A favourite on the city festival circuit, this year’s lineup bottles the spirit of the age with a epoch-defining set of acts.

Cardiff’s Sŵn Festival is a favourite of ours on the city festival scene. Providing a loving introduction to the city’s underground nightlife, it guides you through its finest venues and presents a mix of local gems and favourites from across the UK’s live scene. Centring on Womanby Street, venues include the legendary Clwb Ifor Bach as well as Jacob’s, a mulit-purpose Antique Store/Café/Art Gallery and The Moon, with its legendarily low stage ceiling and cheap Red Stripes. With the final additions announced today, this year’s lineup is replete with rising stars of the alternative scene, many of whom you will be unlikely to find in such intimate settings for the foreseeable future.

Picture Parlour are the standout act added today, currently experiencing an explosive growth from humble beginnings last year. Their rock ‘n’ roll swagger combined with contemporary attitude has shot them to the top of tastemaker radars, and signing to Island Records puts more weight than usual behind a promise of ‘big things coming.’

Also added today are interdisciplinary indie favourites Tapir!, who recently put out the outstanding ‘Act 2’ of their three-part EP series. Flamingods will be in attendance, bringing a live sound drenched in psychedelic richness, while the brilliantly uncategorisable Hak Baker will be an unmissable feature of the weekend.

Add this to a bill already teeming with must-see acts The Last Dinner Party, Opus Kink, Fat Dog, Lynks and Jessica Winter (to name just a few), and you’ve got yourself an amazing weekend of music. With these latest additions in particular, it is clear that Sŵn have their finger firmly on the pulse. This is a rare and exhilarating lineup, bottling the spirit of the moment with some of 2023’s most vital live prospects.

Further info and tickets here.