OK, so it was a week ago now but I’m stuck in PLAN B XMAS ISSUE DEADLINE HELL… but I couldn’t let the week go without writing a quick something about Cardiff’s inaugural Swn festival. Being a sort of wristbands and venues affair in the vein of SXSW, there’s no way you can catch the vast bulk of bands, so sorry Edwyn Collins, Beirut, The Cribs, didn’t make it. We did put on an Antifolk (UK) show at Clwb Ifor Bach on the Friday night, though.

ET’s been going on about this lot all year, actually, but it was my first time catching a lot of them in the flesh. Winston Echo played wide-eyed naif indie-pop songs about bureau de changes and wanting a new job. There was mertle and Larry Pickleman, Antifolk UK’s Posh and Becks, her cute and introspective, him abrasive and shouty and blackly funny. There was Crayola Lectern and friend, with their deeply wrong synth experiments, and Cardiff’s Le B (pictured) with a set of intricate guitar minatures including a old folk song about a woman marrying a 14-year old boy. Oh, and ET, who did his The Legend thing and topped off the night with a righteous DJ set back to back with Simon Price.

Best way to get an idea of what Swn was about, though, is probably through the 44-page Swn Festival Flickr page, put together by Plan B photographer Mei Lewis and friends. Here’s some of the best - credits to Mei, Maciej Dakowicz, Kirsten McTernan, Laura Charlotte and anyone I might have forgotten.

Bobby Conn

The Duloks

Beirut

The Bobby McGees

And… White Mice