Carmarthen Show Ground

It seems that every man and his dog wants to put a festival on nowadays, but for a change along with the likes of Green Man and End Of The Road festival, Gwyl Mac’s isn’t staged to give “A” list celebs the chance to don a pair of wellies and drink out of paper cups for the weekend. This festival isn’t put together for the glamour, or for the chance to be papped backstage holding some celebs hair back as they laugh at the floor after pushing it to look like a so called “festival veteran”.

Gwyl Mac’s is refreshingly all about the music giving local acts the chance to be billed along side some of the bigger names in music today. Cattle sheds for arenas and Celtic Lager for Carling, this weekend was a real down to earth occasion with some gutsy displays of skateboarding from the likes of the Vans, Howies and Dainton’s Kill City teams. MC Pancho, yes you read right, MC Pancho! gave running commentary to the demo’s whilst “Kids in Tracksuits” and Cardiff’s answer to  Dj Cash Money “Dj Jaffa” supplied the beats in the main arena / cattle shed.

There was a definite village fete feel to the surroundings and the beautiful voice of Cate Le Bon fitted it like a glove as she calmly glided through a simple acoustic set to the cross legged, woolly jumpered folk of the acoustic tent. The aforementioned obviously a lady in demand as one set closes another opened, this time in the cattle shed along side Ex Gorky’s bassist, Richard James. With Gorky’s being pretty local to the area I was expecting more of a crowd but never the less the big man certainly hasn’t come across in difficulty in doing things for himself. A fifty minute slot from the modest Pembrokeshire lad of intriguing acoustic folk leading me to think the five o’clock slot may have been a little early for such set. Never the less I also got the impression that Richard James would have performed to the same high standard if the shed were full of its natural residents and rather than the few gathered inside.

Any atmosphere that had been crafted was soon to be obliterated as we headed over to the dance shed. On approach to the shed it could only be described as one massive rusting white, B reg XR2I with a shoddily fitted, obscenely loud stereo, with bass bins bigger than the back wheels of a tractor. Inside though, the bass and sound was surprisingly spot on. Definitely the party shed of the day, it was Cardiff’s finest in Hip hop that really started to get things moving. Sets from Beatbox Fozzy / Ruffstylz along with the usual calm but amazing techniques of Dj Jaffa really put the “Saturday at a festival” feel to the day for the first time.

As the first day main stage picked up speed unfortunately the crowd seemed a little thin on the ground and Brakes played to quite a small crowd. But again unfazed by the numbers Brakes did what they came to do, and even if I was the only one convinced at least it achieved something. Killa Kella and the Spit Kingdom sound system brought the hip hop feel back to the day with class. Anyone that hasn’t caught one of his sets yet would be doing no wrong by strutting along to his next spit fest in your neck of the woods. Beatbox at its finest and the man can sing so you got to hand it to him. Paving the way nicely for the headlining act Plan B, usually armed only with an acoustic tonight he’s accompanied by a full band and Dj, and again despite the small crowd everyone seemed quickly engulfed in the dark lyrics and aggression of one man and his new style mc’ing. With Sunday being headlined by The Magic Numbers I’m sure the feel would be somewhat different but all the same a good performance to end the first day at Mac’s.

It’s great that people are willing to put into Festivals in Wales and if we all do our bit to support them they’ll go form strength to strength. Hats off to those at Gwyl Mac’s, I for one hope this is a date I can pencil in my diary for next year.

Anyone that can get Grooverider to play in a cattle shed surely deserves some props!

Good luck Gwyl Mac’s!

words by Neil photography by Gaby Jones

to see more of Gaby's photos click here