOSHUA JONES
Author Joshua Jones has just published his debut short story collection Local Fires – a collection of characters interconnected by memory, time and place – via Welsh imprint Parthian. The Llanelli-raised, Cardiff-based Jones also coordinated a creative exchange between Wales and Vietnam for Parthian and British Council, working with writers to produce texts on queerness, connection, community and language.
Info: Instagram
PATIENCE AGBABI
Novelist and poet Patience Agbabi has written titles such as The Time-Thief, Telling Tales and The Infinite, which won Wales Book Of The Year’s ‘children and young people’ category. February 2024 sees the return of her heroic protagonist Elle and her pals the Infinites in The Past Master, published via Canongate. Later in the year, Agbabi will publish a YA novel through Cardiff’s Firefly Press; its title is currently TBC, but she intends to draw on the literature and pop culture of her north Wales childhood in it.
Info: Twitter
KATE MURRAY-CLEAVER
Celebrated for winning the New Welsh Writer’s Award in 2019 and subsequently published by domestic imprints Honno and Parthian, Kate Murray-Cleaver – neurodivergent, disabled Anglo-Indian writer and artist – was highly commended earlier this year by New Welsh Review’s Writing Awards for her submission The King Of Swansea, a short story based on the strange life of mid-19th century Welshman Thomas Rees.
Info: katemurray.co.uk
FOOD & DRINK
GWENANN DAVIES
Senior sous chef at Lush By Tom Kerridge – an events catering company dishing out the same quality as Kerridge’s Michelin-starred success stories – since 2019, Davies was appointed head chef of Welsh gastropub Felin Fach Griffin in May. Hard at work between the Black Mountains and Brecon Beacons, Davies changes menus daily, sourcing ingredients from local producers.
Info: Felin Fach Griffin
NATHAN GETHING
Found on the former site of the Cantreff Inn is Abergavenny’s Fire & Fork – run by Nathan Gething, previously found in Michelin spots such as the Walnut Tree in Llanddewi Skirrid. You’ll find Gething using open-fire techniques at F&F, cooking up traditional American barbecue food using ingredients native to this side of the pond.
Info: fireandfork.co.uk
TETRIM TEAS
Not-for-profit, family-focused healthy tea visionaries Tetrim Teas launched their first tea, a rhubarb root evening tea blend, this year, and were also profiled in Buzz’s October issue. The project of Mari Arthur and Justin John, both Carmarthen-based, Tetrim has been in the works for two years, with the final blend developed alongside Aberystwyth University in 2022.
Info: tetrimteas.cymru
OUTPOST
Here’s something for Cardiffians to hit up if you enjoy laidback all-day dining: Nick Saunders, founder of Depot and Tiger Yard, has just opened the New York warehouse-themed restaurant Outpost. It’s one of the new tenants of Canton’s Laundry Quarter and has a menu heavy on breakfast classics – buttermilk pancakes or poached eggs with focaccia, say – plus bagels, BLTs and salads for later in the day.
Info: outpost-kitchen.com
WALES WHISKY FESTIVAL
First-of-its-kind event coming to Llandudno’s St George Hotel from Fri 1-Sun 3 Nov. The opening night offers a four-course paired meal in partnership with Penderyn, with Sun 3 offering a tour of their distillery, and that of Aber Falls in Llanfairfechan. Sat 2 is tasting day, with 25 distilleries signed up and set to offer “thousands of expressions”.
Info: waleswhiskyfest.co.uk
MUSIC
CVC
If you’ve managed to catch CVC this year at one of their few Welsh shows, consider yourself lucky. The six-piece have been all over the UK in the meantime, and they’re not slowing down. Following debut album Get Real – released in January and nominated for 2023’s Welsh Music Prize – they’ve gone down an 80s disco route with new single The Remortgage Anthem.
Info: cvcband.com
CERYS HAFANA
Reinventing folk for the masses, harpist Cerys Hafana writes original folk songs wrapped up in repetitive patterns and chords, intermixed with an existing, longstanding understanding of traditional Welsh music. Taking up the triple harp at a young age, Hafana has recorded layers of strings onto conceptual works like 2022 album Edyf, another Welsh Music Prize nominee.
Info: Bandcamp
NOOKEE
With appearances at Green Man, Llais and Sŵn, identical twin-fronted groove-fusers Nookee have been a name on the lips of many music fans in Cardiff this year. An exceptionally tight, percussion-packed live experience, up front Gemma and Violet Hunt-Humphries perform unsuppressed choreography, with vocals (and matching outfits) straight from a smoky bar circa the 1970s.
Info: Facebook
HALF HAPPY
Pub lovers Half Happy have singlehandedly kept florists across Cardiff in business throughout 2023, thanks to their visuals and love for sunflowers. Their most recent single, Say This Twice, is paired with a light and breezy music video capturing members Rose, Zac, Pete and Jon performing in a field amongst hundreds of them.
Info: wearehalfhappy.com
OGUN
“I think my music is reflective. It’s for people who need answers in some shape or form,” Newport musician, changemaker and poet Andrew Ogun told Buzz at the beginning of the year, ahead of his biggest headline show to date. His newest single Know Like That – released in November, with attendant EP Trial By Fire out at the start of February – is a glorious sign of what’s to come.
Info: Twitter
STAGE
AZUKA OFORKA
You may know Azuka Oforka as an actor – most likely on Casualty, where she played Louise Tyler for nearly a decade – but 2024 will see her debut as a playwright. Having entered into their development programme Unheard Voices, Cardiff’s Sherman Theatre will stage Oforka’s The Women Of Llanrumney in May. It’s set in 17th-century Jamaica, on the sugar plantation of Monmouthshire colonialist Henry Morgan.
Info: Twitter
JENNIFER LUNN
Lunn is the playwright behind Es & Flo, whose run at Wales Millennium Centre in April – after a decade in development – met with rave reviews, Buzz’s Chris Williams commending its “intimate, highly relatable” story of an ageing lesbian couple. Winner of the 2022 Nancy Dean Lesbian Playwriting Award, let’s hope the next play follows sooner.
Info: Instagram
CHARLIE JOSEPHINE
Actor, writer and screenwriter Charlie Josephine is one of the busiest on our list. Their play I, Joan, about Joan Of Arc, graced Shakespeare’s Globe last year: a five-star Times review called it “terrific fun” about “a genderfluid revolutionary”. A tour of Josephine’s latest play, One Of Them Ones, will reach Wales in April.
Info: charliejosephine.com
WELSH BALLROOM COMMUNITY
Established in 2020, this is the first group in Wales dedicated to Ballroom and voguing, an invigorating creative outlet for LGBTQ+ people. To see them, you have to be quick – tickets for events regularly sell out. A Cardiff Castle show at last year’s Pride was one of its highlights.
Info: Instagram
NYE
Hotly-anticipated play addressing the life of Aneurin Bevan, the Tredegar-born Labour minister whose achievements in government, as regards social equality in Britain, were arguably unmatched in the 20th century: not for nothing is ‘Nye’ immortalised, in statue form, in Cardiff city centre. With Michael Sheen playing Bevan, Nye will be in Wales Millennium Centre in May.
Info: here
MARED WILLIAMS
Williams is fresh from the title role in Branwen: Dadeni at Wales Millennium Centre – a Welsh-language play offering a modern take on a myths from the Mabinogion. She has a solid parallel career in music too, with her debut album Y Drefn chosen as Radio Cymru’s Welsh-language album of the year in 2021. Hopefully there’s a followup on the cards.
Info: Instagram
FILM & TV
JANIS PUGH
Commended for its experimentation with social realism, Flint filmmaker Janis Pugh’s Chuck, Chuck Baby was one of the big hitters at 2023’s Iris Prize Awards. Buzz’s Rowan Davies was won over by its unique “depiction of the human spirit”. Widespread cinema distribution in 2024 would be richly deserved.
Info: Instagram
CARLY-SOPHIA DAVIES
Carly-Sophia Davies is our actress to watch out for this year. Hailing from Port Talbot, she has a star turn in newly released film The Eternal Daughter, alongside a haunted Tilda Swinton. In 2024, meanwhile, she is set to star in new ITV thriller Out There with Martin Clunes.
Info: Instagram
EDWARD BLUEMEL
Royal Welsh College Of Music & Drama graduate Edward Bluemel has been ticking off huge names on his dream CV – Sex Education, Killing Eve, A Discovery Of Witches – and we’re sure there’s much more to come. Look out for him in the upcoming Prime series My Lady Jane, a reimagining of the life of Lady Jane Grey.
Info: Instagram
BEING HIJRA / INDIA’S BEST TRANS MODEL AGENCY
From Indian-Welsh director Ila Mehrotra Jenkins, this documentary – backed by Film Cymru – investigates the Hijras, the oldest ethnic transgender community in the world. Activist Rudrani Chettri seeks to implement the first model agency for India’s trans community whilst conquering struggle and prejudice. Filmed over four years, it’s touted as a revealing picture.
Info: here
KENSUKE’S KINGDOM
Again partly funded by Ffilm Cymru, this animated adaption of a Michael Morpurgo book includes a cast of piping hot properties, from Sally Hawkins and Ken Watanabe to Oppenheimer’s Cillian Murphy. Initial trailers look very promising for its award season prospects, with hand-drawn animation happily reminiscent of the classic Disney era.
Info: here
TECHNOLOGY & BUSINESS
ROCKET SCIENCE
US game developers Rocket Science announced in August that Wales would be their new European headquarters. With a team behind some of the biggest games around, including Fortnite, League Of Legends and Call Of Duty, Rocket Science’s new studio in Cardiff is a move backed by Welsh Government, which will provide new jobs and vastly improve Wales’ game sector.
Info: rocketscience.gg
MAID OF SKER 2
Wales Interactive has confirmed the development of a Maid Of Sker sequel. The first-person survival horror, released in 2020, was inspired by the story of Elisabeth Williams and has since been downloaded over 1.2 million times. With the support of Creative Wales, the sequel is set to build more on the macabre history of Welsh folklore.
Info: here
YNNI CYMRU
Community-owned project Ynni Cymru was launched in August as part of a cooperative agreement between Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru. The Anglesey-based, family-run energy solutions company stands to increase the impact of local renewable energy providers to eventually meet both net zero targets and Welsh health and wellbeing goals.
Info: yces.co.uk
CÂR Y MÔR
Wales’ first seaweed and shellfish regenerative farm grows multiple species of ocean life, providing fresh seafood and jobs alike whilst protecting the sea for future generations. Operating from a seafood processing business and community benefit society based in St. Davids, Pembrokeshire, For The Love Of The Sea (Câr Y Môr) was founded in 2019.
Info: here
CANSENSE
Tasked with improving the outcomes of people with cancer in Wales, Cansense – a bowel cancer group founded in 2017 – have developed the Raman blood test to spot the disease. From 2023, this test has already been launched to GP surgeries and will be rolled out over the subsequent two to three years.
Info: cansenseltd.com
COMMUNITY AND LOCAL
HER GAME TOO CYMRU
Launched in 2023, this is a volunteer-run campaign to diversify Welsh football. It’s about encouraging women to get involved at every level, such as promoting grassroots girls’ teams. It’s just one of many measures encouraged by recent success on international stages – S4C, for example, are doubling live broadcasts of women’s football in Wales.
Info: here
ARFOR 2
A new series of interventions to strengthen the economic situation of communities which are predominantly Welsh-speaking. There is a particular focus on Llwyddo’n Lleol 2050, which intends to invest £3 million into job opportunities for young people. The Enterprising Communities Fund also assists businesses and community organisations which are freely-Welsh-speaking environments.
Info: here
UNIFY
This creative studio uses buildings around Cardiff for bright painted murals – locals may have spotted one, My City, My Shirt, which depicted BAME fans of Cardiff City. It soon caught alight media attention; having since worked with Adidas and WWE, the sky’s the limit.
Info: Instagram
EDEL ANABWANI
A great community success story, Anabwani was a key campaigner in persuading the Welsh government to adopt a Real Living Wage for all health and social care workers. Her skills in providing training, canvassing care workers, and documenting the pandemic has made Anabwani a valuable individual to ministers and academics alike.
Info: Twitter
LULLABY PROJECT
The Lullaby Project is a new south Wales group of health workers and musicians, aiming to reach parents, carers and mothers-to-be who need assistance in bonding with their baby. Informed by 10 years of research, it’s a recent winner of the People’s Project Award. Families can create and even record a personal lullaby.
Info: here
words BILLY EDWARDS and EMMA WAY
