Sŵn Festival, one of the yearly highlights of the South Wales music scene have been awarded a £2,500 grass roots bursary from ID&C. A provider of security and integrated technology wristbands who have been servicing the festival, sports and live events industry by using innovative security solutions over the past 18 years, ID&C launched the bursary in 2011 designed to support grass roots events.
Winning the award, Sŵn, which is Welsh for ‘Sound’ and pronounced ‘Soon’, caps a fabulous 12 months in its fifth year. Having grown to a 6,000 capacity with more than 250 acts spread across more venues than ever before, 2012’s Sŵn was nominated for ‘Best Small Festival’ at this year’s NME Awards, testament to the work of not only founders John Rostron and Radio 1’s Huw Stephens but also the vast team of volunteers who give the event such a great vibe every single year and really make the festival such a wonderful experience.
After being told of the win, Rostron said:
“The bursary is an amazing asset for this year's festival, and a pleasing recognition of how far Sŵn has come. We've grown the festival a little year-on-year - from 500 people in our first year (2008), to 6,000 in 2012. Steady growth has enabled us to offer Sŵn’s dedicated fans something new and wonderful every year, but with growth, come new headaches for those involved behind the scenes with the increased production and infrastructure. Winning ID&C’s bursary will allow us to experiment with some security wristband ideas that we've had, so we can continue to take that next step up.”
Competition was fierce with almost 50 UK based festival applicants but ID&C director Matt Wilkey said, while this was the hardest year yet to judge, it was the local element of Sŵn which finally swung the balance for the Cardiff event.
“We whittled it down to two festivals but couldn’t choose a winner. We finally awarded Sŵn due to their continued development after narrowly missing out on last year’s bursary. The Sŵn team impressed us with their efforts to engage local communities with music and arts projects throughout the year, their fund raising initiatives and the way the festival creates a platform for new music, much of which is from home grown talent.”
According to ID&C, the Bursary enables smaller festivals to have the same level of security wristbands as some of the world’s largest and most successful events. The financial contribution also allows bursary winners to spend more on developing other areas of the festival.
“Apart from an opportunity to support the festival industry at a grass roots level, every year we’re amazed at how many first-time promoters launch new festivals. It’s great to see and as long as people keep entering, we’ll keep running the bursary.”
Sŵn festival 2013 takes place between October 17th and 20th. Artists will be announced later in the summer. Check back to Stereoboard for all the 2013 line-up and ticketing details as soon as they are announced.
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Winning the award, Sŵn, which is Welsh for ‘Sound’ and pronounced ‘Soon’, caps a fabulous 12 months in its fifth year. 
