SWN announce first names for its 2025 edition featuring Moonchild Sanelly, Mykki Blanco, Man/Woman/Chainsaw and many more
SWN announce first names for its 2025 edition
The multi-venue festival is taking place across the Welsh capital from Thursday October 16th to Saturday October 18th and features Moonchild Sanelly, Mykki Blanco, Man/Woman/Chainsaw and many more
Today, Cardiff’s award-winning Sŵn Festival unveils the first batch of names for its 2025 edition. The multi-venue festival is taking place across the Welsh capital from Thursday October 16th to Saturday October 18th. As with the beefed up 2024 edition of Wales' premiere new music festival, Sŵn 2025 once again runs over three full days of programming and is proudly part of Cardiff Music City Festival.
As is virtually a Sŵn tradition at this point in time, you can expect an absolute explosion of the best Welsh, national and international talent across a plethora of Cardiff venues, from ascendant acts making waves on a large scale to brilliant Welsh artists taking their first steps towards bigger and better things: a platform Sŵn has long been renowned for.
Internationally renowned musician, poet, activist and queer icon Mykki Blanco is a name not to be missed at this year's festival. Blanco is widely recognised as the trailblazer and originator of the “queer rap” genre - having pushed hip-hop to its most untethered bounds, they pathed the way for other non-heteronormative artists to break through. With their last EP reflecting an even more nuanced and genre-spanning set of music and prose, Blanco remains a creative polymath whose dynamic journey is as exciting to follow as their performances.
With over one hundred gigs under their belt, art-punk five-piece Man/Woman/Chainsaw live in the limbo of being a fledgling band with years of experience under their belts already. First performing at just 16, they've since caught the attention of The Guardian, NME, Rolling Stone UK and many more to fast earn a name as one of the most keenly watched bands from the capital. With their coming-of-age debut EP Easy Peazy - out now on indie tastemaker Fat Possum - a testament to the dedicated effort the band has poured into perfecting their fast-paced live sound, Man/Woman/Chainsaw's "squeeze-all-you-can-into-45-minute" energy is sure to be a highlight at Sŵn.
Brought together at the height of the pandemic, Dublin quintet Gurriers have become the crown jewel in Ireland’s proud punk scene. Their 2024 debut album Come And See stunned critics with its searing counterattack to modern day malaise. Although fuelled by rage towards everything from the Catholic church to nightclubs, back-boning their visceral sound is an immense care for every layer of fantastic riffs, technical drumming and cathartic expelling of emotions. Not for the fainthearted or static crowds, Gurriers are guaranteed to ignite a fierce pit.
Bristol indie-dance duo Getdown Services, embrace unapologetic silliness championing themselves as "Britain's Greatest Band". A perfect recipe of one-liner laced melodies and fantastically danceable instrumentals, their stream-of-conscious style lands "somewhere between the surreal observations of Dry Cleaning, the sweary annoyance of Sleaford Mods, and two blokes in a pub putting the world to rights," according to DIY. With a back catalogue including whacky hits 'Get Back Jamie' and 'Dog Dribble', and a new EP on the way, the joyful chaos of these two friends turned band is a sure-fire crowd pleaser.
Fresh from the release of their critically lauded third album Full Moon on the ever-reliable Transgressive earlier this year, South African rap-pop trailblazer Moonchild Sanelly heads to Cardiff for this year's festivities. Described by the Observer in a 5/5 review of the album as "long overdue more mainstream international acclaim" - and with some hugely impressive collabs with the likes of Beyoncé, Gorillaz and Ezra Collective already under her belt - be sure to catch her in these more intimate environs while you can.
Adding to the already stellar lineup you'll find the roof-raising experimental pop of Jessica Winter, technically rich and thought-provoking post-punk courtesy of Deadletter, London's Dog Race bringing their distinct brand of spectral goth-rock, and look out for the wry dance-punk of Adult DVD. Not to mention it'll be a first time touching down on Cardiff soil for alt-emo band Keo, joining them Mên An Tol bring a sweet blend of 90’s Brit-Pop, English folk and modern indie, and the witty Baroque inspired post-rock of Guildhall students' The Orchestra (For Now).
Having always used the festival to help provide a platform for local acts, torch-bearers of Welsh talent at this year's Sŵn include masters of towering, poetic and gothic rock Slate, dance-along guitar indie-pop from Shale, and Speedy Wunderground-endorsed, screeching post-punk family band Morn. Other locals to keep an eye out for include the ascendant Casual Smart, Aberystwyth singer-songwriter Georgia Ruth, and bilingual Welsh talent Talulah.
This year’s festival is once again multi-venue across all three days and comes absolutely bursting at the seams. Participating venues this year include: Tramshed, Clwb Ifor Bach, St John’s Church, Jacobs Basement, Fuel, The Canopi, Tiny Rebel, The New Moon and Porters.
“We’re thrilled to unveil the first wave of artists for Sŵn Festival 2025! This year, the festival returns with three full days of new music in Cardiff’s grassroots music venues — featuring over 150 artists performing across 10 incredible stages. We’re proud to champion new music and give a platform to the amazing artists we collaborate with throughout the year — many of whom will be playing their biggest shows in Wales to date. And there’s more to come — we’re currently putting the finishing touches on some very special guests, unique stage takeovers, and the return of our artist development conference, Sŵn Connect. Stay tuned — we’ll be sharing all the details soon!”
Sŵn Festival remains as accessible and community-focused as ever - once again offering a wide array of schemes to make tickets as widely available as possible and to offer in-roads into the festival. Payment plans for tickets are available as well as concession tickets for young people, students and Blue Light account holders, while volunteer programmes and the apply to play scheme will also return. Sign up to the mailing list to be notified about when applications open.
Tickets for Sŵn are on general sale now with instalment plans available. Head here for ticketing options and more info: https://swnfest.seetickets.com/
Cardiff City Music Festival is a two week-long celebration of gigs, happenings, installations and pop-ups, harnessing the power of music, performance and tech to unite and inspire: cardiffmusiccityfestival.wales
Sŵn Festival is an award-winning multi-venue music festival based entirely in Cardiff’s city centre, which has been running since 2007. Since its inception, the festival has been focused on new music, emerging artists and homegrown acts.
FULL LIST OF ACTS ANNOUNCED TODAY:
3L3D3P | Adult DVD | Angharad | Angry Blackmen | Ani Glass | Bramwell | Breichiau Hir | Brown Horse | C Turtle | Casual Smart | Clara Mann | Cubzoa | Deadletter | Dog Race | The Gentle Good | Georgia Ruth | Getdown Services | Graywave | Gurriers | Jessica Winter | John Myrtle | Kathryn Joseph | Keo | Lime Garden | Man/Woman/Chainsaw | Marsy | Martha O'Brien | Men An Tol | MF Tomlinson | Midding | Moonchild Sanelly | Morn | Mykki Blanco | Nancy Williams | Neve Cariad | The New Cut | No Windows | Opal Mag | The Orchestra (For Now) | Oreglo | Pale Blue Eyes | Papaya Noon | Peiriant | Prima Queen | Quiet Man | Rabbitfoot | Saint Clair | Samana | Scustin | Shale | The Sick Man of Europe | Slate | Sywel Nyw | Tai Haf Heb Drigolyn | Talulah | Tokomololo | Two Blinks, I Love You | White Flowers | Whitelands | Zac Lawrence
CARDIFF MUSIC CITY FESTIVAL | 3 – 18 OCTOBER 2025
cardiffmusiccityfestival.wales
A two week-long celebration of gigs, happenings, installations and pop-ups, harnessing the power of music, performance and tech to unite and inspire.
The festival will bring together musicians, promoters, and immersive tech specialists from far and wide to create unique collaborations and unmissable one-off events.
Supported by Welsh Government / Cardiff Council, audiences can expect a series of unique performances, talks, gigs and unexpected happenings in the heart of the Welsh capital over fifteen music-filled days.
Proudly encompassing new music showcase Sŵn, Wales Millennium Centre’s international arts weekend, Llais, and the prestigious Welsh Music Prize which celebrates the finest music made in Wales or by Welsh people around the world, the 2025 festival programme promises to build on the success of last year’s inaugural festival and keep pushing the boundaries of music innovation, performance and technology.
This festival is a key initiative in the Cardiff Music Strategy which aims to protect, promote and develop the city’s music sector.