OS grid reference SH593376 Sovereign state United Kingdom Dates 7 Sep – 10 Sep 2017 | Community Penrhyndeudraeth Country Wales | |
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Awards UK Festival Award for Best New Festival Nominations UK Festival Award for Best Brand Activation Similar Green Man Festival, Bestival, End of the Road Festival, Secret Garden Party, Wilderness Profiles | ||
Festival N°6 is an annual art and music festival held at Portmeirion, Wales. The festival presents a wide range of music genres, including rock and roll, folk, house, techno and dance. It is considered as a family festival, as specific places are organized to welcome whole families, as No.6’s Mischief Meadow for children and a designated family camping area. Working with 'Attitude is Everything', the festival also adapted to disabled people.
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History
The first event took place on 14 September 2012; around 6500 persons attended the festival.
Village of Portmeirion
The festival takes place in the North of Wales in the village of Portmeirion on the Snowdonia coast in the Welsh county of Gwynedd. The village location is composed of many edifices inspired by the artchitecture of an Italian coastal town. Portmeirion village was built between 1925 and 1978 by the architect Sir Clough Williams Ellis. 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, from the Tanglewoods to the beach.
The Prisoner
The origin of the festival's name based on the cult TV show The Prisoner, which was filmed largely on location at Portmeirion. This famous British television series of the 1960s is composed of 17 episodes. 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. The character "Number 6" embodies a free thinking spirit, an ideal adopted by the festival.
Art, culture and 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, for example : 'Giant Mind', 'Urban Sketching', and 'Extraordinary Bubbles'...
Artists
Since 2012 Festival N°6 hast hosted more than 200 musical artists and many other various artists that performed at different locations, playing comedy, talks or performance art. The 2012 edition on 14, 15 and 16 September, was in partnership with Electric Elephant Festival. The second edition of the festival was on 13, 14 and 15 September 2013. The line-up for 5, 6 and 7 September 2014 is not available yet. Artists that performed during the two first years 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. One of the organizers at Portmeirion, Meurig Jones, stated that 10 000 people were the average number of persons expected at the festival, due to the size of the village. The majority of accommodation is in campsites adjacent to the village and music locations.