Gwenno and rEDOLENT have become ambassadors for Independent Venue Week 2025.
The seven-day celebration of independent music and arts venues returns in the New Year, running across January 27th and February 2nd.
In all, 100s of live shows are being programmed, with Independent Venue Week working closely alongside overall Artist Ambassador, YolanDa Brown.
Two new ambassadors have just been named, with the acclaimed Welsh musician Gwenno signing with IVW 2025. A superb artist, Gwenno will play a special solo show at Cardiff’s award-winning Acapela Studio on January 29th.
Gwenno comments…
I’m delighted to be this year’s IVW Welsh Ambassador, having spent so much of my musical life playing and going to gigs at independent venues across Wales and beyond for the past 25+ years. I’m so looking forward to performing at the beautiful Acapela in Pentyrch, a venue that I’ve heard so much about and have always wanted to play.
I’ll be playing a stripped-back solo piano set of old and new material with a few surprises here and there, and make sure to get down early for the wonderfully elusive ambient solo traveller Dean Lligwy, as well as Welsh music icon Pat Morgan of the band Datblygu for a special solo set.
rEDOLENT, recent winners of the Scottish Album of the Year, will also play an exclusive show, with further details to be confirmed. The band’s Andrew Turnbull comments…
One of my most memorable gigs was when I was 17 and went to see The Xcerts at Sneaky Pete’s. They had just released their second album, Scatterbrain, which remains one of my favourite albums to this day. Sneaky Pete’s, though a smaller venue, has an incredible vibe, and I felt so lucky to get a ticket – it felt like a smaller setting for a band as big as The Xcerts. The show was one of the most intense and exciting shows I’ve experienced. The crowd hung on every word during the quiet parts of the songs, and the silence in those moments felt intimate and special. It’s a night I’ll never forget.
Independent Venue Week has already confirmed shows from…
Ibibio Sound Machine, Kathryn Williams & Withered Hand, Heavy Lungs, Caoilfhionn Rose, OneDa, Lake Street Drive, Gilles Peterson, The Magic Numbers, Rhoda Dakar, The Cactus Blossoms, E L U C I D, The Bug Club, Ryley Walker, Kublai Khan TX, Dirty Blonde, Lizzie Esau, Red Method, Martyn Joseph, Joshua Radin, Du Blonde, Cattle Decapitation, The Hara, Do Nothing, Dodgy, Utah Saints, Ten Fé, James Walsh, Fightmilk, Home Counties, C Duncan, KEG, The Covasettes, The Clause, Home Counties, Avalanche Party, Fyfe Dangerfield, GIRLBAND!, Tom A. Smith, TTSSFU, Daudi Matsiko and many, many more.
Independent Venue Week 2025 runs between January 27th and February 2nd.
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