Pontardawe Arts Centre is set to host a magnificent array of performances, offering something for everyone this season. From the age-old tale of Aladdin captivating audiences in both adult and family pantomime formats to the enchanting winter melodies of The Unthanks, the upcoming lineup is nothing short of spectacular. Music lovers can anticipate a heartfelt tribute to Celine Dion, the quirky charm of Hayseed Dixie, and a delightful performance by children's songwriter Nick Cope. With comedy, poetry, and more, this season promises to celebrate the arts in all their vibrant forms.

A Cultural Extravaganza: Unforgettable Performances at Pontardawe Arts Centre

The Pontardawe Arts Centre is set to host a lineup of diverse and captivating events in early 2025, showcasing an eclectic mix of musical genres and performances. From the nostalgic tunes of Celine and ABBA tributes to the jubilant rhythms of Hayseed Dixie and Laurence Jones' blues mastery, there's something for every music lover to enjoy. Not to forget, the dynamic performances from artists like Bwncath and Katherine Priddy, all contributing to an unforgettable cultural tapestry. Join us as we delve into the vibrant array of entertainment gracing the Pontardawe stage.

Experience the Pulse of Music and Culture at Pontardawe Arts Centre

Pontardawe Arts Centre is set to host an exhilarating series of events in 2025 that promise to captivate audiences with its diverse lineup. From the poetic musings of Luke Wright to Katherine Priddy's soulful folk, the vibrant Dazzling Diamonds drag show, and Laurence Jones's blues prowess, these events offer something for everyone. The celebration continues with nostalgic journeys through the music of Frankie Valli and ABBA, making it a must-visit destination for culture enthusiasts.

A Spectacle of Arts and Music: Unforgettable Events at Pontardawe Arts Centre

Prepare to be dazzled as The Dazzling Diamonds proudly present their smash hit comedy variety drag show. From jaw-dropping dance numbers to hilarious lip-sync performances and not forgetting the sensational live vocals, the cast will have you rolling with laughter and dancing in the aisles.

Dazzling Diamonds: The Comedy Variety Drag Show

Pontardawe Arts Centre

February 2024 saw the release of Katherine Priddy’s eagerly awaited second album: The Pendulum Swing. Greeted by critical acclaim in the press including MOJO who called it “simply brilliant”, the album landed at #1 in the official UK Folk Charts. It saw the likes of Iggy Pop, Guy Garvey, Craig Charles, Mark Radcliffe and Gideon Coe giving it a spin whilst RTE in Ireland added tracks to their recommendations list for 3 weeks running.

Katherine Priddy

Following the smash hit success of his Silver Jubilee show (“the best thing he’s done and that’s saying something.” ★★★★★ Telegraph) Luke Wright returns with a new set poems that get to grips with the idea of JOY. Is it possible, as a 42 year old to feel pure unbridled happiness, and what does it look like?

Luke Wright: JOY!

Help Nick find his beloved bobble hat in this fun filled musical hour with all your favourite Nick Cope hits and more. Nick Cope has been writing and recording his beautiful and totally unique songs for children and their families for over 10 years, he performs with his guitar and stunning animations to sell-out crowds all over the country.

Nick Cope

Ffurfiwyd yn 2014 yn ardal Caernarfon. Rhyddhawyd ein albwm gyntaf, Bwncath, yn haf 2017 a daeth yr albwm ddiweddaraf, Bwncath II, allan ym mis Mawrth 2020.Cafodd yr albwm gyntaf ei chynhyrchu gan Robin Llwyd - a fo ac Elidyr wnaeth recordio bron â bod popeth sydd arni.Yn 2019, cafwyd ymateb gwych i’r ddwy sengl sef ‘Clywed Dy Lais’, a’r gân fuddugol yng nghystadleuaeth Cân i Gymru, ‘Fel Hyn ‘Da Ni Fod’, a’i pherfformio fel band yn yr Ŵyl Ban Geltaidd. Yn ogystal â hyn, rhyddhawyd fideo arbennig (wedi’i animeiddio gan Lleucu Non) i’r gân ‘Dos Yn Dy Flaen’ i ddathlu Dydd Miwsig Cymru 2020, a chyrhaeddodd y dair cân y Clwb Can Mil o ffrydiau ar Spotify.Recordiwyd yr albwm ‘II’ yn Stiwdio Sain ac mae’r band yn gigio’n rheolaidd. Cynhyrchwyd ‘II’ gan Robin Llwyd a dylunwyd y gwaith celf gan Elidyr Glyn.

Bwncath

Hayseed Dixie began in the summer of 2000 in the fertile valley of Deer Lick Holler, deep in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains of East Tennessee USA. In this area which was completely isolated from outside cultural and musical influence, the boys grew up playing the traditional music of their forefathers on banjo, fiddle, mandolin, acoustic guitar and acoustic bass. All of this changed abruptly one afternoon when a stranger crashed his car into a stately old oak tree on a particularly dangerous curve, which the locals refer to as the “Devil’s Elbow.” Sadly, the stranger expired, but his legacy lives on! As the boys searched through the wreckage looking for identification, they discovered several vinyl AC/DC albums. After playing these back on an old Edison 78rpm Victrola, everyone agreed that the songs were right fine country music . . . and that the Lost Highway of Brother Hank Williams and this Highway To Hell of AC/DC were indeed the exact same damn road! And the rest is now enshrined in musical history.

Hayseed Dixie

After a sold out tour across the UK and Europe in 2023, Celine- My Heart Will Go On is back for 2024, bigger and better than ever!!!The concert is a stunning celebration of the music of one of the greatest singers of our time.

Celine – My Heart Will Go On

When December draws near, The Unthanks will release and tour In Winter - a double-album,gatefold, dream-like winter fantasia, embracing both the dark and the light in the most ritualistic ofseasons. Moving in and out of focus - like a memory - a bittersweet hymnal to our shared winterexperience. Echoes of winter tunes known throughout the western world, mix with the traditionaland the newly written, all passed with great care and love through The Unthanks filter.

The Unthanks in Winter

This Christmas join our hero Aladdin on the journey of a lifetime full of magic, mystery and make-believe as he strives to find his fortune and true love.

Family Panto: Aladdin

You are all invited to join Aladdin and his friends as they try to get a rub…of his lamp.

Adult Panto: Aladdin

Afternoon in Paris is a band on a mission to entertain! Their music stems from the forties swing of the Hot Club of France, but extends to encompass a miasma of styles from Latin to Klezmer, Bebop to Pop with some fab originals thrown in. Prepare to be transported through the smoky jazz clubs of 1930s Paris and Hamburg to the grand cafés of Europe, New York, and South America. With five fabulous musicians hot to play the result is a unique and joyful fusion of superbly delivered music and a night full of fun. With very special support from unique and wonderful local youth cello group, Sielo Pontardawe, this is a show not to be missed, Bring your dancing shoes, or just sit back and enjoy the show.

Afternoon in Paris

After successful live shows at The Elysium and The Bunkhouse, Pontardawe Music Collective, Future Blood celebrate with another night of ground-breaking original music with bands and solo artists from the Swansea/Pontardawe area.

Future Blood Live

Dazzling musicianship,​ riveting stage performances, more than 50 TV appearances (including, somewhat bizarrely, five episodes of Teletubbies) and 75 radio broadcasts have established them as the Kings of Swing.​

King Pleasure and the Biscuit Boys

“Children singing, police sirens ringing, chestnuts stolen from an orphan’s fire.…..and in a filthy alley in Chinatown a department store Father Christmas lies dead in a pool of his own blood – Aberystwyth at Christmas.” Following the success of Aberystwyth Mon Amour in 2016, Lighthouse Theatre returns with a stage premiere of another Malcolm Pryce Welsh Noir novel. Directed by Llinos Daniel, with original music by Kieran Bailey, this is a co-production with Pontardawe and Aberystwyth Arts Centres with the help of Arts Council Wales and Tŷ Cerdd. (Performed in English)

O Little town of Aberystwyth

Featuring Thijs Van Leer, Pierre Van Der Linden, Menno Gootjes and Udo Pannekeet, Focus return to European concert stages during 2023/24.

Focus

Bringing you country, Americana, pop, and blues. She will be performing her latest releases in her original music with songs such as roll the dice, bad lovin’ blues, fly away.

Shellyann with Sundown Serenade

DS:UK comes full circle and return in 2024 with their highly anticipated “Alchemical Tour” - their tribute to the Dire Straits infamous live “Alchemy” album, which was released as the first live album recorded during the final nights of the 1982 - 1983 - Love over gold Tour.

DSUK…in Tribute to Dire Straits

Step into the magical world of The Crafty Cabaret, where the air is filled with excitement and laughter!

Crafty Cabaret (Flossy & Boo)

Recorded in Abbey Road Studio 2 on Earth Day 2024, ‘Earth Day Blue’ is the 14th studioalbum release from Nick Harper, the wildly talented and much loved singer-songwriter. With JohnLeckie in the producer’s chair (Stone Roses, Radiohead, Muse etc.) and Tchad Blake mixing (TomWaits, Crowded House, Peter Gabriel etc.), the album is a flash mob of high calibre talentassembled for a few hours’ collaboration in a very special space.

Nick Harper • 'Earth Day Blue' Tour 2024

The band explain; 'We couldn't ignore all the love we got for the first acoustic tour (in 2019) when we kept having to add more and more shows due to the demand. We ended up doing about 50 shows when we originally planned to do just one or two! So we decided to do it again and make it another very special and intimate performance. We honestly can't wait'Turin Brakes released their Mercury Prize nominated debut The Optimist Lp in March 2001 (achieving gold status in the UK) and followed it up in 2003 with their most commercially successful album - Ether Song - featuring the Top 5 hit single Pain Killer (Summer Rain). Since then the band have racked up seven top 40 singles, six top 40 albums and over a million record sales worldwide.

Turin Brakes Acoustic

A Night To Remember: Motown Show takes you back in time to 1960’s Detroit. Be prepared for a high energy show, packed with the greatest Motown hits of all time.

A Night to Remember Motown

Mae Al Lewis yn gantor/cyfansoddwr dwyieithog o Gymru. Hyd yn hyn, mae Al wedi rhyddhau cyfanswm o 7 albwm, ac enwebwyd ei albwm solo cyntaf yn y Saesneg, ‘In the Wake’, ar gyfer Gwobr Gerddoriaeth Cymru gyntaf. Mae ei albymau Cymraeg i gyd wedi treulio sawl wythnos yn safle #1 ar Siartiau Iaith Gymraeg BBC Cymru.

Al Lewis a'r band

In the trajectory of watching great musicians develop, there is no set timetable. Some appear full-blownright from the start, and others can take a whole career to get to that elevated place. Albert Cummingsarrived strong right at the beginningand has kept growing over a course of endless tours and nineprevious albums, right up to today with the release of the album TEN. It’s the kind of recording that showsexactly why all the accolades and excitement have been deserved. Now, it’s an irrevocable truth that themusician has made his full-on breakthrough. And it comes at exactly the perfect time, when the world islooking into what might be in store past the challenging experience of the pandemic for the last two years.Music, being one of the world’s tried and true joys of life, has always had a way of bringing healing andinspiration to listeners, and at no time in recent decades has it been needed more than now.

Albert Cummings

When the walls of a Welsh castle start to crumble because of the two dragons who live in the dungeon, only someone of pure Welsh heritage can stop the battle... but how exactly do you know if someone is Welsh or not?Featuring music, rap, and a historical twist, this bold new play for children explores Britain’s black ancestry, challenging us to question the stories that have been handed down from generation to generation. Funny, fast and thought-provoking, The Welsh Dragon weaves together the well-known myth with historical hidden truths to explore identity, ethnicity, and the origins of human life on the British Isles.

The Welsh Dragon

Laurence Jones, the multi-award-winning guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter born in Liverpool released his 8th studio album ‘Bad Luck & The Blues’ which charted #1 in The Official Jazz & Blues Charts in The UK. Hailed "The future of the blues" as Classic Rock Magazine aptly puts it! Don't miss a chance to book Laurence Jones to perform live on tour. With his impressive prize cabinet of awards and a place in the British Blues Hall Of Fame, he's one of the UK's greatest guitarists.

AGMP Concerts and MVT Cohorts presents Laurence Jones

OH WHAT A NIGHT! takes you back in time on a musical journey through the incredible career of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons.

Oh What A Night!

Direct from London’s West End, MANIA is accepted as the world’s number one ABBA tribute show.

Pontardawe Arts Centre

Apr 11, 2025

AGMP Concerts and MVT Cohorts presents Laurence Jones

May 9, 2025

Oh What A Night!

Jun 27, 2025

MANIA: The ABBA Tribute

Mar 7, 2025

Dazzling Diamonds: The Comedy Variety Drag Show

Mar 5, 2025

Katherine Priddy

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Pontardawe Arts Centre