Each year the Admiral Big Weekend takes over the space in front of Cardiff Museum, and is enjoyed by thousands.
Last year, the musical offerings included big names such as The Zutons, Lightning Seeds, Camera Obscura and new Welsh favourites The Joy Formidable.
Friday's line-up
Friday night sees SWN festival taking over the programming and demonstrating the usual high standard of bands for which they are now so well respected in UK music.
Opening the festival are Cardiff's own upcoming band Samoans who bring their infectiously loud and exciting brand of rock music before Race Horses, formerly known as Radio Luxembourg bring the complete antonym of the stylings of the former as they treat the audience to their psychedelic pop.
Although they count songs called 'Cake' and 'Cacen Mamgu' (Grandma's Cake) among their well known tracks, Race Horses are about more than confectionary. They will strike chords of affection amongst fans of Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, of which the lead singer Euros Childs produced their earlier work.
They're followed by Los Campesinos!, the darlings of Cardiff's recent musical exports. Although they have recently reshuffled their line-up after drummer Ollie left the group, they are sure to be impressive and wow new listeners with their marvelous live show at The Big Weekend. Los Campesinos! are one of the best live bands in the world at the moment and are well worth watching when they appear on stage at 8.30pm.
In recent years, Wales has emerged as a breeding ground for some of the worlds greatest bands who fall on the heavier side of the 'rock scale.' The Blackout are no exception and their appearance on the SWN lineup this year reflects a new era for the promotions company. Surely, we can expect more shows featuring heavier acts this October at SWN Festival.
Saturday night's line up
It's all change on Saturday night when the evening is given over to a more ethnic night of music including reggae and jazz music as well as Indian folk music.
Highlights include The Raghu Dixit Project playing a mixture of Hindi, English and Kannada songs with a contemporary feel. Hopefully, they'll be treating to the crowd to a whirlwind tour through their repertoire including the incredibly fun 'Mysore Se Ayee.'
Then there's the Jolly Boys whose claim to fame is an appearance in 'The Mighty Quinn' with Denzil Washington. When they take to the Big Weekend stage at 7.25pm, they're sure to get people dancing while treating everyone to some reggae straight from Jamaica including a cover of Amy Winehouse' 'Rehab.'
The following evening, the performers are from closer to home.
At 4.10pm, there is a set from Penarth's own kid creative Pete Lawrie. Pete has been compared to a gruffer, Welsher version of Ray LaMontagne who had a massive hit album called 'Trouble.' On this note, Pete says, "My voice was not my choice. It didn't always sound the way it does now. Over the years I have developed a cyst on my vocal chords. I choose to leave it unoperated. I don't gargle gravel, as one write up put it! I am a huge fan of American Folk and Americana. The sound of an open road."
After a recent tour with Turin Brakes, Pete is likely to put on a crowd-pleasing performance of beautiful nu-folk songs full of emotion and grit.
Headlining act: Feeder
The festival is headlined by Feeder, the band who made it to mainstream success with their album Echo Park which had the single 'Buck Rogers' on it – that's the one about the man with the CD player player player player etc. Having let a rather more quiet life recently compared to their earlier successes, the band have recently released their seventh studio album 'Renegades' and are preparing to release an eighth later this year. Perhaps it's best to catch their headlining set as they reach such an interesting point in their career.
While the lineup may not be, for the most part, as good as the offerings of last year, The Admiral Big Weekend will be nonetheless a fun weekend – and if you don't like the music, there's always the haunted house and candy floss.
Today's guest blogger is Marc Thomas is editor of online culture magazine Journal of Plastik.
