CARDIFF MUSIC CITY FESTIVAL 2026, INTRODUCED BY JUDE ROGERS

Think of a bustling, exciting city and you’ll think of music: a pulse beating underground, travelling through streets, parks and venues, bringing people together in so many places and spaces, carrying them on rhythms of basslines and riffs, lifting their voices in arcs of rabble-rousing harmonies and melodies.

The last few years have been massive for music in Cardiff, and it’s clear that the wider world is listening. We’ve hosted Oasis’s record-breaking world tour and huge stars including Stevie Wonder, Alanis Morissette and The Cure at our new landmark venue, Blackweir Fields. This summer alone, Cardiff Castle has hosted more than 24 international acts, including groundbreaking stage shows by David Byrne and Self Esteem. Kendrick Lamar, SZA and Metallica have wowed sold-out crowds at the Principality Stadium, while our returning alternative princes of Wales, Super Furry Animals, had a rabble-rousing, roof-lifting return at the Utilita Arena.

This incredible momentum continues this October with the third two-week Cardiff Music City Festival. Even more of our city’s treasured venues will take the spotlight, including Wales Millennium Centre. This year, it welcomes even more globally renowned artists to the eighth edition of Llais, an agenda-setting week of extraordinary musical encounters and unexpected collaborations. Among them are avant-garde pioneer Laurie Anderson, performing in Wales for the first time with a brand-new show, Friends and Teachers; Buena Vista All Stars and Orchestra Baobab, coming together for a sonic celebration of Cuba and West Africa; and the Blind Boys of Alabama, whose spectacular gospel and soul will meet the London African Gospel Choir performing Paul Simon’s Graceland.

In the middle of the month, over 150 acts will take over the city for the always-thrilling Sŵn Festival weekend. Some of the country’s biggest alternative acts – among them Westside Cowboy, Dove Ellis and Working Men’s Club – will perform at venues including Clwb Ifor Bach, Cornerstone, Tramshed, Fuel Bar, Tiny Rebel and Jacob’s Basement.

Across October, the city will celebrate the vitality of Welsh culture in exciting ways. Mercury Prize nominees Gwenno and the Joe Webb Trio will join forces for a concert at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, which will also host Welsh collective Acid Casuals, celebrating 20 years of their acclaimed album Omni. There will be shows by genre-exploding folk explorer Cerys Hafana, psych-pop wonders Melin Melyn and heavy rockers Morn. You can also catch Richard James’s immersive installation Evolution of Beauty at the Temple of Peace, Radio Sudd taking over Cardiff Music City Night Market, and special performances marking 25 years of Cardiff-based experimental art collective tactileBOSCH.

Cardiff is a city where so many kinds of music are platformed, cherished and celebrated, but where the proceeds from its successes are fed back into the community. Cardiff Council’s partnership with Music Venue Trust has fed proceeds from bigger gigs into financial support for backline equipment at smaller venues. The Grassroots Venues Fund has also provided further support for independent music spaces, while Cardiff Council’s talent-development programme, Little Gigs, has brought music experiences into schools, opening up possibilities for young people to show what creativity and performance can bring to their lives.

In our bustling, energetic city, our ambition is to support and skyrocket the artists and music-lovers of today and tomorrow. Music should never sit in the background of our lives, but occupy centre-stage. It should be beating at the heart of our whole ecosystem.