Festival organised by young people hopes to fill music scene gap

A summer music festival organised solely by young people in Cardiff hopes to fill a gap in music provision for teens while promoting local talent. Now in its fourth year running, the Under Construction Youth Music Festival 2010 is the result of work from a group of teenagers from the Cathays Youth and Community Centre and aims to be bigger than before, securing it as a permanent event in the Cardiff festival season. When former youth workers and festival organisers from the community centre left, young people on the Soundscene music project decided to take on the festival, spending their Sunday's planning and fund-raising. Ed Townend, 18, from Llandaff, has been busy gathering local bands from Cardiff and South Wales and promoting the festival to a wider audience along with a team of his peers. He said part of the success of bringing together the festival this year, was the way the bands are more receptive to the organisers being their own age. He said: "It's a much better festival now that young people are involved. I think for bands it's better if they are talked to by young people – it's less pressurised and less patronising. "All the bands are people we've seen before or know about – we thought about our own experience of the bands when choosing them for the line up, so there's also a better selection than last year." The one-day festival will take place at Maindy Cycle Track on 14 August from 12pm and the main stage will host bands playing music from metal to punk while a newly added acoustic stage will showcase emerging talent from young singer/songwriters. There will also be workshops and activities including a skate ramp, bmx biking, free running and an inflatable football pitch. Sourcing bands on Facebook and Myspace through their friend networks as well as inviting the winning acts from Battle of the Bands, which took place earlier this year, means in total 10 bands will play on the main stage and 10 on the acoustic stage, including The Lay-Lows and Athena . Cardiff youth project, Grassroots will host an open-mic tent. Having a music festival focused on young talent which is open to people of all ages is something Ed says Cardiff lacks. He says: "There's not a lot of interesting stuff put on for young people in Cardiff. "Growing up here I could get quite bored – and there would be great bands playing in venues which were for over 18s only, which meant I couldn't go to gigs, which was so frustrating because for me is was all about the music. "We didn't want to put on a festival which restricted anyone – so both under and over 18s can come and there will be safety checks before they come in. "The attraction is also that it's free, and we hope people will get more interested and involved in youth music. " Despite the youthful focus, there has been some adult involvement in the groundwork. Jon Wilson, who has been helping to co-ordinate the festival, has overseen the meetings at the community centre and says it's a massive achievement for the youth project. He said: "There was no way they were going to let the festival stop just because those organising it had left. But now it's more successful because of the way young people communicate with those involved." Overall the young people have raised nearly £8,000 through gigs, presenting to funding committees and building a promotion package. Funding for the community centre from the Heritage Lottery Fund has also gone towards the festival. Townend says organising the festival has helped him gain a place at Glamorgan University to study Live Event technology. "It's not an easy thing to organise – especially when everyone wants to do their own thing over the summer. "This has given me a lot of experience and skills which I can take further on – and I think that's true for everyone in the group. "It's also really putting the Cathays community centre on the map and brought everyone who works and goes there together." The festival will also promote sustainability by including a solar-powered stage provided by South West Solar Solutions, fair trade food from the community centre's Embassy Café and support from Roath farmers' market. To find out more you can visit the festival's Facebook group and page as well as their myspace page , and follow them on Twitter @ucfestival .