The weather may not have held out but spirits certainly weren’t dampened as Barry Waterfront welcomed a host of Welsh music to its shore last weekend as part of Vale of Glamorgan Council’s annual two-day festival.
Staged at the Good Shed site, there was plenty on offer to keep both young and old entertained including performances from popular local bands The Relics, Brother Steve and Shooting the Moon.
Saturday evening saw hoards of people milling in to the live music area in anticipation of returning rock-pop boys The Automatic. Rob Hawkins, lead vocalist and bassist with the band, was pleased to be performing close to home again.
“Being from Cowbridge, playing in Barry is the nearest thing to a homecoming for us,” he said. “We’ve been having a bit of a quiet time lately while we write our third album so it’s nice to be playing a local gig and keeping our fans happy.
“We’re performing three of our new songs tonight as well and we hope that the crowd will like them.”
The band’s set list had an energetic crowd bouncing along from the start, opening with hit Raoul before running through an hour’s worth of songs that included chart-smashes Monster and Steve McQueen.
As night descended the crowds huddled up to witness rock legends The Alarm take to the stage. Amidst rapturous applause the band performed some of their classic tracks, including Marching On and 45rpm.
Sarah Jones, event officer, said: “It was one of our most successful festivals yet, with thousands of people visiting the ships and a great music line up. A big thank you to everyone who supported the event and we hope to make it an even bigger and better festival next year.”
