Focus Wales and the DNA of a showcase

Over the past twenty years the UK has seen a surge in regional showcase events - festivals with a conference element that aim to platform and support new music and the industry around it from The Great Escape to Liverpool Sound City. Internationally, there are similar counterparts - SXSW in Austin, Texas acting as something of a renown and respected template.

As some events excel, others have fallen by the wayside. So what makes a longevous and valuable showcase offering? With a decade and a half under its belt, FOCUS Wales is an enduring entry on the conference calendar. “The first FOCUS Wales was in two venues, one with two rooms and then another really small pub. They're both still part of the festival, which is quite cool,” says co-founder Neal Thompson [pictured below]. “I think there were 30 bands and 600 people. Now we have 20,000 plus people visiting and 250 acts.”

Launched in 2011, Thompson co-founded the festival with partner Andy Jones who acts as music programmer. The pair still run it to this day, operating in a small team with colleague Sarah Jones who works with Thompson on the conference element. "It's always been set up as a showcase for Welsh artists,” he says. “I suppose that's what's given us the kind of longevity of it - having that as the core of it. Sarah and I put the conference together and decide on the top themes. There's a lot of democracy within that between us.”

Across the year, the UK hosts multiple one-day or weekend-long multi-venue city events that platform new music. So what differentiates them from a more formal industry showcase? “On a practical level, having a conference element attached to it and music industry discussions that are focused on subjects related to artist development,” says Thompson. “Showcasing new talent and things, whether it's overt or not, they all play their own specific role in talent development. That is our mission, first and foremost, and everything else is built on top of that.”

That blur between showcase and new music festival becomes even more opaque as you consider what is fan and what is industry-facing. “That's the balance we've always tried to strike - not to be too much of one at the expense of the other,” says Thompson. “We wanted to have an industry showcase for Welsh artists that became recognised as such, and that had an international element to it. We always wanted to create a space where the Welsh artists were going to be amongst lots of other interesting things.

"So from the point of view of a discovery festival, and people who wouldn't know any of the bands never mind the Welsh artists, they would come along and they would see some really interesting bands from Korea and Canada and Australia, but also in the middle there'd be loads of new Welsh artists showcasing and everyone would be in the same kind of mix and part of the same discovery experience. Then also Welsh language music being in that same space, so that it's all accessible.

“Trying to create that kind of parity across the music program made it accessible for the general public - people who just want to enjoy music to come and discover things. Then in that context we can invite industry people to come in and then also experience the same show as the fans, and again it can be a very natural environment for the artist to perform.”

Another key part of the platform FOCUS Wales provides is through their connections with other showcase events, both in the UK and internationally. “Coming back to that very first festival - the other part of the reason for having a visible international element was to make sure that that door was open the other way for Welsh artists to be able to go to other countries and export internationally. If we created that international element here then the reciprocal part of that was always the hope,” Thompson says.

Having formed Welsh Music Abroad with fellow development organisations TRAC and Tŷ Cerdd, they built partnerships with the likes of Eurosonic Noorderslag in the Netherlands and M for Montreal in Canada. Of the partnership, M for Montreal’s artistic director Mikey B Rishwain says: “The international angle isn’t a feature, it’s the foundation. Our relationship with FOCUS Wales is a perfect example; it’s not a one-off exchange, it’s a long-term alliance. We’ve been building together for years. We keep running it back, year after year and that speaks for itself.

“We’re not here to ‘import’ artists. We connect ecosystems. We create real pathways between scenes so artists, industries, and ideas can circulate and grow on their own terms.

And what gets exchanged goes way beyond music. It’s trust. It’s relationships that actually last. It’s insight into how different cultures build and sustain their scenes. It’s mutual respect - and that matters, especially when you’re working across languages and borders.”

That space to share ideas and push culture forward is what makes the conference element of a showcase festival so important. “We have a theme for the conference every year that helps to decide the tone and the subject matter of everything. It allows us to have a broad range of conversations under that one headline theme,” says Thompson. “So for example, this year the theme is ‘A Fairer Future for Music.’ So everything is under that, everything goes through that filter first. This year we've got really on the nose panels about fair remuneration and valuing your own art and valuing your music.”

One of the keynote speakers at this year’s conference is BBC Radio 1’s Sian Eleri. For Thompson, her panel highlights the balance showcase events have to strike between big names and cultural value. “What we thought would be really interesting, especially for people in the audience, is someone who's obviously a first language Welsh speaker with that really strong Welsh accent and is in the mainstream. I thought that was a really interesting conversation,” he says. “Just being able to show that you can progress through what is the music industry no matter where you're from or who you are or whatever you might think is a hindrance to you.”

Speaking to Best Fit about her appearance, Eleri [pictured below] explains, “I found events like this super helpful when trying to establish my own career. I met so many great people at networking events, many I've kept in touch with or crossed paths with as the years have gone on. It's great to see a friendly face in what can feel like such an intimidating industry to crack. I want to support emerging talent where I can, and selfishly I can't wait to see what incredible musicians I'll discover in Focus Wales.”

Speaking under the banner theme of “A Fairer Future For Music,” Eleri can highlight the positive force of regional events for bringing change and accessibility to a once London-centric business. “I felt like a move to London was my only option to break into the music industry. I'd like to think that a decade on (ew!), things are moving in a better direction,” she says. “There are examples of a shift in England: from major moments like the BRITs going to Manchester, to the Mercury Prize and MOBO Awards in Newcastle. Artists have every right to succeed in the music industry and be able to live in their communities. After all, reflecting on hometowns can be an enormous part of musicians' artistry - whether it's Sam Fender's People Watching, CMAT's EURO-COUNTRY, or Super Furry Animals' Mwng.

"It's why festivals like FOCUS Wales are so needed. It's a chance for artists to meet managers, labels, bookers, producers, pluggers, fans, and like-minded people to feel supported and build a network around them. While there's still an uphill climb (BRITs in Bangor? Yes please), I'm confident the music industry is becoming more regionally inclusive and aware of its need for change - because talent is in every nook of the UK.”

With running a showcase festival, especially one so strongly focused on a specific group or region, there comes a responsibility for providing cultural value. But there’s also the real need to stay afloat financially in a very challenging and competitive market. “There has to be a money version of success, or at least not failure,” says Thompson. “We're in that space where a lot of the stuff that we're doing is around artist development and we do get some good support from things like Arts Council of Wales and Welsh Government. We're trying to nurture the future economic success of people, like new artists and so on. But we want to put events on that sell tickets - we also have to. What we want to make sure we're doing consciously is that Focus Wales is for everybody, access to the music industry for people who create music in Wales is as open as it could possibly be, and we're reaching across the whole of Wales - any language and any genre. We would want to see a program that is representative of everything that's happening in Wales right now.”

Another large part of the impact of a showcase event is on its host town or city. Bringing in money, jobs and work experience, they can make a huge contribution to the local economy and community. “FOCUS Wales generates about 2 million pounds of economic impact for the city centre,” says Thompson. “We have about 60 volunteers every year that work on the festival. So, they're work experience opportunities for people across lots of different roles. They generally tend to be more local people and a lot of the time younger people. People from the area who want to get into roles in the music industry or find out a bit more about it. But a lot of the time they're also quite transferable skills and it helps people. This is anecdotally from our surveys - it helps people with their confidence in general.”

Wrexham itself has changed a lot since FOCUS Wales’ first edition in 2011. In the mix for City of Culture in 2029, not everything can be down to its celebrity football club owners. ”That's kind of testament to all of this,” says Thompson. “It's a reflection of all the things that have been happening and all the development that's been going on. People have put time and effort into this place and wanting to do something here.”

With all the positives that come from events like FOCUS Wales, Eurosonic, or SXSW, press often tends to find a negative angle. “Bad news is the easiest news,” says Thompson. “We're probably in a good place to push a more positive narrative between us, and try and emphasise that a bit. We've got access to these people who come on the media trips, to go away with the positive stories, hopefully, of what's going on.”

For FOCUS Wales, success comes through the stories of its artists, most notably the Welsh acts. Welsh Music Prize winner LEMFRECK [pictured above] performed his first ever show at the festival, while they have been able to see local acts like The Royston Club from first step to big leap. “The Royston Club, they've been through our entire system,” Thompson smiles. “When they started out they played probably the smallest venue and then a couple of years ago they headlined the biggest venue that we've got. So they played the biggest hometown show ever.”

There are so many elements to a showcase festival and conference, it’s difficult to pinpoint what matters the most. Even amid a tough climate for promoters, they continue to persevere and platform new talent. At FOCUS Wales, their dedication to push Welsh music forward is the core passion that brings the whole event together, year after year.