Now in its fifth year, Swn Festival was started by BBC Radio 1 DJ Huw Stephens and Cardiff promoter John Rostron in 2007 (after being inspired by a visit to SXSW Festival in Austin). It takes place at a variety of venues around the Welsh capitol, Cardiff over three days. This year though an extra day has been added giving festival goers even more choice.
2011's event sees 200 bands playing in small, intimate venues around the city, most within spitting distance of each other. This is one festival where it's not about big name bands though, as well as lots of local talent on offer, many upcoming bands that have gone on to bigger things have played here in the preceding years like The Vaccines and The Drums. In the festival's first year, the then unknown, Yeasayer played an early slot in the Buffalo Bar, which holds just 150 people. Of course there is a smattering of bigger names, this year the opening night sees Aiden Moffat & Bill Wells performing, The Fall will play at Cardiff University on the Saturday night and The Joy Formidable on the Friday, but the real fun is in discovering new talent and hopefully your new favourite bands.
What bands will make it big after this years Swn? With the likes of singer songwriter's Benjamin Francis Leftwich and Ben Howard, synth-rockers Clock Opera and the haunting melancholia of Esben and The Witch playing it's still pretty hard to pick.
Roomthirteen is happy to report that that we will be there with you, running from venue to venue, and trying to catch as many bands as possible, the only hard part is choosing which bands to watch, as with so many bands playing there are quite a few clashes. Making the choice between The Fall and Benjamin Francis Leftwich on the Saturday and Sweet Baboo and Samoans on the Sunday for example will be tough. A four day wristband for the festival is only 49.50, don't forget to plan your itinerary early using the full programme on the Swn website.