Festival's a wonderful weekend of sŵn around streets of capital

The latest Sŵn Festival - an award-winning multi-venue annual music festival in the capital - took place last weekend. Simon Thomas was there...

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> Swm Festival 2025 at one of its venues, Clwb Ifor Bach

IT WAS the lead singer of one of the bands that performed on the opening night of this three-day event who perhaps summed it up best.

"This festival is all about discovery," declared Matthew Board of the Sheffield-based Pale Blue Eyes and he was spot-on.

Now a firm fixture in the Cardiff musical calendar, Sŵn is very much a voyage into the unknown where you never quite know what lies around the corner - or across the road, given the proximity of some of the venues.

There were 11 of them in all this year, spread across the capital's city centre.

You had the old regulars like Clwb Ifor Bach - upstairs and down - Tiny Rebel, Fuel, Porter's, Jacob's Basement and the larger-capacity Tramshed.

But there were also some new additions. You had The Canopi, a recently opened grassroots music venue on Tudor Street which also doubled as the ticket collection point.

For readers of my generation, it's located at the site of the old Cardiff Transport Club.

There was also Boho on St Mary Street and then there was St John's Church, which took the award for the most stunning setting.

It served as the ideal backdrop for a performance by Gruff Rhys, lead singer of the legendary Super Furry Animals, whose pastoral solo work had found its perfect home.

Rhys was arguably the most familiar name on the bill, which brings us back to the point about this being a chance to discover new acts.