Scott McKeon on the Pure Local Extra show

The main topic of today’s show was the annual Devauden Festival, a festival based in Monmouthshire with many different musical acts and activities spread across 3 days. The festival has been running since 2010: initially something quite small and having to chase musicians to take part, the festival has since grown to be so big that they get over 500 applications each year. Of those 500 acts, only just over 80 get selected to play on 1 of their 5 stages.

This year, the festival is taking place on the 23rd, 24th and 25th of May. Devauden Festival used to take place in the village of Devauden, a small village just outside of Chepstow. They have since moved but only 10 minutes away to Humble by Nature, a local farm. According to Scott, everyone enjoys the moment, you hardly see phones recording: everyone stays in the moment. It’s kept real and mindful. Something that you rarely see today at concerts and festivals.

Throughout today’s show, we played tracks from some of the many artists. Some of those artists include Outrun the Rain, Papa Jupes, Ophelia’s Beard, Greg Ryan, Mr Bewlay, The Humber Collective, Joe Kelly and the Royal Pharmacy, among many more: If we listed all acts, this blog would be far too long! The full list can be found on the Devauden Festival website. 

Other than the Devauden Festival, Scott is in a band of his own: Rusty Shackle, who always play the final set of the festival. Scott plays the fiddle and banjo, two instruments you don’t typically see in a band. Other than banjo and fiddle, Scott teaches folk music with Gwent Music. In terms of songwriting, Scott told us that the other members are more involved with the creation of songs, he inputs some ideas and finishing touches.

We got some backstory from Scott on how he came to be involved with the festival. It started with Scott emailing multiple different festivals to potentially play at, Devauden happened to be the only one to say yes. Jeremy, the person in charge at the time would end up being Rusty Shackle’s manager and Scott would end up in a managing role with Devauden. Since getting involved all those years ago, Rusty Shackle always plays the final set of the festival as mentioned prior. In this time, the festival has grown considerably with 5 members of their core team, 20 in the outer team and over 300 volunteers.

We also got to know some of the many activities on offer at the festival, Scott described it as a massive day out with plenty for everyone. Other than the 5 stages of music, there is a silent disco, art, yoga, acoustic sessions, a skate ramp, a camping site and so much more: as well as free parking on site!  Newport Bus has also gotten involved and set up a bus route (the 65) which goes straight to the festival.

If you want tickets to the festival, they are available on the Devauden Festival website. As well as tickets, you can see a much more detailed list of the acts and activities on offer.

You can listen to the full show here