There’s plen­ty more just planned for Llais 2023, the dates for your diary are Tues­day 10th through to Sun­day 15th Octo­ber, tak­ing place in Cardiff. 

The fes­ti­val opens on 10th Octo­ber with the Welsh Music Prize cer­e­mo­ny, a cel­e­bra­tion of the best new music in Wales and a chance to cham­pi­on the finest albums from the past 12 months. Llais 2023 will wel­come mul­ti­ple live per­for­mances across the evening and the win­ner of this year’s Welsh Music Prize will be announced.

This year’s Welsh Music Prize long list of 140 albums includes the lat­est from John Cale, ‘Mer­cy’, and Gruff Rhys ‘The Almond & The Sea­horse’. The full long list can be found at Welsh music prize.

On Fri­day 13 Octo­ber, BBC Intro­duc­ing and BBC Hori­zons / Gor­we­lion (a scheme deliv­ered by BBC Cym­ru Wales in part­ner­ship with the Arts Coun­cil of Wales) will join forces with Llais to bring a line-up of excit­ing emerg­ing local artists and spe­cial live col­lab­o­ra­tions for this year’s BBC Intro­duc­ing Live in Cardiff. Local artists and bands con­firmed include L E M F R E C K, NOOKEE and Source.

Already announced is Both Sides Now – Cel­e­brat­ing Joni Mitchell on Fri­day 13th Octo­ber, fea­tur­ing vocal­ists Char­lotte Church, Lau­ra Mvu­la, ESKA, Geor­gia Ruth and Olivia Chaney togeth­er with the BBC Nation­al Orches­tra of Wales.

New­port venue The Cab will present raw DIY punk rock, mak­ing a shift from the sweaty small clubs and base­ments of south Wales to the Wales Mil­len­ni­um Cen­tre. Run­ning along­side this from 25 Sep­tem­ber will be reg­u­lar screen­ings of the com­ing-of-age VR film Bat­tlescar: Punk was Invent­ed by Girls in Bocs, and Waste­land of My Fathers, an accom­pa­ny­ing exhi­bi­tion by Cardiff Music His­to­ry cel­e­brat­ing the punk scene in Wales.

Sat­ur­day 14 Octo­ber sees Por­tuguese fado singer and glob­al icon Mariza. Welsh trum­peter Tomos Williams will per­form his sec­ond show­ing of Riot! at Llais. With musi­cians Sowe­to Kinch and Orphy Robin­son, along­side Welsh vocal­ist Eädyth Craw­ford and rhythm sec­tion of Aidan Thorne and Mark O’Connor, the immer­sive Riot! per­for­mance cap­tures ele­ments of jazz, hip-hop, Welsh folk music and the avant-garde, pre­sent­ed with live visu­als from Simon Proffitt.

Oth­er acts on Sat­ur­day include Qawwali Fla­men­co who blend fla­men­co and qawwali vocal blends from Pak­istan to Andalu­cia with Faiz Ali Faiz and Chicue­lo. Mul­ti-instru­men­tal­ist and song­writer Ange­line Mor­ri­son will per­form tra­di­tion­al folk songs, explor­ing the Black British expe­ri­ence that folk has often overlooked.

There’s plen­ty more on offer over the fes­ti­val week such as Eng­lish indie rock band The Big Moon who will make their Llais debut with per­for­mances from their debut Mer­cury Prize-short­list­ed album Love in the Fourth Dimen­sion, and the folk-inspired Richard Daw­son with a spe­cial solo per­for­mance. Also The Unthanks curate a spe­cial day on Sun­day 15th October.

Next Up, three nights of live music curat­ed and organ­ised by young peo­ple from local Cardiff youth organ­i­sa­tions, will pair up UK-known head­lin­ers with local sup­port acts cov­er­ing grime and drill, hip-hop, and R&B and soul. 

All this is in addi­tion to pre­vi­ous­ly announced con­certs and productions.

New for this year, Llais will be launch­ing ‘Pay What You Can‘ tick­ets where fes­ti­val goers can apply for two events of their choice and pay what they can on a first come first served basis, rein­forc­ing the fact the arts should be acces­si­ble to all. 

Llais tick­ets are now on sale at here at Llais