Festival N°6 (Festival Number 6) is an annual art and music festival held in and around
Portmeirion
Portmeirion is a tourist village in Gwynedd, North Wales. It was designed and built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925 and 1975 in the style of an Italian village, and is now owned by a charitable trust. The village is located in the co ...
,
North Wales
North Wales ( cy, Gogledd Cymru) is a region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders Mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, with Snowdonia N ...
. The festival presents a wide range of music genres across multiple stages. It is advertised as a family-friendly festival, and as such various areas of the festival are targeted to families, such as "No.6's Mischief Meadow" for children and a designated family camping area. In 2013 one of the organizers stated that due to the size of the village the festival was not likely to grow beyond 10,000 attendees across the weekend.
In July 2018 the festival organisers announced that the festival would be taking an indefinite break.
Overview
The first event took place on 14 September 2012; around 6,500 people attended the festival.
It has returned every year since, as of 2017.
Village of Portmeirion
The festival takes place in then north of Wales in the village of Portmeirion on the
Snowdonia
Snowdonia or Eryri (), is a mountainous region in northwestern Wales and a national park of in area. It was the first to be designated of the three national parks in Wales, in 1951.
Name and extent
It was a commonly held belief that the na ...
coast in the Welsh county of
Gwynedd. The village location is composed of many edifices inspired by the architecture of an Italian coastal town. Portmeirion village was built between 1925 and 1978 by the architect Sir
Clough Williams-Ellis
Sir Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis, CBE, MC (28 May 1883 – 9 April 1978) was a Welsh architect known chiefly as the creator of the Italianate village of Portmeirion in North Wales. He became a major figure in the development of Welsh architec ...
. The festival takes place throughout the village, with the main music events located in adjacent fields; the typical Italian infrastructures show an atypical side of Portmeirion village which is part of the festival atmosphere. The music events and activities range from the Colonnade Gardens to the
River Dwyryd
The River Dwyryd ( cy, Afon Dwyryd, meaning a river of two fords) is a river in Gwynedd, Wales which flows principally westwards; draining to the sea into Tremadog Bay, south of Porthmadog.
Geography
The Dwyryd rises in the hills to the north o ...
, from the Tanglewoods to the beach.
''The Prisoner''
The festival's name is based on the cult TV show ''The Prisoner'', which was filmed largely on location at Portmeirion. The main character is called "Number 6", and was played by the actor
Patrick McGoohan. In the series, Number 6 is a secret agent held as a prisoner in a
mysterious coastal village. This TV show is iconic of the village and made it famous internationally.
Art, culture and other activities
The N°6 Festival includes live music, poetry readings, comedy, talks and other cultural activities. The festival also includes a range of participative activities to complement the mainstream music events and develop differentiation from other music festivals. These have included "Giant Mind", "Urban Sketching", and "Extraordinary Bubbles".
The Slow Readers Club
The Slow Readers Club are an English rock band from Manchester. Their third studio album ''Build A Tower'' was a UK Album Chart, UK Top 20 hit album reaching number 18; follow up ''The Joy of the Return'' made it to the Top 10, peaking at num ...
released a mini-album on 4 May 2018, recorded with
Joe Duddell at
Portmeirion Town Hall called ''Live From Festival No.6''.
BBC Radio Wales
BBC Radio Wales is a Welsh radio station owned and operated by BBC Cymru Wales, a division of the BBC. It began broadcasting on 13 November 1978, replacing the 'Radio 4 Wales' opt-out service (previously the Welsh Home Service). Radio Wales b ...
also regularly broadcast live from the festival, with DJs
Adam Walton
Adam Walton (born 31 May 1971) is a British radio disc jockey who has presented shows on BBC Radio Wales since 1993. He is also a member of Mold-based, indie band The Immediate, and a resident DJ at Telford's Warehouse in Chester. Adam has ...
and
Bethan Elfyn presenting shows from the site.
Artists
Since 2012 Festival N°6 has hosted hundreds of musical artists and many other artists performing comedy, talks or performance art. The 2012 festival was in partnership with Electric Elephant Festival. Artists that performed since 2012 have included:
Accommodation
During the event, Portmeirion's village offers visitors a limited availability of accommodation in the village itself. Visitors also have the possibility to make a reservation in hotels, bunk houses, cottages, camper vans, yurts, tipis and tents.
Controversy
Ticket prices in 2013 had almost doubled after the success of the first year.
In 2016, 200 people had to take shelter in a leisure centre in
Porthmadog
Porthmadog (; ), originally Portmadoc until 1974 and locally as "Port", is a Welsh coastal town and community in the Eifionydd area of Gwynedd and the historic county of Caernarfonshire. It lies east of Criccieth, south-west of Blaenau Ff ...
after the car park for the park-and-ride service flooded and cars became stuck. The organisers were condemned for putting the car park on a flood plain despite having been issued with flood warnings due to heavy rainfall.
References
External links
*
{{The Prisoner
Arts festivals in Wales
Tourist attractions in Gwynedd
The Prisoner
2012 establishments in Wales
Recurring events established in 2012