Church of Noise brings week-long celebration of DIY music and culture to Cardiff Music City Festival

Monday, 28 September 2026

A week-long celebration of DIY music and culture, inspired by a local artist’s residency at one of the USA’s oldest surviving punkhouses is coming to Cardiff Music City Festival.

Church of Noise (12 – 16 October), will bring together musicians, poets, photographers and grassroots cultural projects for five days of live music, talks, and screenings focussed on grassroots creativity and the communities that grow around independent music scenes.

Highlights will include an exhibition by acclaimed New York punk photographer Julia Gorton, a screening of Joerg Steineck’s ‘Lo Sound Desert’ documentary about the desert rock scene that gave the world the likes of Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age, and a Build Your Own DIY Utopia ‘in-conversation’ event, with Scott Satterwhite and Valerie George from The 309 Punk Project in Pensacola, Florida and Mark Wilson of Rockaway Park, a subversive DIY gem nestled deep in rural Somerset.

“Church of Noise is about creating a space where people can come together through music, art and shared experiences,” said local artist S Mark Gubb, who created the project. “The idea grew from the time I spent at the 309 Punk Project in Pensacola, which is one of the oldest surviving punk houses in America. The house and its activities were fundamental to the city’s entire subculture, and there was this incredible sense of community that existed there. Music was a big part of that, but it was also about sharing and discovering ideas through film, photography and just being part of a community.”

Punkhouses grew out of the 1970s punk scene and spread across the USA and beyond during the 1980s and 90s. Often in reclaimed spaces, they became grassroots cultural hubs at the heart of many local scenes, providing cheap shared accommodation and serving as gig venues, and spaces for creativity and activism.

That spirit runs through the Church of Noise programme, which begins on Monday 12 October with Punk House Poets, a free evening curated by Patrick Jones that will also give audience members the chance to sign up and perform.

The programme continues with free afternoon screenings including cult documentary In Bed with Chris Needham, which follows the life of a young student in Lougborough as they attempt to get a heavy metal band off the ground and was hailed by Kerrang! as ‘the greatest documentary ever made.’

Evening events include ‘Noise in the Capital.Noise from the Capitol’ curated by J/S and featuring collaborative sets from some of South Wales most adventurous and experimental noise artists on Tuesday 13 October, the free Build Your Own DIY Utopia conversation on Wednesday 14 October, and a four-band hardcore show, curated by Undod Hardcore Collective, featuring Perp Walk, Raw Nerve, Circumvent and Cursed Body on Thursday 15 October.

Church of Noise will also bring Julia Gorton’s Portrait Studio project to Cardiff for the first time. The US punk photographer, who started her career documenting the music scene in Downtown New York the late 70s, will turn her eye on Cardiff’s contemporary subcultural scene, creating a lasting archive of the people who make the city’s independent culture what it is today, with drop-in sessions for anyone from these communities who would like to be photographed for the project. The resulting exhibition will launch on Friday 16 October, with a performance by South Wales band The NaNaz.

Visitors to Church of Noise, which is being held at creative community hub ArtHole in Canton, will also be able to view exhibits from the Cardiff Music History archive and The 309 Punk Project.

The event forms part of Cardiff Music City Festival’s wider mission to showcase the creativity, communities and grassroots infrastructure that make Cardiff one of the UK’s most exciting music cities.

Ruth Cayford, curator of Cardiff Music City Festival, said: “One of the ambitions of Cardiff Music City Festival is to shine a light on the people, spaces and communities that make our music culture so special. Church of Noise embodies that perfectly. It’s ambitious, creative, international in outlook and rooted firmly in the grassroots spirit that has always been at the heart of Cardiff’s cultural identity.”

Cardiff Music City Festival is supported by Welsh Government and Cardiff Council.

Church of Noise is being held at ArtHole, Unit 3 Alexandra House, 307-315 Cowbridge Road East, Canton, Cardiff, CF5 1JD.