Entertainment
Other Voices Cardigan celebrates record attendances
THE fifth Other Voices Cardigan 2024 Festival was a record breaker, having attracted more than 15,000 music fans from across the world to the pretty Mid Wales coastal town over three days.
The event, which ran from October 31to November 2, featured a curated programme celebrating music, friendship, language, ideas and culture from both sides of the Irish Sea and beyond.
Festival highlights included stellar performances from Nadine Shah, Bill Ryder Jones, and Fabiana Palladino.
St Mary’s Church audiences were treated to an acoustic performance by Manics’ frontman James Dean Bradfield, who performed special renditions of the classics ‘Motorcycle Emptiness’, ‘A Design for Life’, and ‘Ready for Drowning’.
Other Church performers this year include Charlotte Day Wilson, Melys, Victor Ray, and Georgia Ruth.
Providing an extraordinary and inspiring programme across a myriad of musical genres, events took place in cafes, bars, places of worship and arts venues.
More than 42 established and emerging acts from Wales and Ireland played the Music Trail and around 300 artists and crew worked and performed. The festival also boosted the local economy, with many businesses reporting increased foot traffic and sales during the event.
Over the past weekend, the festival saw more than 15,000 individual event admissions to more than 100 performances across the weekend, representing a 36% increase on 2023.
Visitors from outside Wales also increased significantly by 41%, with music fans coming from Ireland, Italy, New York, Sweden and Germany.
“This year has been another fantastic success,” said Dilwyn Davies, chief executive of Mwldan, co-producers of the event. “We’ve celebrated the vibrancy and vitality of the music scenes on both sides of the Irish Sea, and the spirit of our communities.
“The audience response has been incredibly positive and joyous, and we can’t wait to bring everyone together again in 2025.”
Phillip King, founder of Other Voices, added: “Cardigan/Aberteifi came alive with great music and stimulating and provocative banter when Other Voices came to town this past weekend.
“The event is growing and expanding year on year, attracting more visitors to this beautiful town. It’s a real delight to bring Other Voices across the Irish Sea, to collapse between Ireland and Wales and to bring us together in a way that deepens and strengthens every aspect of our relationship.”
Church performances were live-streamed on Other Voices YouTube channel and simultaneously streamed to the big screen at Mwldan in Cardigan. Highlights will be later broadcast on BBC Wales TV, BBC iPlayer and RTÉ and RTÉ Player via media partners. The event was presented by BBC DJ and Other Voices regular Huw Stephens.
Other Voices Cardigan is staged with the support and investment of Welsh Government and Government of Ireland, The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and The Department of Foreign Affairs’ Reconciliation Fund.
The festival is produced by South Wind Blows in partnership with Mwldan and Triongl. This project is part-funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, supported by Ceredigion County Council.
Entertainment
One Night in Dublin returns to the Torch with a brand-new show
ONE NIGHT IN DUBLIN is heading back to the stage at the Torch Theatre with a lively new production fronted by renowned Irish singer Danny Muldoon.
Tickets are already selling fast for the feel-good celebration of Irish music, which promises two hours of songs, stories and plenty of craic.
Backed by an award-winning five-piece band, Muldoon leads audiences through a packed set of sing-along favourites including Galway Girl, Tell Me Ma, The Irish Rover, Dirty Old Town, Whiskey in the Jar, The Wild Rover and The Galway Shawl, along with many more well-loved classics.
The show recreates the atmosphere of a bustling Dublin pub, complete with fiddle, whistle, guitars, banjo, bodhrán, accordion and driving drums, transporting the audience straight into “Murphy’s Tavern” for an unforgettable night of live entertainment.
Fans can also expect hits from Irish legends including The Pogues, The Saw Doctors, The Dubliners, The Fureys, Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys.
One Night in Dublin comes to the Torch Theatre on Thursday, March 26 at 7:30pm.
Tickets cost £26.50. Visit the theatre website or call the Box Office on (01646) 695267 to book.

Entertainment
New appeal in search for missing Manic Street Preachers musician
Family and charity issue fresh appeal for information about guitarist 31 years on
THIRTY-ONE years after the disappearance of Richey Edwards, a new public appeal has been issued urging anyone with information to come forward.
Edwards, guitarist and lyricist with Manic Street Preachers, vanished on January 31, 1995, in a case that has become one of the most enduring mysteries in British music history.

The then 27-year-old was last seen at the Embassy Hotel Bayswater in west London, where he had been staying ahead of a promotional trip to the United States. He checked out of room 561 but never reached his destination.
Despite numerous reported sightings over the years, none have ever been confirmed. Edwards was officially declared presumed dead in 2008, though his family continue to mark the anniversary of his disappearance and keep hope alive that answers may still emerge.
Anniversary appeal
The charity Missing People has released a statement in collaboration with Edwards’ sister Rachel, asking the public to remember the case.
In a social media post, the organisation said: “It is 31 years since Richard went missing, please keep his family in your thoughts.”
They also repeated key identifying details from the time he vanished. Edwards was described as white, around 5ft 7in tall, slim, with brown eyes and a shaved head. He had several distinctive tattoos, including a rose with the words ‘Useless Generation’, the phrase ‘I’ll surf this beach’, and a scar on his lower left arm where he had scratched the words ‘4 REAL’.
Unanswered questions
His car was later found near the Severn Bridge services, close to the Welsh border, prompting widespread searches but yielding no firm clues about what happened next.
At the time of his disappearance, the band were on the brink of international success. Edwards’ intense, literate songwriting and striking image had already made him a defining figure in Welsh rock music. More than three decades later, fans still hold vigils, create murals and share tributes across Wales and beyond.
Police say the case remains open.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Metropolitan Police Service on 101 or use their online reporting service, quoting reference CONNECT REF 01/764429/24. Missing People also operates a free, confidential helpline on 116 000.
Entertainment
Turner and Constable brought to life on the big screen at the Torch Theatre
ART lovers in Pembrokeshire will have the chance to experience the lives and rivalries of two of Britain’s greatest painters when a new documentary, EOS: Turner & Constable, arrives at the Torch Theatre this March.
Celebrating the 250th anniversary of their births, the film explores the intertwined stories and enduring legacies of J.M.W. Turner and John Constable alongside Tate Britain’s major new exhibition. Exhibition on Screen has been granted exclusive behind-the-scenes access, bringing their extraordinary art and personal histories vividly to the cinema screen.
Born just a year apart, Turner and Constable helped redefine landscape painting in Britain – and were fierce competitors. Both captured a nation in transition, yet their styles could not have been more different. Turner’s dramatic skies, blazing sunsets and atmospheric scenes from his travels contrasted sharply with Constable’s gentle, nostalgic portrayals of the English countryside and familiar rural life.
Their opposing visions divided critics and audiences alike, famously described at the time as a clash of “fire and water”.
The documentary offers rare, intimate access to sketchbooks, letters and personal artefacts, alongside insights from leading curators and art historians. It also ties in with Tate Britain’s landmark exhibition, running in London from November 2025 to April 2026, which reunites the two masters’ works side-by-side.
This cinematic event gives audiences the chance to see their masterpieces in stunning detail and discover unexpected sides to two artists whose rivalry shaped British art history.
Turner and Constable will be screened at the Torch Theatre on Sunday, March 15 at 4:30pm.
Tickets are £13. For bookings, visit www.torchtheatre.co.uk or call the Box Office on 01646 695267.
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