FOCUS
WALES
2026
Another magical weekend in Wrexham was held 7th-9th May with 350+ acts and performances, in 20+ venues over 3 packed nights. Our 2026 headliners filled our big top tent with superb powerful performances and great visuals. With so many bands from so many countries we got to experience a wide range of different sounds and performances, and many for the very first time. The festival is so well fine tuned now - there's nothing else quite like it anywhere in the UK. Bring on 2027!
What makes FOCUS Wales so good?
Official
Festival
Sponsor
We absolutely love FOCUS Wales. You don't get more fun than this.
FOCUS Wales returned for its 16th year, and absolutely smashed it. With bands visiting town from right across Wales, England, Scotland and from all over the world. And a Film festival running alongside it - the BAFTA-Cymru Qualifying FOCUS Wales Film Festival, also in its 7th year - Wrexham knows exactly how to host a proper weekender for 25,000+ people. None of it would be possible without the heroes of FOCUS Wales!
Welcome to
Wrexham
Welcoming delegates from all over the world on Wednesday, we caught up with and guided some of the Scottish and Mexican attendees walking in from the station, so they could arrive in time for the famous opening night barbeque being prepared at the Fat Boar right next door. It was brilliant to hear first hand how much people from thousands of miles away love Wrexham and FOCUS Wales so much - and make it their dream to travel and play here - the UK's best festival for emerging talent.
Opening
Night
Thursday
Thursday started off properly for us with the CNM France Mixer over at Ty Pawb and an evening at Llwyn Isaf with FAT DOG bringing the house down as the first headline of the weekend. Those looking for more rock and general awesomeness were treated to Deerhoof who had travelled in from the USA playing over at the Rocking Chair til late.
Friday
We started off Friday with a couple of lunchtime meets over a pint with some of the team behind IDLEWILD and made new friends with Radio Wigwam. We were treated to fine performances from Ty Cerdd over at Hope Street Church and caught up for a chat with local duo Igloo Hearts. We then headed over to the big tent - Llwyn Isaf - for a back to back spectacular from Slate from Cardiff and headliners IDLEWILD from Scotland. We then supported our friend Mark and local electronica band Gallops over at The Rocking Chair - the go-to late night venue for true die hard Focus revellers.
Saturday
Rested overnight and with energy drinks in hand we started off in the afternoon with a fringe gig at Revibed Records, with an acoustic and poetic performance from up and coming artist Gene Madoc. Then we popped into The Drunk Monk to support our friend Ian and Sons of Speed before heading back over to Ty Pawb for a Nova Scotia Mixer. Fed and watered and ready for the evening we were treated to Wrexham favourites Baby Brave who have been rightly promoted to the Big Tent - and they dropped some cool new tunes on the crowd. We then called into Penny Black to see another Scottish rockband Faeda and soulful performance from Baby Eleanor before we headed back to the big tent for SHAME - Saturday night's headliner from South London full of raw power and no shame, finishing off with a packed out Rocking Chair with The Bug Club. Awesome...just doesn't even come close.
We have a 1:1 with one of Wales’ most exciting rock bands who just love tearing it up in Wrexham.
Holy
Coves
We first met Holy Coves by chance at FOCUS Wales a couple of years back. After this years' FOCUS Wales we approached them for a story for Visit Wrexham. We capture a detailed and personal conversation with Scott Marsden, now 43, who is the lead singer, guitarist, and primary songwriter, who reflected on his lifelong musical journey.
A world of music is on offer in Wrexham
Experience
FOCUS
Wales
We’ve known the team behind FOCUS Wales for a good many years now and have long supported their much loved festival. Called FOCUS Wales it takes place every May, and grows year upon year and is showing no sign of slowing down. Like a good wine, the performances continues to improve over time, and the annual event is now maturing into a must go to destination for up and coming bands from all over the world.
FOCUS Wales was created to highlight the vibrant new music scene within the Welsh music industry. At its core, the organisation delivers an international, multi-venue festival held annually in Wrexham, shining a spotlight on emerging Welsh talent and showcasing some of the world’s most exciting new acts. FOCUS Wales 2026 will celebrate the festival’s 16th year, welcoming over 25,000 attendees to Wrexham, following a record-breaking 2025 event.
The festival features 350+ performances across 20+ stages, alongside interactive industry sessions, arts events, and film screenings. In addition to the main festival, FOCUS Wales also organises several international events throughout the year under the #WelshMusicAbroad initiative.
In between the annual festival in Wrexham, the team are usually heading off to festivals themselves all over world, carrying their famous FOCUS Wales flags and banners, and accompanied by local bands. In doing they are exporting the very best of Welsh talent and music around the globe. And in turn the team are doing their best to recruit bands and their hosts to reciprocate in kind and get them to experience a welcome to Wrexham for themselves. It’s a very effective formula, and something that Neal as one of the founders and Sarah as one of the directors gave us an insight into how it works perfectly, year upon year.
FOCUS Wales is unlike other festivals as it provides a professional conference format during the day, allowing performers, sponsors and industry types valuable networking opportunities over lunches. Then things loosen up a bit for their popular early evening mixers and usually from around 7pm it’s a high-octane, high-paced, well-choregraphed evening of exactly timed gigs all taking place within a few minutes’ walk of each other across the heart of Wrexham.
With a good wind, and plenty of sleep each night - and perhaps not too much Wrexham Lager -you can average 8 to 10 gigs per day or as many as 30 over the whole weekend. That means tickets for the whole weekend represent superb value for money in an ongoing cost of living crisis and where ticket prices for famous bands nowadays can easily fetch hundreds of pounds.
It also means that with 350+ gigs taking place, even the most hardy are barely able to scratch the surface of just how much content and music is available over the weekend. Pound for pound, it’s the UK champion of festivals.
In recent years the FOCUS Wales Film festival has launched and runs simultaneously alongside the music festival, which is led by fellow member of the FOCUS Wales team, Rob Corcoran, also based here in the Foundry. Rob’s content invites film makers from all over the world to bring creative film and animation pieces for a wide range of audiences. This means with film, music and other creative media you really can call it a cultural melting pot for the whole weekend, the leading fringe for Wales if you like.
We are blessed that Wrexham isn’t a capital city, as the intimacy of hosting such an important event transforms the very nature of the whole town for the weekend – something that it wouldn’t be able to do if it were hosted in a major city.
The future of the festival looks assured with more names and bands than ever wishing to play and the only challenge is Wrexham can’t host them all every year.
With some past major headliners, next years’ acts will surely set the bar even higher again for Wrexham. We look forward to sharing news on confirmed acts as soon as they are announced and covering the festival in person throughout the whole weekend for Visit Wrexham.
Celebrating Welsh language music day it's
Gŵyl
Dyfodol
Festival
2026
On Saturday 14 February we attended the ever popular annual free to attend music festival organised by the Focus Wales team, hosted again at Ty Pawb, in the heart of town.
We saw the talented performers Côr DAW, the multi-instrument playing duet Elin a Carys, popular local performer Andy Hickie and a rocking session from The Family Battenberg who brought to the stage a great level of energy and stage presence.
Côr DAW
Cor Daw is a vibrant female choir of 25 enthusiastic singers from the Wrexham area who share a passion for learning and performing in Welsh.
This dynamic ensemble has graced some of Wales' most prestigious stages, including Venue Cymru Llandudno, Cardiff's Millennium Centre, and Chester Cathedral, as well as local venues such as Erddig Hall. Regular performers at Saith Seren and the annual Focus Wales festival, the choir also enjoys collaborating with Rhos and Brymbo Male Voice Choirs for charitable fundraising events. Their dedication to Welsh culture and community spirit was recognised in 2024 when they won the Welsh Award at the Wrexham Business and Community Awards and we look forward to seeing them again this coming May.
Elin a Carys
A talented duo performing with a wide ensemble of instruments, we were treated to an uplifting and spiritual performance.
They are Elin and Carys Gittins, the gifted sister duo from Montgomeryshire, who are fast becoming rising stars in Wales’ vibrant folk music revival. They rose to fame dramatically at the 2025 National Eisteddfod in Wrexham, where they triumphed in Brwydr y Bandiau Gwerin (Battle of the Folk Bands)—a ground-breaking new competition co-launched by the National Eisteddfod and the BBC to champion emerging Welsh folk talent.
The
Family
Battenberg
The Family Battenberg are a self-produced four-piece garage/psych rock band and consists of Eliot Jones (vocals), Ethan Duck (guitar), Celyn Thomas (bass), and Alex Pothecary (drums).
Their sound blends 80's and 90's rock and roll-inspired guitar riffs with driving rhythms, percussive flair, and exciting lyrical themes. They brought a great and vibrant indie scene to Ty Pawb on Saturday night. We heard sounds drawing inspiration from other bands we love.
A talented band set for a bright future, we look forward to seeing them perform again.
Focus Wales
team extends
calendar
all year round
This past weekend's events - celebrating welsh language music day - is just one of the additional events and festivals Focus Wales help plan, organise and deliver for the whole community. They also deliver their two day indoor music and arts winter festival Trawsnewid: Transform 2026 which is hosted over at Aberystwyth Arts Centre.
Co-presented by Aberystwyth Arts Centre and FOCUS Wales, the festival showcases leading Welsh artists through an immersive blend of live music and cutting-edge visuals, transforming the venue into a dynamic playground of sound and light.
The 2026 edition featured a diverse line-up including electronic music pioneer A Guy Called Gerald, Focus Wales favourites The Bug Club, Georgia Ruth, Lemfreck, Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog, Adult DVD, and many more. The event celebrates creativity, collaboration, and the rich cultural landscape of Wales’ west coast.