In the run up to #IVW21 we’ll be featuring stories from people in our community about how they have found the last 12 months, what they’re looking forward to in the next year & how live music can only thrive if everyone survives.
First up we spoke to the lovely Dilwun from North Wales venue Neuadd Ogwen, based in the hometown of Super Furry Animals frontman and #IVW21 Ambassador for Wales Gruff Rhys. The venue plays host to artists from all over the world and does a lot to support the Welsh music scene.
We usually have a gig or two during Independent Venue Week. It’s always a buzz as it gives us the opportunity to put on up and coming acts on our main stage and people come and support IVW, us as a venue as well as the acts. This year we’ve had to cancel some amazing gigs which break my heart. It’s been hard with no income from ticket sales, but we are working hard to pull through and shape a brighter future. We will never again take anything for granted.
Community is everything to us and we try as much as possible to have the community help shape our vision and programming. Our community is full of talent and show so much support for everything we do. The community have been really supportive during the last 12 months and made us realise how important a venue like ours can be to people. We love to champion music from Wales and the rest of the world. It’s amazing to bring artist from all over the world to work alongside local artist. We believe that supporting and nurturing local talent while having an outward thinking world view can have far reaching cultural benefits.
I think I asked Gruff if he fancied doing something different than just a simple gig. Then after a few chats things snowballed into Ara Deg. It’s great to have Gruff curate things and bring his creative incite. If Neuadd Ogwen is the box, Gruff is thinking outside it and bringing in artist that we probable would never be able to book or would have overlooked. It’s just a chilled out cool slow moving party.
We are really looking forward to putting on some live shows again. One thing we have planned is Ara Deg 2021 August 26-28. We will announce some of the Ara Deg 2021 gigs during IVW week with a few tickets been released. We also have some other amazing events happening during the year. I feel after a year with nothing happening the excitement and appreciation will be massive. If we can bring some joy to people that will be a highlight for us as a venue. We also have some amazing online stuff to share for IVW. We’ve been working hard with Gruff on creating something special.
You can read more about our 2021 Ambassador for Wales here, and follow Neuadd Ogwen here for more info on Ara Deg.
