Picture this: a three-day festival where every street corner leads you to a new venue, and your only dilemma is deciding which incredible act to catch next. Welcome to Sŵn Festival 2024, the yearly festival where Cardiff transforms into a playground for music lovers.
As the leaves turn orange and yellow, blanketing the pavements, I wander down the streets, my leather jacket just about keeping the chill at bay. Sŵn promises a lineup that will make your heart sing, and your feet dance as the city pulses with energy and your new favourite band awaits around every corner. This year, a lot of the music I’ve encountered felt as though it leant heavily into the shoe gaze realm — lyrical narratives rooted in talking through your feelings while the punchy guitar lines knock you over almost as hard as the drum beats do.
Lots of shouting out your feelings into the microphone, and while I’m more of a ‘journal-down-your-thoughts’ girl myself, I can appreciate a good shout or two (just as long as it’s not directed at me!). What I love most about festivals like this is the constant discovery of new sounds—those you never knew you’d enjoy or hadn’t heard of before. Having a front-row seat (or back-row, depending on the venue) for these artists as they carve their paths in the industry is an adventure in itself.

Watching the streets of Cardiff come alive with fellow music lovers made me feel less alone in my experiences. Until this point, I had never attended gigs alone, but after a week filled with anxiety, I found solace in enjoying music on my own terms. It was refreshing to listen without the pressure to engage, to let go for a moment and hear what others had to say instead of the constant chatter in my own head (which, to be honest, has been pretty persistent lately). Sitting on the steps of downstairs Clwb, waiting for the next act, or capturing moments on my film camera brought a sense of peace. The energy from the crowds—everyone intertwined in this shared purpose—was electric. We were all there to celebrate good music, and cheering them on is something Wales does exceptionally well.

Thursday 17th October 2024

Thursday was the only day I had someone with me and subsequently the first day of the festival. Human Interest kicked things off, a London four-piece taking over Fuel and asking the crowd to move forward as the room filled up. Their tracks were uncomplicated, inviting you to close your eyes and bop your head. Seriously, check out “Cool Cats” — you can thank me later! I had a chance to chat with the band after their set, sharing laughs and hearing about their upcoming weekend in Rotterdam.
Next up was NewWaveSound.Ent, a rap duo who turned the small upstairs room at Tiny Rebel into a dance floor. You could feel the energy before you even saw the performance— hands in the air, the duo performing among the crowd, people jumping and moving as much as they could. A recurring theme this year? Lots of moving and jumping (and I’m definitely not mad about it).
After Tiny Rebel, it was back to Clwb Ifor Bach for The Family Battenberg. I couldn’t see a thing due to the packed room ( and thanks to my height!), but I heard every word—albeit muffled through my earplugs—and felt every hit of the drums and strum of the guitar. A truly insane performance, even if I couldn’t see it! I stayed downstairs for the next act, Irish three-piece Yard, who I DMed on Instagram the day after detailing how in awe I was of their performance.

By now, the night was well underway, and Yard was simply put: insane. People packed together like sardines as I stood on a step on my tippy toes, trying to witness what was happening on the stage. Driving beats that took over the whole room, no matter where you stood, people jumping or head banging, Yard created dynamic music that used shouty lyrics to completely take you away. Well, took me away, at least. The last act I saw on Thursday was Half Happy, whom I had chatted with earlier that week, taking over the top room of Clwb. It was a pleasure to finally see them live and hear their music as it’s meant to be heard—energetic and full of life. A perfect way to end the evening!

Friday 18th October 2024

Kicking off Friday, I caught Blue Bendy, a London band that took over the bottom floor of Clwb. They faced some technical difficulties but still delivered a fantastic show. With six members on stage, their chemistry was palpable, and it’s no wonder that they took the stage by storm and everyone else in the room with them.
Staying at Clwb, I saw Borough Council, a Hastings-based trio. Music that was chilled, but still felt electric, as slow strums of the guitar had you losing focus slightly, before the drums brought you right back in again.
A performance that truly kept me firmly in their grasp. Then it was off to Fuel for The Cheeky Habibi’s, a Cardiff outfit new to the scene. Their crowd engagement was infectious, and when they realised they had run out of songs, they turned it into a charming interlude, sharing the story of how they got together.

Saturday 19th October 2024

The longest day of the festival! I arrived early at Clwb to see one of my new favourites, Bricknasty. Their music has been on repeat since I saw them perform live, and I’m that person who can now say, “I saw them in a small venue before they blew up!” If there’s one thing I can say about Bricknasty, it’s that they deserve to fill arenas with their jazzy beats and powerful vocals. They exploded into their performance, so much so that I had to take a step back, I was so surprised. The Irish band from Ballymun intertwined jazz and hip-hop had the crowd in the palm of their hands for the duration of their performance.
The saxophone solos, the way the drums hit, the guitar, everything about Bricknasty just felt so authentic and true, not a step out of line. I was lucky enough to quickly chat with frontman Fatboy after the performance, as he thanked me for coming to see them and gave me a hug … that sent me well on my way to Porters, where North Wales band Wrkhouse were waiting for me. Porters came alive under the moody lighting and undeniable stage presence of Wrkhouse.

The five-piece took over the stage, leaving everything out there as the crowd jumped and cheered the whole way through the set. Truly such a sight to see and a band that had the patrons of the festival talking for days after. Another band I can smugly recall seeing in a small venue before they made it big, I truly had so much fun bopping my way through the set, before they exploded off the stage in the final song that had all of the instruments coming together in clashes of goodness (is that a word? It is now!). Finally, it was time to go to Tramshed to set up camp for English Teacher.
Antony Szmierek was the act on before English Teacher, and he completely took over the stage, playing his spoken word x dance music cross over to the crowd who received it well enough. So well, in fact, that the friend I had made earlier on in the night, Izzy (who is a musician herself going by the name of Generation Feral), gets pulled up on stage to perform a song with Antony. This performance absolutely … for lack of a better phrase … goes off. The crowd jumping, cheering, and me screaming, “Go, Izzy!” for around three minutes, give or take, it was truly an insane way to kickstart off our collective evening together.

As soon as Antony’s thoughtful lyricism and dance beats came to a close, it was a butterflies-in-the-belly wait for English Teacher to take charge of Tramshed. I’m almost certain that half of Cardiff (or at least half of Cathays, if you know you know) was inside of Tramshed to watch English Teacher perform. An outstanding set from the Mercury Prize winners, who blew my mind and rocked my world for around an hour or so, give or take. I came away from their performance wanting to be in a band of my own, maybe play the bass and go on world tours where I can sing my heart out and have people sing my lyrics back to me as fiercely as some of the members of this crowd did. Even over the crowd who, at times, had a penchant for a bit of chatter, they completely steered the ship.

Pulling you in, pushing you away, only to twirl you around at the end of the final chord that rang in my ears for days after (even with my earplugs in). A truly insane way to finish off the evening, as well as the festival. As I walked out of the venue, electricity flowed from my fingertips and on the way home, where I laid down to rest, knowing that I hadn’t only hit my 10,000 step count every day but had also found a number of new artists to fangirl over for months or even years to come. Thank you Sŵn for having me and I truly can not wait to see what is waiting for me next year in the venues that truly shape Cardiff’s music scene.

Read more Music articles from KLATMAG

Written and photographed by Meg Ivy Brunning