Virtual Welsh Music Festival To Be Held On March 6

A new Welsh festival is expected to bring music, laughter and culture to our homes after almost a year from the time of the first closing (lockdown).

It will bring together four of Wales’ major arts, music and comedy festivals and be broadcast as part of the BBC’s Culture in Quarantine initiative.

Blast Of Creativity

BBC Wales director Rhodri Talfan Davies said Gwyl 2021 would provide much needed “blast of creativity”.

It will be online and on BBC Radio Wales and Radio Cymru on March 6-7.

For the first time it has seen Wales’ Festival of Voice, one of the most important music events in the UK FOCUS Wales, the Aberystwyth Comedy Festival and other Voices Cardigans joining forces to bring a unique experience.

The recording was filmed in accordance with Covid’s restrictions in recent months, while the pandemic has kept the public out of Wales’s arts and concerts.

Artists

It has well-known Welsh names, including Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys, singer Cate Le Bon, comedian Kiri Pritchard-McLean, and harpist Catrin Finch, as well as new talent and vocals from outside Wales.

Other artists such as the BBC’s Arlo Parks who won the BBC Sound of 2020, Welsh Music Prize winners Adwaith, and former BBC Radio 2 Folk Award winners 9Bach will also perform.

Exclusive highlights of the Other Voices Cardigan event will also be broadcast on S4C.

The line-up was revealed on Wednesday, with the full-time table due to be published shortly.

‘Much Needed Joy’

Graeme Farrow, Artistic Director of Wales Millennium Centre, which has had to make job cuts during the pandemic, said the festival would bring “much-needed joy to audiences to blow away the cobwebs.”

Henry Widdicombe, of the Aberystwyth Comedy Festival, said last year had been an “unprecedented challenge in the event industry” but the festival had shown the community to come together “as a result of the challenge”.

Neal Thompson, of WRExham’s FOCUS Wales, said: “After a dark and difficult year for all of us, we look forward to a brighter future and come together to celebrate Wales’ rich cultural diversity and offering, through a program of outstanding music and comedy.”

Other Voices Cardigan said the weekend would be “extraordinary” and it was more important than ever that artists, audiences and crew, could join together during times of being apart.