Pretty Shitty City

Swansea’s annual underground & politically charged film festival is just around the corner.

With a program of events including short movies, radical documentaries, music videos and animation, the festival hosted by Undercurrents reveals truly underground and challenging films that shouldn’t be missed.

“Friday 30th November @ Monkey Cafe
Undercurrents Beyond TV Festival kicks off in style with a party at Monkey to celebrate the launch of their new surf flick On the Push.
Featuring music from;
The Savage Jazz http://www.thesavagejazz.com/
and Kali Mist http://profile.myspace.com/kalimist05

Saturday and Sunday 1st and 2nd December
Follow it up with radical, thought-provoking, funny, shocking indy films at the Taliesin.

Check out the Website for a full program of events: http://www.beyondtvfestival.info/.

The Swansea fringe festival is back with a new name, and a range of alternative events including music, comedy, art & film; all happening across venues in Swansea from the 26th of October until the 9th of November.

Potential highlights include; experimental jazz from Led Bib at S.I.H.E Townhill campus on the 26th of October; local indie pop from Everyone Else But Bert at Monkey Cafe on the 29th; and multidisciplinary artist collective, Framework, help launch the new Elysium Gallery on the 2nd of November.

Check out the full lineup on the official website http://www.dylanthomasfringe.com/.

Tyrfe Tawe is a welsh language festival with music and comedy events happening around Swansea this week.

The festival began on Tuesday with Supergene and Brigyn playing in Cafe Mambo. Yesterday, legendary 1960s Welsh-language folk singer Heather Jones performed in Ty Tawe.

Tonight, there’s Welsh language stand-up comedy in the Grand with Noel James, Dewi Fflint amongst others, 8.00pm.

Tomorrow: Gareth Phillips, Amledd, Derwyddon Dr Gonzo @ The Adam and Eve, High Street, Swansea - 8.00pm.

Saturday: Lowri Evans, Mr Huw, Fflur Dafydd, Frizbee, Genod Droog @ The Schooner, 8.00pm - 1.00am

Each event is free. For more details, visit www.tyrfe-tawe.com. (At present, the website is mainly in Welsh).

Diolch.

Its comes as no real surprise, but its still unfortunate; Fflam festival has been officially cancelled.

http://www.fflamfestival2007.co.uk/ 

Against all the odds, the sun turned up in Swansea on Sunday for Exist’s skateboard competition.

Thanks to the competitors for putting on a cool show, and of course to the organisers, bands and everyone else who helped put on the event.

All images by Swansea photographer Tyron Francis.

According to the press release below, Fflam has been postponed until a later date, due to poor weather conditions.

Due to consistently bad weather conditions over the last few weeks, we regret that the Fflam Festival has been postponed. This has been a hard, but well considered decision and we believe it is the best one for all concerned. Due to the bad weather, we have been delayed in putting the infrastructure in place and it is a big concern that the weather conditions will hugely dampen the experience we want to give all our festival goers. Postponing the festival will mean that we can give everyone the Fflam festival experience they deserve, bands, organisers and festivalgoers alike. We expect the new date to be at the end of the summer and are doing all we can do get everything reorganised as quickly and efficiently as possible so that we can confirm the date within the week. Full refunds will shortly be available from point of purchase for anyone who wishes to take this option, but we would like to reassure everyone that the festival WILL take place and encourage them to await further information on the new date before making this decision.

Fair enough, but it rains a lot in Swansea and festivals are meant to be muddy.

http://www.fflamfestival2007.co.uk/

So Escape into the Park has been and gone for another year, with around 13,800 people reported as attending and some great weather despite early showers, the local residents can relax again (for a bit).

This is only my third visit to the festival and even though its crawling with Townies and there are only ever a handful of acts on the line-up that interest me, I enjoy myself more & more each time. There’s something about the mix of live music, sunshine, alcohol & a carnival atmosphere that transcends musical genres and social groups.

Of course the atmosphere probably had something to with the drugs, despite a heavier police presence there still must have been thousands of people using controlled substances. Imagine all those people on nothing but alcohol, I shudder to think what violence might have ensued. Despite some reports that the police searches were invasive and humiliating, in general their presence seemed relaxed and friendly.

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Ok, its Escape into the Park this weekend and although the weather forecast is looking a bit dodgy, the sun usually sorts itself out in time.

Heres the full line-up for those of you who haven’t made up your minds yet…

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If you’re in a welsh unsigned band and would like the chance to play at Fflam this summer, then get in touch with Sin City.

They’re holding a series of heats throughout June and the top 3 bands will be chosen to play on the main stage at Fflam, and runner ups will get a chance to play on the Sin City Cymru stage.

Bands wishing to apply should send their cds and biography by post to:

Fflam Unsigned, PO Box 3, Newport, NP20 3YB

or by email to: fflam@sincityclub.co.uk

Also, check out Sin City’s website for more news on this and their summer line-up including The Holloways, The Thrills, Antibalas, Pendulum, Killing for Company, Napalm Death, Easy Star All-Stars & Ozric Tentacles.

After the dissapointing Fflam news for anyone with camping tickets last week (A.K.A amazing Fflam news for peace-loving local residents) there is finally some really solid news on the line-up.

The early differentiation between the three days (rock, indie and dance) seems to be out the window in favour of a straight-forward rock line-up:

Friday 13 July

Keane
The Feeling
Levellers
The Stranglers
New Model Army
Alabama 3

Saturday 14 July

Placebo
Feeder
Biffy Clyro
Cold War Kids
Howling Bells
White Rose Movement
Enter Shikari
Fightstar
yourcodenameis:milo
Oceansize

Sunday 15 July

Manic Street Preachers
Dirty Pretty Things
The Ordinary Boys
The Hold Steady
Carbon/Silicon
Dropkick Murphys
Bloodhound Gang
Buzzcocks
InMe

The official Fflam website is promising a large announcement tomorrow (Wednesday 23rd May) and has a link to Clyne Farm’s Website for alternative camping information.

Pretty Shitty City now has a dedicated Fflam Festival category, check it out for all the past articles and news.

UPDATE: Lost Vagueness, famous for bringing its ‘warped decadence’ to Glastonbury, and now a festival in its own right, will be bringing its ‘culturally twisted’ happenings to the festival.