Calendar of Events
M Mon
T Tue
W Wed
T Thu
F Fri
S Sat
S Sun
1 event,
Marcel Lucont
Marcel Lucont
This guy, real name Alexis Dubus, is an English comedian who pretends to be French for whatever reason. His latest gambit is an audience-participatory gameshow called {Les Enfants Terribles} whose theme is terrible infants – children compete in matters of bad behaviour and one is chosen as the awfulest.
1 event,
1 event,
1 event,
1 event,
1 event,
1 event,
1 event,
Marcel Lucont
1 event,
1 event,
1 event,
1 event,
1 event,
1 event,
1 event,
Marcel Lucont
1 event,
1 event,
2 events,
North Wales International Music Festival
North Wales International Music Festival
A good shout for the preeminent classical music event in its stated region, having been founded 52 years ago, the NWIMF also incorporates folk and choral works, as classical programmes are wont to do. Sain Records veterans Ar Log are 2024’s token folkies, playing on Fri 13 Sept; the day before sees the premiere of …
3 events,
Splinter
Splinter
The proverbial content warnings are lined up like bowling pins for this play, a debut work by Gemma Prangle produced in-house with Red Oak Theatre. It’s a two-hander in which a father and daughter anticipate the death of their wife/mum; set in a forest, with nature offering a certain respite, strobes and gunshots are also …
4 events,
Marcel Lucont
North Wales International Music Festival
Splinter
BBC New Comedy Awards
BBC New Comedy Awards
It’s a first-come-first-served situation for would-be audience members for this filmed evening of upcoming standup – the good news is you might get your face on telly, which is also the bad news. Kiri Pritchard-Mclean, Babatunde Aleshe and Spencer Jones will be judging the jokes, with the lineup of contestants currently TBC.
6 events,
The Girls Bathroom
The Girls Bathroom
Live version of hit podcast whose spiritual ancestor seems to be not so much other podcasts as the likes of Take A Break magazine. Check out the titles of their episodes (“He broke my heart, stole our business and LEFT the country!”) coupled with the graphic design of the YouTube thumbnails for evidence.
Noriko Ogawa
Noriko Ogawa
Japanese concert pianist with some 40 years of experience at the top end of the discipline, Ogawa lives and teaches in London, as well as Tokyo as a visiting professor. Her repertoire encompasses modern composition as well as the older canon, although it’s the latter – Chopin, Debussy, Beethoven, Ravel – she’ll be concentrating on …
Young Ensembles’ Concert
Young Ensembles’ Concert
Fourteen concerts in 10 days amounts to a burst of activity in this part of the Vale Of Glamorgan, rarely troubled by live music during the rest of the year. The Cowbridge Music Festival’s remit centres on classical, folk and jazz, but is liberal in its definition of those terms. One might deem the music …
9 events,
Big Big Train
Big Big Train
This is neo-prog rock manifest, and by ‘neo’ I mean the sort of thing coined in the early 80s with bands like Marillion at the forefront. Big Big Train themselves, from the English south coast, formed in 1990 and feature six members, according to their Wikipedia page, or seven going by their main promo photo. …
The Dead Daisies + The Treatment
The Dead Daisies + The Treatment
It’s a heckin’ hard rock hoedown topped by Australia’s Dead Daisies, a band fronted by onetime Mötley Crüe vocalist John Corabi but founded by guitar-playing businessman David Lowy. His Wikipedia page is worth a read if you hate stories of rock’n’roll mayhem a la The Dirt but love meticulous detail of positions held in one’s …
Edgar Francis & Jâms Coleman
Edgar Francis & Jâms Coleman
Fourteen concerts in 10 days amounts to a burst of activity in this part of the Vale Of Glamorgan, rarely troubled by live music during the rest of the year. The Cowbridge Music Festival’s remit centres on classical, folk and jazz, but is liberal in its definition of those terms. One might deem the music …
11 events,
Barrel Babes
Barrel Babes
Lunchtime theatre by Welsh specialists in the form, Fluellen, Barrel Babes is a new work by local playwright Emily D’Arcy, and – consider this a content warning if you like – it’s not an overly upbeat partner to soup and a roll, being based on the true story of several missing American women and the …
Unig / Only
Unig / Only
This one-woman show has been developed in-house at Volcano, where it opens a three-date Welsh tour (at 1.30pm, then 3pm in Pontypridd, and 5pm in Cardigan). Megan Haines’ comedic, acrobatic performance riffs on notions of aloneness – distinct from loneliness – while also encompassing alter egos and referencing various women in Welsh folklore.
Seed Talks: The Science Of ADHD
Seed Talks: The Science Of ADHD
“A simple scroll through Instagram or TikTok and you’ll be left questioning: do I have ADHD?” Sensational opening sentence to the blurb for an event sub(sub)titled ‘Navigating Neurodiversity In A Neurotypical World’ and presented by Dr James Brown; he will look at ADHD from a societal perspective as well as a scientific one.
13 events,
Unig / Only
Unig / Only
This one-woman show has been developed in-house at Volcano, where it opens a three-date Welsh tour (at 1.30pm, then 3pm in Pontypridd, and 5pm in Cardigan). Megan Haines’ comedic, acrobatic performance riffs on notions of aloneness – distinct from loneliness – while also encompassing alter egos and referencing various women in Welsh folklore.
Cowbridge Pride Gala 2024
Cowbridge Pride Gala 2024
An evening of variety entertainment to include turns from drag queens Cheryl and Connie Orff, a DJ set from Venus Flytrap and Owain Wyn Evans off Radio 2 hosting an auction (not sure what of). Money raised will pay for Vale Of Glamorgan schools to buy supplies that their budgets would easily cover if we …
Blazin’ Squad + Atomic Kitten + Blue
Blazin’ Squad + Atomic Kitten + Blue
Unreal levels of 2002-ness in Rhyl this evening with three of Britain’s chartiest pop bands of the era making like a CD:UK broadcast only with a few more bald patches, crow’s feet etc. (Fun fact: two of the performers at this gig are older than the person writing this listing.) This is also a 75th …
14 events,
Abergavenny Food Festival
Abergavenny Food Festival
Founded in 1999 by local farmers Chris Wardle and Martin Orbach, the Abergavenny Food Festival was created to restore consumer confidence in British produce following the BSE crisis. Their vision brought together key figures from the food industry, businesses, producers, growers, high-profile chefs, journalists, and campaigners. Over the past 25 years, the festival has grown …
TribeFest
TribeFest
Two-day family festival in Flintshire with what seems to be a faerie theme. So you get your workshops (juggling, meditation, yoga etc), circus performers and storytellers, plus two stages of musical artists none of whom I’ve heard of so I’ll choose some names randomly: Mother Thunder, Blood Moon, Blozone, Groom The Giant and Crimson Katana. …
Planet Asylum
Planet Asylum
Do you lot fancy some HARDCORE (of the techno variety)? Then this is the place to be as two of the 90s UK scene’s finest roll back the years. Dolphin is a Rhyl head of yore – this is advertised as a reunion for people who went to his Steam nights there – and Producer, …
Cardiff DIY Fest
Cardiff DIY Fest
The fest (actually an alldayer) is called Cardiff DIY, but the promoters are called DIY Cardiff, named after their habit of putting on DIY gigs in Cardiff. Having done so for 10 years, this is a self-toast in the form of 12 punk/indie type acts, including Gimic, Campfire Social, Bedford Falls, Shell and The Doublecross.
TRST: EveryBody Against EB
TRST: EveryBody Against EB
Another danceable charity event at Paradise Garden this month, on from 1pm and promoted by TRST (previously known as Subculture). EB refers to epidermolysis bullosa, a skin condition, and the day is in aid of DEBRA, a charity dedicated to it. Koffi Tarris, Matt Owen, Tom Algorithm and Dan Waite are among the DJs.
Minny Stynker
Minny Stynker
Produced by West End performer Mark Halliday, this tribute to Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons – and Jersey Boys, the jukebox musical based on their career – features over two hours of chart-topping classics including Sherry, Big Girls Don’t Cry, and Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.
9 events,
Family Concert: Stories Set To Music By Toscana Strings
Family Concert: Stories Set To Music By Toscana Strings
Fourteen concerts in 10 days amounts to a burst of activity in this part of the Vale Of Glamorgan, rarely troubled by live music during the rest of the year. The Cowbridge Music Festival’s remit centres on classical, folk and jazz, but is liberal in its definition of those terms. One might deem the music …
Festival Evensong
Festival Evensong
Fourteen concerts in 10 days amounts to a burst of activity in this part of the Vale Of Glamorgan, rarely troubled by live music during the rest of the year. The Cowbridge Music Festival’s remit centres on classical, folk and jazz, but is liberal in its definition of those terms. One might deem the music …
Unig / Only
Unig / Only
This one-woman show has been developed in-house at Volcano, where it opens a three-date Welsh tour (at 1.30pm, then 3pm in Pontypridd, and 5pm in Cardigan). Megan Haines’ comedic, acrobatic performance riffs on notions of aloneness – distinct from loneliness – while also encompassing alter egos and referencing various women in Welsh folklore.
1 event,
Marcel Lucont
6 events,
Melanie Martinez
Melanie Martinez
In this game (writing listings entries) it’s important to be able to convincingly pretend to know what you’re talking about, and despite not really being familiar with “multiplatinum alternative-pop phenom Melanie Martinez” I think I got the gist of it after a quick skim of her Wikipedia page. It’s the triumph of the gothy introvert …
Ali Woods
Ali Woods
Always find it a bit discombobulating when a standup comedian’s bio is written with a total poker face and no jokes. Such is the case with the blurb on Ali Woods’ own website, which mentions his “sensitivity and genuine interest in men’s mental health” and “topics such as football, the environment, and social causes”.
Melt-Banana
Melt-Banana
Melt-Banana, warra band that is. Operating as a duo these days, with a drum machine becoming their permanent sticksperson, on new album 3+5 they use this to add inhumanly fast speedcore beats to their batty, uncategorisable pop-grind blare. This fan actually ‘prefers the old stuff’ but I’m sure they still rock live.
7 events,
Florian Arbenz Trio
Florian Arbenz Trio
Tonight Swiss jazz drummer Florian Arbenz is set to lug his kit up the Flute’s narrow staircase and lead a band also featuring delightfully named trumpeter Percy Pursglove and Jim Hart on vibraphone and percussion. Sounds like the trio are going to be on a somewhat Afro-Cuban or otherwise Latin-sounding tip. Could well be good!
Kate Young
Kate Young
The pick of The Welfare’s September programme is a performance of wildflower-themed experimental folk from Kate Young, who hails from Scotland but wrote her debut album Umbelliferæ while living on a farm in Northumberland. Its themes and iconography leans heavily on histories of plant medicine in Britain, with individual songs hailing the nettle, dandelion and …
Su Pollard
Su Pollard
Commemorating 50 years in showbiz, bespectacled TV daftie Su tours the UK with a one-woman show (I think she has someone playing piano when she sings, to be pedantic) titled Still Fully Charged. The Riverfront specify that this show is for ages 12 and older, bad news for any 11-year-old Su Pollard fans who might …
8 events,
Saucy Jack And The Space Vixens
Saucy Jack And The Space Vixens
Now there’s a title to conjure with! First beaming down at the 1995 Edinburgh Fringe, and like a glittery descendant of The Rocky Horror Show, Saucy Jack And The Space Vixens has been playing or touring pretty much every year since. All is not well at Saucy Jack’s Cabaret bar – there’s a serial killer …
Girls Night
Girls Night
The Boulevard’s in-house company Vision have a crack at this hen party-themed musical comedy, narrated by a woman watching on proudly – but also deadly, having had a fatal accident as a teen, and now enjoying heavenly angel status – as her daughter gets engaged. Karaoke is sung, gossip is gossed and bonds are strengthened.
Fish Boy
Fish Boy
Not actually in the Taliesin but in nearby Abbey Meadow, this family-friendly show by 2Faced Dance hails from Herefordshire and is based on local efforts to quell the increasing levels of pollution in the River Wye. A boy, Tommy, searches for his friend Fish but his efforts are hampered due to, presumably, farmers’ effluence.
Beverley Knight
Beverley Knight
Bev, a Brit-soul standard-bearer and surefire seatfiller in the nation’s bigger theatres since the 90s, makes the step-up to arena status in Cardiff this month. That said, the show was relocated from St David’s Hall after it was found, what was about a year ago but feels like a decade, to have hooky concrete. Tickets: …
The Fight
The Fight
This is a new play from Geinor Styles, directed by Kev McCurdy, produced by Theatr na nÓg and set in 1930s-era Merthyr. Its protagonist, Cuthbert Taylor, was an outstanding bantamweight boxer who fought in the 1928 Olympics but was held back by a racist rule preventing Black pugilists such as himself from competing for British …
10 events,
Porthcawl Elvis Festival
Porthcawl Elvis Festival
Twenty years ago, Porthcawl resident Peter Phillips was spurred into action when the town’s flagship venue the Grand Pavilion was threatened with closure. His big idea was to have it host a competition for Elvis Tribute Artists – that is to say, the worldwide community of folks who don quiff, jumpsuit etc and belt out …
Shirley
Shirley
Who is Shirley, the title character in Nova Theatre company’s new play? According to the event page, “Shirley runs the best pub you’ve ever been to”, and you can pop in for a bev when her establishment is remade onstage at the Sherman Theatre. Shirley is the heart and soul of the pub, energised by …
Jon Sevink & Dan Donnelly
Jon Sevink & Dan Donnelly
These two fellows are both members of Brighton folk-rock rabblerousers the Levellers – Sevink is an OG, Donnelly joined in 2022 – and will be playing two acoustic south Wales dates this weekend. Dedicated fans can follow behind their flatbed truck as it belches and backfires along the 20-mile journey from Ponty to Abertillery.
The Band
The Band
Not to be confused with the Take That musical of the same name, this The Band is the work of Levantes Dance Theatre and tells its tale via dance and circus acrobatics. It does though also take pop fame as its theme, with its two main characters having been one-hit wonders in the 70s and …
Nish Kumar
Nish Kumar
This is one of these situations where a tour is booked, and its promo copy written, long before taking place, eventually making it feel a little out of date. Nish, Don’t Kill My Vibe considers the ‘election year’ of 2024 (is it still election year once it’s happened?) and Kumar’s antipathy towards his fellow British …
14 events,
Cardiff Transformed 2024
Cardiff Transformed 2024
Much to dwell on for The Left in the UK and indeed Wales circa late 2024, it’s fair to say, so here’s the return of this day of debate, discussion and discourse from that side of the political spectrum. They’ve only confirmed a few names at press time – Richard Seymour and Sarah Woolley among …
Fish Boy
Fish Boy
Not actually in the Taliesin but in nearby Abbey Meadow, this family-friendly show by 2Faced Dance hails from Herefordshire and is based on local efforts to quell the increasing levels of pollution in the River Wye. A boy, Tommy, searches for his friend Fish but his efforts are hampered due to, presumably, farmers’ effluence.
Smargadus
Smargadus
Anyone in or near Bangor, this is a great little Saturday afternoon booking. Smargadus is an analogue synth project by yet another married couple, Donna and Robert Lee, who released a tape in 2020 with a hokey backstory about it being mysterious demos discovered in a second-hand caravan. Sure, whatever you say! It’s dead cool …
5 events,
The Last Dinner Party
The Last Dinner Party
Second Cardiff date for London band, already Talked About at the time of their first – last October, as part of Swn – and who have since released a debut album whose sound is something like baroque glam rock or so I read. Sold out months in advance, though some ticketholders may have cooled on …
Ben Elton
Ben Elton
In 2019, the daddy of 80s alternative comedy, Ben Elton, returned to standup after 15 years. Now, after that sold-out live run he’s back with a new tour, titled Authentic Stupidity. Making his name as a young writer for the BBC – breaking out with The Young Ones aged just 23, and following that with …
4 events,
Marcel Lucont
Shirley
A Visit
A Visit
Here’s a premiere of a new play by Siân Owen, co-produced by Papertrail and Clean Break and sounding like it’ll not lack for grit. It’s about the effects of being a teenage girl with a parent in prison on drug-related offences, and Owen has drawn on real-life stories to create it. On at 2.30pm and …
The Slackers
The Slackers
Back in the late 90s/early 00s, when ska-punk was mutating into evermore vulgar and everless ska-like shapes, there were a few adjacent bands staying true to a more or less traditional ska sound. The Slackers, from New York, were one of the more popular of those, and it’s nice to know they’re still skanking around …
5 events,
Colored: The Unsung Life Of Claudette Colvin
Colored: The Unsung Life Of Claudette Colvin
The latest virtual reality installation in the Wales Millennium Centre’s BOCS series, {Colored} is based on a 2014 essay by Tania de Montaigne, later remade as a graphic biography, and itself based on the defiant, epochal and largely unheralded story of Claudette Colvin. A 15-year-old Black girl in Montgomery, Alabama, Colvin was arrested in March 1955 …
Kneecap
Kneecap
Are you H.O.O.D? Do you like Fine Art? Are you Sick In The Head? If so, you’ll want to get yourself down to Tramshed at the beginning of October to see the mighty Kneecap: the best thing to come out of Northern Ireland since George Best. The West Belfast trio’s profile is rapidly rising, with …
5 events,
Alabaster DePlume
Alabaster DePlume
Alabaster DePlume has solid musical connections in Manchester, where he was born as Gus Fairbairn and started his musical career under this pseudonym; London, where he lives and whose jazz scene is crucial to his current M.O.; Eigg, the Hebridean island where his first label Lost Map is based; and Chicago, a jazz Mecca and …
6 events,
Swansea Fringe
Swansea Fringe
This city-centre celebration of the ol’ grassroots music scene in Swansea returns, with eight venues listed as taking part and 35 acts on the poster at press time. Previous Swansea Fringes seemed to feature everyone in the region who’d so much looked at a musical instrument, which was generous but unmanageably extensive for punters. If …
Matthew Barley
Matthew Barley
The Cardiff Music City Festival is happening all over the capital for three and a bit weeks, including at the Royal Welsh College. First, on Thurs 3 Oct, cellist Matthew Barley presents a highly personal audiovisual performance, Light Stories; on Fri 4, Norfolk’s brilliant medieval-influenced folk musician Laura Cannell will perform a set titled Fragments …
8 events,
Psylence ’24
Psylence ’24
Without Ankst Records, which Emyr Glyn Williams co-founded in the late 1980s, the story of Welsh-language independent music would be greatly diminished. By the late 2010s, the label – now renamed Ankstmusik – was sporadic in its releases, but Williams kept his hand in with Psylence, a series of audiovisual events in Bangor arts venue …
Laura Cannell
Laura Cannell
The Cardiff Music City Festival is happening all over the capital for three and a bit weeks, including at the Royal Welsh College. First, on Thurs 3 Oct, cellist Matthew Barley presents a highly personal audiovisual performance, Light Stories; on Fri 4, Norfolk’s brilliant medieval-influenced folk musician Laura Cannell will perform a set titled Fragments …
7 events,
The Ronnie Scott’s Story
The Ronnie Scott’s Story
Previously known as the Muni Arts Centre, this converted church in Pontypridd was a pillar of cultural activity in the Rhondda during the 90s and 00s, but later hit the financial skids and closed in 2014, then again in 2018 after an ill-fated reopening. However, it’s been treated to over £5 million of Levelling Up-funded …
Have an event you want listed on our What’s On guide?