GALLERY: The Swindon Shuffle - a festival at the heart of the Swindon community

Thousands crammed into pubs across Swindon over the weekend for the 18th year of The Swindon Shuffle - the original live music festival. Jamie Hill reports...

“Music is like powerful, yeah. It transcends everything and it brings people together like nothing else.”

I’m standing in the smoking area of The Beehive. It’s a Sunday night.

Inside the pub it’s packed. A sweating mass of people. Smiling. Dancing. A band called Concrete Prairie are crammed onto the stage area. The crowd close enough to kiss.

It’s The Swindon Shuffle. Now in its 18th year and more popular than ever.

Outside in the smoking area, where I had popped out to get some air and cool down, I can hear the band going down a storm taking the festival-goers on some kind of folky melodic odyssey.

A random pub philosopher is talking to me. I didn’t catch his name but he’s in full flow.

“I mean. Take Swindon. Everyone likes to moan about it. Say there’s nothing going on and that it’s gone to the dogs. But they never mention things like this. The Swindon Shuffle. It’s brilliant. How can people slag off this town when you’ve got things like this going on. Look at all these people. We’re all together this whole weekend. Together. We’re all part of something special. A community. And it’s all done through music.”

The man pauses and I expect him to continue. But he looks at me and smiles and says: “Great meeting you mate. I’m off to the bogs.”

And with that final pronouncement he shuffles off never to be seen again.

The Swindon Shuffle. It’s definitely something that the town can be proud of.

For 18 years it’s been at the centre of the town’s music community. A simple idea of live original music of every genre, taking over as many venues as possible in the town following in the footsteps of the Oxford Punt and the Camden Crawl.

As an event, it keeps growing and has a life of its own.

This year, for the first time, it was actually a week long celebration. Starting last Monday evening with an Ink Community Talk from Prospect Hospice CEO Jeremy Lune and then ending last night with a sweaty, amazing night of musical shenanigans at The Beehive.

It was actually a new band called JB and the Mojo Makers who took that final slot at The Beehive. Led by the very talented Jim Blair. You would never have seen The Beehive so busy. Jammed full of smiling, happy people having the time of their lives.

The Shuffle was definitely a beast this year. For a whole week there was music reverberating around the town. It definitely felt like the festival had gone up a level. People needed it. They needed the community. They needed to feel alive in a way that only music can make you feel.

From the grungey, heavy, rocky, poppy, indie sets of guitar bands at The Vic and The Castle to the folk/americana tinged goodness pumping out of The Tuppenny.

There was hip hop at The Hop (try saying that really fast!), a ruddy ceilidh at the Eastcott Community Centre, cool DJ vibes at the Eternal Optimist and even experimental soundscapes at Baristocats.

I’ve got a confession at this point. I’m actually on the organising committee and have been for the past few years. The other main committee members are the chair Ed Dyer, Paul ‘Paj’ Jellings, Avril Jellings, Linda Gulliford, and Paul Gemmill.

The work involved behind the scenes is massive to make this happen.

There were 73 bands this year. There would have been 75 but we had two pull-outs. But I don’t know if you’ve ever tried herding cats but try and herd 73 acts with all their instruments into the right places, at the right times and then getting them all to put on something special for a crowd of the town’s music fans.

It’s like trying to put together a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle or a Rubiks Cube with 18 sides.

And we are helped by a small army of volunteers doing everything from stage managing to bucket shaking. We couldn’t do it without them.

This year, and one of the main reasons why the festival shifted up a gear, was because we had some money. There were several sponsors varying from Lewis Farrant Floor Layer, Deacons, Francis George, Gastech, Hop Kettle Brewery, The Ink, and Swindon Link.

But our main headline sponsor was UKRI - UK Research and Innovation who were fantastic and gave us the means to make this festival as big as it’s become.

For me, the one thing I love about The Shuffle is that you get to discover new talent, and this year was no exception.

Everyone is different and The Shuffle caters for everyone. But my personal standouts were In-Flight Movie, which sounded old school and new at the same time. Atari Pilot were another act that etched their way into my very soul as well as Subject A and Wild Isles. NervEndings, who headlined the Saturday night at The Vic, were especially wonderful too.

I heard there were other bands that completely wowed and amazed. Lucky Number Seven being one of them and The All Star Jamboree Function Band being another.

It was also a festival of moments.

That moment of being engulfed by the lovely soothing soundscape of Midiphonic at Baristocats or that moment of dancing like I’ve never danced to DJ Matt Baila at the after-show party on the Saturday night at The Vic.

Everyone who went will have their moments.

But one of the most special things about the entire festival is that it’s entirely free and throughout we were raising money for Prospect Hospice with each audience really coming up trumps by generously donating to the cause.

We won’t know the full count of what we raised for a few weeks yet. Buckets need to be collected and counted and that takes some time. But it will be in the thousands.

We are still taking donations and if you want to put your hand in your pocket for such a good cause, please click here

In summary though, The Swindon Shuffle highlights all the best things about the town. It focusses on its inclusivity and togetherness.

It’s definitely something special that we should all embrace.

As the pub philosopher said: “Music transcends everything and it brings people together like nothing else.”