Sŵn Festival is my welcoming hug
by Adam Whitmore
Cardiff: my home from home, with Sŵn Festival as the welcoming hug that I stumbled upon one Autumn night.
To describe what Sŵn Festival means to me is kinda like describing what makes me who I am today. Sŵn Festival has been such a massive part of my Cardiff life and work, and has given me so many incredible memories and connections over the years.
I first visited the festival as a punter back in 2008, exploring the depths of Y Fuwch Goch (now The Full Moon) to watch a friend’s band: the then unknown Little Comets. I also remember stumbling upon one of my favourite Welsh bands the almighty Truckers of Husk, who I’m super excited to see playing this year in the venue I’m working in as well. I thought straight away what an amazing festival and a great way to utilise the smaller inner city venues.
The festival isn’t just about the music though. It creates such a buzz across the city with bunting, spray paint, banners, balloons, the works. It has a fantastic community feel about it, with everyone seeming to have such a good time, me included. I thought I’d love to be involved in something like this more often. I remember John coming into one of our lectures at Uni the following year so I jumped at the chance to volunteer and be involved in Sŵn.
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I first volunteered in 2009 and 2010 in various venues across the city. I loved every moment of it, and I love how the city is taken over by so many different genres of bands, and acts from all around the world. The amount of hidden gems whom John, Huw and the different co-hosts bring to the city is a real shining example of their experience in the industry and also the hard work they put into talking to agents, blogs, pluggers and alike.
So, after volunteering for two years I managed to somehow persuade John to give me a job as an Events Assistant in 2011 & 2012. Then in 2013 I was asked to be one of two Volunteer Coordinators, leading onto 2014 & 2015 where I was venue rep for Four Bars and Clwb Ifor Bach respectfully. Now this year I will be venue rep in The Moon Club for Musicbox’s 20th Birthday which I’m pretty excited for! Back in 2012 I was fresh out of Uni, still a little naive, but working on the festival really set me up in my career, which I can safely say I’m lucky to be doing for a living now. I do owe a lot to all the folk at Sŵn Festival and everyone involved past and present. There’s been some tears shed over the years (mostly happy tears), but it’s always been emotional and incredible fun!
I’ve got so many amazing memories from Sŵn, some a little blurrier than others. I would have to say though, some of the stand out moments have to include:
- The human pyramid on Womanby Street at 4–5am in the morning two years in a row; the second effort improving on the previous one.
- Hip-hop Karaoke upstairs in Clwb Ifor Bach, experiencing the beauty that was the party to top off the festival downstairs in Clwb.
- Dancing on the stage in the Great Hall at the Silent disco with Huw and John.
- Queue jumping past Steve Lamacq to get in to see Strange News From Another Star destroy upstairs of the Model Inn, (a band I also made a fool of myself while watching in Undertone the following year. It’s a long story, I’ll tell you another time.)
- Drinking copious amounts of Oranjeboom, Jäger-Royals and Jeremiah Weed, which haven’t helped the memories flow too easily either.
There’s so so many, working with and seeing artists such as Daughter, Tall Ships, Slow Club, Liars, Cate Le Bon, Zun Zun Egui, Ben Howard, Dry The River, The Cribs, Benjamin Francis Leftwich, the list could go on.
When I think of Cardiff, I think of Sŵn and when I think of Sŵn, I think of Cardiff. It’s been a huge part of my time in the capital and each year it goes straight in my diary. I’ve technically not missed one since 2008 which seems crazy but also I feel very lucky to be part of the team and to have met and known so many incredible individuals through the festival!
I must have walked a million miles at Sŵn, studied pages and pages of schedules, carried hundreds of amps and drum kits, partaken in the consumption of far too many beverages at *DimSŵns over the years, but definitely worth every Monday morning hangover and every bump and bruise.
Go say hi to Adam at The Moon Club on Womanby Street at Sŵn Festival 2016 (#Swn10). He’s tall and smiley, you can’t miss him!
*Sŵn’s after party but now also the name of the one day event in April.
