So as well as being buttonholed by politicians desperately wanting to get your vote you may also find yourself buttonholed by a BBC Wales journalist equally desperate to get your views on the general election.

Our programmes including Wales Today, Newyddion 9, Radio Wales, Radio Cymru and our online and social media services in English and Welsh are all going to be on the tour and we want to know what you think, and what you want from your politicians.

What is on your mind? Does this election feel like a sea change in UK politics or do you feel untouched by the process?

This is your chance to get involved.

We have already been to Barry and Carmarthen. The next stop is Tregaron. Week two sees the tent turn up at Connah's Quay, Llandudno and finally Cardiff in time for the BBC One Wales leaders debate on Friday, May 1, at the Sherman Theatre. And while the tent makes its slow journey from one location to another, we’ll be taking the opportunity to feature other areas across Wales.

We are doing this because in one of the most unpredictable general elections in living memory, we think it's important that you - the voters - have all the information you need to make informed decisions and are given the chance to have your views heard.

And, if you can’t join us on the tour, there’s plenty more campaign coverage to choose from, led by BBC Wales’s team of presenters and political experts, Dewi Llwyd, Bethan Rhys Roberts, Nick Servini, Aled ap Dafydd, Vaughan Roderick and David Cornock. Add in plenty of expert analysis from specialist correspondents from across Wales, including Steffan Messenger, putting younger voters at the heart of his reporting throughout the campaign.

Reporting and analysis of the campaign is underpinned by a comprehensive digital service, offering individual pages covering stories and candidate information from all of the Welsh constituencies.

A few election facts

• Turnout at the 2010 general election in Wales was around 64.7%, slightly lower than the UK-wide figure of 65.1%
• That was the first time in the post-war era that Wales had had a lower turnout than the UK as a whole
• Turnout generally is considerably lower than the peaks of the 1950s
• While the decision to vote is of course a personal one, our hope is that our election coverage will help you understand the issues

Tent facts

• Our election tent is 10m x 10m and is inflated by two cold air fan blowers
• It takes around an hour to lay out ready, then four minutes to fully inflate
• It needs 60 x 20kg ballast bags to keep it safely anchored
• We'll cover 457 miles as we take it around Wales

I hope you get the chance to visit the tent at one of the named locations and take the opportunity to get involved, I also hope you are able to listen, to watch or to read our coverage.

He doesn't look very 'psychedelic'. Pretty normal haircut. Nothing obnoxious about the colouring of his shirt. 

However, he's a different presence, entirely, on stage. Wired to the spirit of his band’s sound, Huw is more Ian Curtis than Arthur Lee. When some bands mine from the past they forget to put enough of themselves into the equation, but not The Wild Eyes. You get the sense that they'd sound like this regardless of which era they happened to be making their noise in. 

It's very telling that the 'Wild' in 'Wild Eyes' isn't spelt with a stylistic 'y'. This isn't about style, or revival, it's entirely about soul. They're a rhythm and blues, early Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett if he'd been on Chess, not Harvest.

They're great. Despite the swarm of bees that appear to be living in the bass amp. 

White Noise Sound are intense young men from Swansea. They've been making wonderful, drone-laden music – somewhat in thrall to Spacemen 3 but with enough of their own dynamic for it to move people in its own right – for some years now. 

Their excellent, eponymous debut album was released on Alive! Records, a U.S. label that was the original home for the world-conquering Black Keys. A couple of years ago, that was the only feasible outlet for a modern psychedelic band. At that time, British 'indie' music was all about flourishes of Soweto guitar, or 80s keyboards. White Noise Sound went where they would be more appreciated and made a great record.

They've been working hard on the follow-up to that album for the last couple of years. There are rumours that Pete Kember (Spacemen 3's Sonic Boom) is involved. Cian from Super Furry Animals has mixed the new album. It's a very exciting prospect. 

However, watching them tonight, I get the sense that they're ring rusty. This might be the first time some of these new songs have been played live. They stutter into life with uncertainty. The main vocalist has sheets of paper with the lyrics scrawled on them, on stage.

It's all a little awkward and unsatisfactory. But it also sounds truly magnificent when the songs do manage to build momentum.

They should probably have never done this gig. It came too early for them. But even without enough rehearsal time, they sound luminous and intense on enough occasions for it to very much whet my appetite for their new album. 

I look over into the audience and there's a man in a tie dye t-shirt. It's the guy who, back in the day, introduced me to the music of Love, The Turtles, The Zombies, Dukes of the Stratosphear, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, The Byrds in the front room of a terraced house in Mold.

He has a big smile on his face. That'll do for me.

All in all, then, a thoroughly enjoyable celebration of the in sound from way out. Again. But more, much more, than the sound of imaginations withering on a revival psycle.

March saw the return of winter with further snow storms and weather disruption with unseasonably cold temperatures making it the coldest March in Wales since 1962.

We marked St David’s Day by looking back at highlights from 2013. These included a new daffodil named after One Show presenter Alex Jones and Llangennith Beach on Gower being named the third best beach in Europe by Trip Advisor.

Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler represented the UK at the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest but only managed a 19th placing with 23 points.

The BBC Wales social media team descended on the renowned Welsh author Philip Pullman for #AskPullman. The Twitter chat saw fans from around the world engaging with the author live from his home in Oxford.

April is a month that Bluebirds fans will always remember as Cardiff City secured promotion to the Premier League with a draw at home to Charlton Athletic ending a 51-year absence from the league.

Radio Wales launched their Music Day with live music and performances from Welsh artists including Manic Street Preachers, Charlotte Church, Paper Aeroplanes and Sophie Evans.

In June, the world was introduced to Nev Wilshire and the hit TV series, The Call Centre, an observational documentary by BBC Cymru Wales for BBC Three.

This amusing blog by a member of the TV crew gives provides a unique insight into Nev’s world!

Culture came to Cardiff in the shape of BBC Cardiff Singer of the Year, widely regarded as the world's greatest singing competition. This year the winnner was mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton from the USA.

July saw the return of the summer – an event not witnessed by some of us since the 1980s and for once, weatherman Derek Brockway could repeatedly mention the words – warm, sunshine and hot spell in the same sentence.

We all expected it to last days but the hot spell continued well into August.

The hot summer was great for Welsh tourism too as consumers opted to holiday at home and made the most of the warm weather.

Sales were booming on the hottest day of the year at 30°C with a 300% increase in the sales of outdoor gear.

On 13 August a strange phenomenon occurred off the Pembrokeshire coast. Adrian Owens photographed a superior mirage off Grassholm Island, which generated plenty of interest in our weather blog with over 7,000 views.

This year the National Eisteddfod visited Denbighshire.

September saw the return of more unsettled weather but also the Red Bull World Cliff Diving Series. The Blue Lagoon at Abereiddy hosted a spectacular two day event featuring the world’s best cliff divers who launched off a 90ft diving platform.

October was a busy month, with Doctor Who celebrating 50 years and the WOMEX world music expo arriving in Cardiff.

WOMEX, the largest cultural event ever hosted by Wales kicked off in the Millennium Centre with ‘Land of Song’ a concert showcasing Welsh music, orchestrated by Cerys Matthews.

Over the next five days musicians from around the world played to audiences on various stages in and around Cardiff Bay.

The beginning of November saw the arrival of the St Jude's Day storm - something of an anti-climax here in Wales, bypassing us and heading up the English side of the Bristol Channel instead.

The following weekend however saw an even bigger storm surge hitting coastal towns such as Aberystwyth.

3 November provided a historic Welsh Derby as two Welsh football teams met in the Premiership for the first time. In this particular clash Cardiff made the most of their home advantage, beating the Swans 1-0.

15 November saw the people of Wales once again dig deep into their pockets to raise £1,475,099 for Children In Need. This year’s total fundraising effort broke all previous records, raising a whopping £31,124,896.

On 23 November, The Day of the Doctor saw over 10 million people tuning in to watch a special episode marking the programme's fiftieth anniversary.

The BBC Cymru Wales programme was broadcast in 94 countries at the same time as it aired on BBC One - earning it a Guinness World Record as ‘the world’s largest ever simulcast of a TV drama’.

While all this was happening BBC Cymru Wales also launched its Live Longer Wales season – aimed at getting the nation in better shape through exercise and diet.

Who can forget Tara Hammet’s delicious chocolate sprout recipe as the fitness guru took on six staff from the DVLA in, Is My Job Killing Me?

Closer to home, BBC Wales Today presenter and journalist Jamie Owen bravely bared all in an effort to get in shape for the series Fat and Forty-Something.

November also saw the start of Wales in the Sixties, a four-part series looking back at the key movers and shakers of the time as well as the music and events that shaped young people’s lives in Wales.

We sifted through the BBC picture archives to deliver a unique look at BBC Cymru Wales in the 1960s and had some lovely blogs from people who were in the thick of it, such as folk singer and broadcaster, Mari Stevens.

Christmas was approaching but there were a few things to get out of the way first such as Wales Sports Personality of the Year.

Leigh Halfpenny was the bookies favourite and didn’t disappoint as the Six Nations player of the tournament and British Lions star lifted yet another trophy.

This year we unveiled a wealth of BBC Christmas archive from around Wales and featured blogs from people involved in the Christmas industry such as a local reindeer herd owner and the world famous Pantomime Dame, Wyn Calvin.

It seemed like only yesterday but Christmas was upon us again but another one without snow unless you lived on a mountain top. The weather was atrocious with storms, floods and widespread disruption to thousands of homes over the festive period.

On 27 December there were 82 flood warnings and 182 flood alerts for England and Wales and the bad weather looks set to continue into 2014.

That’s it for 2013. We hope you’ve enjoyed some of our highlights. You can keep in touch with us in 2014 via Twitter @BBCWales or visit our BBC Cymru Wales Facebook page.

On the Saturday night I hosted a wonderfully cosy set of Sŵn session tasters and guests for BBC Radio Wales from the Urban Tap House. We had fun Indie pop from Seazoo from Wrexham, swoonsome melodies from Valleyers from Pembroke, smooth R&B voices from Cardiff Bay's Baby Queens, the unbelievably tender voice of Scriber, and Nadine Shah, the jazz singer from London, adding a touch of class to the evening. The warmest throng of people squeezed in to see Houdini Dax, who blasted through their bright, brash and brilliant songs.

After a tiring day I thought I'd just head to say hello to my friends at Peski Records who were hosting a night at Jacobs antiques market. This was the final transformation - I definitely wasn't in Cardiff anymore but high above the Manhattan streets at the coolest loft party around. Peski's parties at Jacobs have been growing in reputation over the last year, and I walked in to see the bonkers Y Pencadlys perform – both experimental, engaging, terrifying and fun! Onwards then, via the cosy vintage tea corner and loft garden to dance like an idiot to the crunchy French beats of Plyci. It was the best atmosphere of any night I can remember in Cardiff for a very, very long time.

The fifth day of activities was beyond me, you'll have to read Adam Walton's blog for more on that, while I start thinking over what has happened in the last week at WOMEX festival. Part two of October's activities on the way… But thanks to the brilliant people at Sŵn festival and the Welsh Music Prize for their hard work making our city a wonderful place to live and breathe.

Also appearing will be Scottish funnyman Phil Kay, director Andrew Sinclair introducing his classic 1972 film version of Under Milk Wood, BAFTA Cymru-winning actress Helen Griffin with her Edinburgh hit show Who's Afraid of Rachel Roberts? and Under Plywood, a modern day take on Under Milk Wood.

There will be special screening of Swansea-based cult film Twin Town introduced by director Kevin Allen; The Two Dylan's - a discussion on the links between Bob Dylan and Dylan Thomas by experts Jeff Towns and David Boucher; stand-up comedy from Mab Jones; Liverpool author Niall Griffiths; and the 2013 Dylan Thomas Prize shortlisted authors will give readings along with former winner Rachel Trezise.

Music comes from Breton folk troubadour Dom Duff, Welsh Music Prize nominees Zervas & Pepper and Trwbador along with Paper Aeroplanes, The Gentle Good, Huw M, Al Lewis and many more.

Pierre added: "The response we had from the public and artists alike for our inaugural festival was fantastic.

"People really grasped what we were trying to do, which was create an event that Dylan himself might have enjoyed, and came out in numbers to support us.

"With the 100th anniversary of Dylan Thomas's birth in Swansea approaching in 2014, we have worked really hard to make this year even better. Dylan seemed to like small cozy bars and pubs. I think he'd be right at home in the venues chosen for the festival, we've tried to create an ambience that he might have enjoyed."

There will also be a series of events running alongside the festival, including a festival edition of the Uplands Market from 9am-1pm on Saturday 2 November. Dylan's Mobile Bookshop will make an appearance, and once again the front bar of Mozart's will be turned into Dylan's Cwtch with a selection of Welsh real ale, 1930s and 40s music along with a display of paintings and photographs of the Welsh poet.

A limited amount of early bird weekend passes are available at £20 in advance. Otherwise weekend passes will cost £30. There are also day passes available. All tickets can be bought through the website donotgogentlefestival.com where you will also find the full line-up. Tickets can also be bought in person or online through derricksmusic.co.uk in Swansea.

Sandra Bendelow from Aberystwyth-based company Scriptography Productions came up with the idea for the Response Time events after she was approached by the team of volunteers who run the new gallery – an arts collective called Celf Ceredigion Art.

She said: "Celf Ceredigion Art wanted to open up the Gas Gallery to exciting events and happenings.

"I knew it had to be something that could cross art forms and appeal to arts and performance audiences while celebrating the amazing landmark building that is the Gas Gallery showroom and also Aberystwyth, which is such an inspiring environment and home to so much artistic excellence.

"We're really excited about the project and how it can change and build. We did the first one in September and it was such an amazingly eclectic mix of performances, from new short plays to installation art, and also we're finding interactivity with the audience is a really strong part of it because it's about sharing work.

"It's great to think we're engaging new audiences too, both to performance and to the Gas Gallery and its exhibitions. In fact because of the huge windows we literally attracted passers-by who just saw something happening and wanted to come and see what we were doing."

The Gas Gallery opened in June after the building had lain empty for some years and is being run by Celf Ceredigion Art for an initial period of one year. It is staffed by volunteers and funded by local artists including Ali Lochhead, Richard Brown, Paul Croft and Mary Lloyd Jones.

The performances of Response Time will take place on Sunday 27 October with three performances at 5.30pm, 7pm and 8.30pm. Tickets are priced at £5 (£3 concessions).

Further information and ticket booking is available at scriptographyproductions@gmail.com. The event can also be followed on-line at facebook.com/celfceredigionart.

The next Response Time project will take place in November in response to exhibitions by Catrin Webster and Karen Robbie. There are also plans to extend the project into other venues.

Robert was asked to translate Y Creadur for the Bloodaxe Book of Modern Welsh Poetry, which appeared in 2003, by the anthology's editors. He found it a fairly onerous assignment.

He said: "This is dark and disturbing poetry in both languages.

"It's certainly the world premiere of The Creature as my translation has never been previously performed. And I would expect very few people indeed are familiar with the original Y Creadur.

"Translating the poem was very hard-going. Much of the darker imagery only unfolds as you are far into it and it was difficult to translate it and try to keep a sense of the poetic language in English, but I hope I managed it.

"I had never heard of Gwynn before then but he was quite celebrated at the time and was on television in the 60s and 70s, so was quite a well known face."

Robert said Gwynn's experience as a journalist and observer of people is very evident in the poem, with long passages of description about the people he meets.

Y Creadur was tipped to win the crown at the National Eisteddfod in 1952 but surprisingly didn't, something Robert feels has something to do with the dark imagery of the poem being a bit near the mark.

He said: "It casts doubt on women and how they use their sexuality and seems very suspicious of the power women have over men.

"The imagery is centred around a black beetle which creates a symbol of darkness and something subterranean. The poem makes for very creepy reading in both Welsh and English.

"Twm told me Harri Gwynn was on his hero list so I'm delighted such a current and exciting young writer is having a chance to take part in the event."

The readings will take place at 7.45pm on 30 October. For more details ring 01970 623232.

UK festivals are a strange lottery: you pay a sizeable amount to get in; you're not always going to be able to get to see the artists you most want; and ranks of vituperative isobars may decide to come along with their bovver boot cloud friends and blow your super-thin, nylon shelter to kingdom come. Or Porthmadog, as the wind is blowing in that direction.

And a tin of warm beer will cost you FOUR POUNDS THIRTY. This boggling fact collaborates with the death metal cataract outside, keeping me awake well into the big end of the small hours.

I sort of wake up groggy and with the doors missing from my brain. Drawing back the curtains reveals a sky like Noel Gallagher's eyebrows. The tide that should be out is still in, the waters choppier than Franz Ferdinand's first album. More contemporary reference points available on request.

"Let's go home," I say to myself. I've fought my way through enough mud-afflicted, rain-swept festivals over the last few years. And I've had no more than seven or eight hours combined sleep over the last three nights.

The prospect of staying at a festival that's already left me feeling a little nonplussed with its superannuated boutique-i-ness, to see Manic Street Preachers – a band I couldn't be more ambivalent about if they were led by Nick Clegg and came in a brown envelope – is not an attractive one.

Still, after an odd breakfast of cold seafood at a cafe on the front in Borth-Y-Gest, I'm vacillating. Either that or it's the DTs. I finally decide to go home.

My BBC colleagues are more stoical. They have to go back to the site to record Manic Street Preachers.

"Stick a Bryan Adams record on and recite one of George Monbiot's columns over the top in a haemorrhoidal voice. No one'll notice the difference," is my blithe suggestion.

I queued to buy Generation Terrorists in Liverpool on the morning it came out. I liked the idea of an 'intelligent' rock band. I loved the Manics' polemic and their letters were definitely the best thing in the NME at the time.

I've never been more disappointed with an album. Generation Terrorists was awful. You may be waiting for me to say "Motorcycle Emptiness-aside", but I'm not going to. Great as that song is, the recorded version is as dynamic as moss drowning in a dank puddle. The fact that the moss wears eyeliner and a feather boa makes not a blind bit of difference to its sonic zoom.

They were supposed to represent glamour, intelligence, poetry and escapism, but if you grew up in north Wales – far removed from the Valleys' seemingly genetic obsession with AC/DC, Motley Crue and Guns N' Roses – it was all a bit, you know, uncool and silly.

We had Joe Bloggs parallels, hooded tops and acid house. There was nothing silly about our iconography, or obsessions, at all.

I remember watching Manic Street Preachers early on at the Tivoli in Buckley. We loved bands getting deposited on the stage by a tide of hype, only for them to discover that they were playing in front of 15 very cynical locals, with their arms crossed and a murderous look in their eyes.

"That one's not really playing anything," said my mate, the personification of disdain, pointing at Richey.

"Yeah, but he writes the words," pointed out another.

"Words? Who gives a monkeys about the words, our kid? It's about the vibe, man. In the area!"

Look, I was 19.

A good portion of a lifetime later, I'm in the car driving back from Porthmadog. I'm feeling a bit guilty I've deserted my colleagues at Festival No. 6. Producer Ed has texted me to tell me that fences have blown over and that some of the stages are shut. I'm glad I'm safe in my car. I have a CD comp I've made for my daughter on the stereo. I'm dry. I'll be home in an hour and a half...

But then what am I going to do?

A realisation about the general emptiness of my non-working life coincides with a sliver of clear blue parting the clouds. At that very moment, this CD I'd made months ago cues up If You Tolerate This. Fate is a much better DJ than I've ever managed to be. Despite my disinterest in the Manics, I adore this song.

I pull into a lay-by and have a think.

What am I doing, driving home? I could see Chic. Islet are playing too. And Colorama. And maybe I'll catch a bit of the Manics out of a sense of Duty To Welsh Music. Yes, sometimes thoughts this deluded and pompous do cross my brain.

The last time I saw Manic Street Preachers was their Reading set in 1994. It was their first major appearance without Richey Edwards, who was in hospital. He disappeared the following February.

Despite my diffidence towards their music, little has moved me – and not just in the world of Welsh music – more than the dignity and courage the band showed after losing a friend and a bandmate so publicly. On a personal level, the questions about male mental health and suicide raised by his disappearance resonated within me for a long, long time afterwards.

Around the same time I had received treatment and counselling for mental health problems (anxiety and depression). The void of care, understanding and attention that I encountered from the health service was terrifying. I hope the situation is significantly better for young men now. If I had any courage or conviction I'd look into it. If I'm honest, I'm still running scared of the whole subject.

I arrive back at our bed and breakfast a little sheepish. Bethan Elfyn punishes me by corralling me into recording video links for footage she has been filming of the festival for the BBC.

Bethan and her husband drop me off back on site and it's clear that there has been a bit of rain. I do love a bit of mud, though and this is the finest boutique mud, remember.

I remortgage my house for the pennies to get myself a can of FOUR POUNDS THIRTY PENCE beer and go looking for a band.

Somehow the sun is out. Renowned musicologist, raconteur and record producer Dyl Mei and C2's Gareth Iwan Jones are at the Y Nyth tent watching Sen Segur. Carwyn Y Bwgan insists on giving me red wine.

Sen Segur are so young, they probably weren't born the last time Channel 4 repeated The Prisoner. Their continuation of the Welsh psychedelic tradition is similarly fresh-faced.

In honesty, fine as they are, they don't seem to have progressed much since I last saw them a year ago at Green Man Festival. Their set then was a major step forward. Here, the psych part of their sound feels too gentle and predictable when compared to Hookworms, say, or Wolf People.

I really like Sen Segur. Any criticism is offered out of affection. They're too good to maroon themselves in their own back yards.

Colorama have probably forgotten what their own back yards look like. When Carwyn and co. aren't touring their own music, Wales' russet-haired music man is doing sessions – or acting as a gun for hire – for the likes of Edwyn Collins.

Colorama's groove has real bite from the off. Their opener Do The Pump draws a significant crowd of head-shakers and foot-tappers into the tent. More tender moments from their recent releases – Good Music and Llyfr Lliwio – enchant the hardcore festival goers who have been rewarded for not deserting the site with sunshine and spangling music.

The crowd thins a little towards the end. Some bloke called Johnny Marr is playing in a big tent just over the way. Colorama don't have his reputation but – the two Smiths songs he encores with aside – they do have songs that'd beat Johnny's solo offerings, if this were Top Trumps and music could be so easily reduced.

I watch Marr do There Is A Light That Never Goes Out and it's so finely, and respectfully done, there is no possibility of me making a 'Marr marrs his reputation' joke. He can't sing like Morrissey, of course, but his larynx is more than serviceable. When he plays those liquid guitar lines that I spent hours upon hours trying to fathom in my bedroom back in Nannerch, it is a Truly Great Festival Moment.

This is exactly what the organisers are after. It's clear they think in these terms: capital letters in the Prisoner/Portmeirion font.

Then it's Chic. In north Wales. Back in north Wales. A couple of years ago, two north Walean DJs – the estimable Phat Phil Cooper and Ian Cottrell – stumbled across the hitherto uncelebrated fact that Nile Rodgers, and an embryonic version of Chic, spent a summer in residence in Colwyn Bay, honing their music in the local bars and clubs of NORTH WALES.

That is an astonishing story that someone needs to tell in depth, and sometime soon.

As a few thousand people go happy doolally to Le Freak, Good Times, Let's Dance and the long, long welter of dancefloor smashes that have been birthed into the world by Nile Rodgers' fingertips, I wonder how the Manic Street Preachers must be feeling about following this.

The me of 9.17pm on Sunday at 2013's Festival No. 6 is convinced that the Manics' sludgy tub thumping has the potential to evaporate all grace from the known universe after all this slink, fun and glamour.

I wish James luck as he waits to go one sidestage. I mean it because I think he's going to need it.

They begin with Motorcycle Emptiness. Far from it being the rather insipid, stadium-rock-in-a-shoebox of the album version, it is mammoth and transcendent. James sings with a bite and soul I haven't heard come from a Welsh larynx since Mr Richard Parfitt. I can't offer higher praise to a rock singer.

My antipathy towards the band isn't eroded slowly as the set progresses, it's neutron-bombed out of existence within the first few notes of Emptiness. I'm as awed by this turnaround as you probably aren't, here at the punchline of the whole piece, nearly 2,000 words in.

I start babbling at the people around me: "but they're really good" and they look at me like I'm on magic mushrooms and have just come to the realisation that sugar is a bit sweet and water a touch damp.

That damn single – Show Me The Wonder – that has been irritating me on 6 Music, as if the Manics' label had something dirty on that station's playlister, sounds soulful and inordinately uplifting. No, more than that – it sounds a bit like The Byrds' I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better which is, again, out of the rarely reached for top drawer in my cabinet of compliments.

I can't explain this volte face. I've clearly been wrong. So wrong. Like a fairy tale emperor Richard Nixon. Of Welsh music.

When they play Tolerate I turn to producer Ed and tell him it's one of the greatest things I've ever heard. I spoil his enjoyment of the next song by wittering on about genuine blue-eyed soul, and how the Manics are a brilliant, dumb, hook-toting rock band... like Cheap Trick or The Ramones... and how it's a brilliant subterfuge to hotwire the weight and intelligence of their lyrics into our brain with minimal resistance.

"Yes Adam, you're dead right," says Ed, taking a step back.

I've had a couple of those cans of FOUR POUNDS THIRTY beer by now – but unless there's something that might justify the price in them, it's not the beer talking; it's the revelation.

I feel like such a twit. But it's glorious.

The double-headed ending of Motown Junk and Design For Life is One Of The Best Festival Moments Of My Life. You can delete the word 'Festival' from that statement, if you like.

I'm still babbling on an hour later in the drizzle outside the real ale tent. My friend Simon 'Gedge' Jones has appeared out of nowhere.

"Why didn't you tell me The Manics were so good?"

"I did. We all did. You just didn't listen."

We talk about Murray the Hump, 60ft Dolls and Topper and watch James Dean Bradfield and Richard Hawley have a quiet, and respectfully uninterrupted, pint in front of us. Then Gedge disappears back through the mizzle to his tent.

Sometime later we're waiting for a taxi on the Sunday night in a rank that challenges eternity itself: "The gardeners are going to cry when they turn up on Monday morning."

They're not the only ones. But like them, I'll probably be back next year too.

When the first Festival No. 6 was announced last year I thought it was verging on treasonous that they'd appropriated imagery and nomenclature from a TV series that railed against (amongst other things) brainwashing and commercialisation.

It felt like a hamfisted and oxymoronic dereliction of McGoohan's legacy. Many of my friends went and had a marvellous time. I grumped in a darkened room, watching Many Happy Returns over and over again.

So I arrived this year feeing a little embarrassed and a lot hungover. I'd DJed until three the night before. A band called Heymoonshaker had kept me up by being interesting. It would have been rude to have gone home any earlier. Especially when I learnt that they were off to Festival No. 6 the next day too.

We arranged for them to do a session on my show the next night. I don't think producer Ed was as elated to receive this news at 4.30am as I was to text it to him.

The first thing I notice on Arrival (I'm winking at you, fellow members of Six Of One) is that there are a lot of people here. And there are also stalls selling scallops and champagne.

My annual pilgrimage to Portmeirion is undertaken in January when it's ghostly quiet and heart-stoppingly beautiful. I'm not sure I like all these ironic hat-wearing folk, with painfully well-groomed beards tramping round my favourite place with bottles of Belgian beers in their hands, quite clearly having fun.

I'm also slightly confused by the scallops and the champagne and the canned beer for £4.30 as if it had been brewed in Claudia Schiffer's own bladder.

This is the boutiquiest of boutique festivals. Which is fine. I'm not anti the gentrification of festivals. I much prefer this to the pint glasses filled with urine that were flying around Reading last year. I say 'much'...

Oh, here's link2wales' Neil Crud! A normal music-loving human being. It's saying something when Crud's appearance reminds you of normality. He doesn't look like he has a mansionette in Alderley Edge, is what I mean. He's having a great time but the one thing I remember from our conversation is this:

"The cans of beer are FOUR POUNDS THIRTY EACH!"

I'm here to work; no beer will pass my lips. Well not until 1am. Still, it seems a bit pricey.

I spend the next four hours trying to see as much of the festival as I can so that I can reflect it accurately on my live radio show later. I watch Sweet Baboo entrance and charm an audience in a tent (where the sound is excellent, definitely above par for a festival). Steve and band go into something of an impromptu dance routine during their set closer 12 Carrots of Love. It's a moment to lift the heart. Yes, even mine.

I make a mental note that H. Hawkline is here (playing bass for Sweet Baboo's encore). He's one of my favourite human beings on the planet but one has to have a special Huw-sensitive radar operating when he is about. Strange things can happen. It's generally better to view them from the periphery than the epicentre.

Next stop is The Brythoniaid Male Voice Choir. At least, that is the plan. Getting to the piazza where they are playing is a slightly frustrating experience. The narrow pathways in the village itself are choked with hundreds upon hundreds of people.

This, however, is the mark of a successful festival. If the charming pathways were all deserted it might be more appealing to my proprietorial love of Portmeirion but it'd be terrible news for the organisers and the artists.

I can't get very close to the choir. I stand at the edge of the piazza and get boggled by the fact that, even when they're 3/4 of the way into their version of Chic's Good Times, I can still hear Caitlin Rose more loudly and she's playing 100 yards away. Those that can hear the Brythoniaid Male Voice Choir are clearly loving it.

I give up the fight and squeeze my way down to the Estuary Stage and Caitlin Rose, who's as charming and musically eloquent live as she wasn't in an interview I heard on the radio earlier.

Her songs sweeten Bobby Gentry and galvanise Patsy Cline into the 21st century. There's some fingerpicking that'd hypnotise watchmakers and - taking a breath and a sip of coffee - I realise quite what a wonderful sensation it is to be witnessing this under the stars, with the full grandeur of Snowdonia silhouetted above the Dwyryd estuary behind me.

The hike and scramble through the crowds back to the Radio Wales gazebo is embellished by the sight of many friends, from all of the different walks of my life (all two of them – Radio Wales DJ & multi-thumbed, old vinyl turntablist). And I see women in Downton Abbey dresses with lampshades on their heads.

Portmeirion overwhelms the senses anyway. On occasion at Festival No.6, I felt that letting the natural beauty of Portmeirion breathe a little might better suit the atmosphere than pinning people's eyes open and forcing one hallucinatory vision on them after another.

Ironically there's a scene from The Prisoner that I'm very much reminded of as that thought barges its way across my over stimulated brain.

Radio Wales have a gazebo. The gazebo is right next to a very big tent. Inside the very big tent are My Bloody Valentine. They're playing and making a noise that is the only noise – other than a nuclear skyburst – that warrants the description 'apocalyptic'.

Quite how we're going to do a live radio show with the sound of the world falling apart, sweetened by the occasional harmony, right next to us is a challenge I will leave to our phenomenal sound engineer Mark Harrison.

"It's all in the EQ," he says. I think.

My Bloody Valentine are causing carnage in the big tent. The crowd is thinning rapidly as they reach their atonal, never-ending crescendo. Some people are that discombobulated they're collapsing on the floor outside the tent. I don't think My Bloody Valentine were to blame.

Perhaps it was the scallops?

My show goes pretty well, considering. Sweet Baboo and Islet talk to me – but can't hear a word I'm saying because of bloody My Bloody Valentine. I interview the aforementioned Neil Crud and some very, very excited – loved up may be more chemically accurate – Belgian girls. When the MBV onslaught has died down, TG Elias and Heymoonshaker come and play live for us. Cate Le Bon walks past and says 'hello'.

"I had to stop Huw from rugby-tackling you when you were doing that last interview," she says.

Huw lurches in the background. Part Syd Barrett, a lot Tasmanian Devil. And my radar didn't even go off once.

Before I know it, I'm playing my last song over an empty and very cold field.

We march to a real ale bar and raise a plastic glass to tomorrow. There is a storm coming, apparently. You wouldn't believe it looking at the glittered sky. But the sound of staff with sledgehammers fixing down the mainstage is an ominous tattoo as we queue for our taxi.

Tomorrow promises Manic Street Preachers. I've never been fussed by them, really. As I close my eyes in our very well-appointed bed and breakfast, the volte face and revelation that was about to come the following night would have seemed too outlandish - even - for a dream.

Another of the bathing machines will play host to local artist Antonia Dewhurst who pays homage to the tradition of the Victorian seaside photographer with her kitsch souvenir mugs capturing people's likenesses. Meanwhile in another machine Brighton's Boogaloo Stu will invite visitors into a world of sock-puppetry, crystal ball gazing, and creating your ideal partner.

Away from the bathing machines Marc has curated a raft of other eclectic activities to delight and amaze in equal measure.

He said: "Thanks to the generosity of Mostyn Estates a number of buildings which are not usually open to the public will be transformed into cultural venues for the weekend.

"Among them is the St Tudno Castle Hotel where an installation that draws on the relationship the social reformer John Bright had with Llandudno has been created by myself and artists Rob Pitwell, and Isobel Crawford."

The Tabernacle Baptist Chapel will also host a performance, Distawrwydd, to commemorate its extraordinary past, starring dancer Eddie Ladd and musician Helen Wynn Parri. The piece borrows from the building's connection to its former minister Reverend Lewis Valentine who became well-known as a founder of the Welsh Nationalist Movement.

The town's Camera Obscura is also being specially re-opened for the weekend and there will be a pop-up cinema, poetry recitals, outdoor performances and arts installations throughout Llandudno over the weekend, with a new portrait of Lord Mostyn being exclusively unveiled on Saturday ahead of the Crowning the Crooner award for Llandudno's King or Queen of Hotel Entertainment.

The Llandudno Arts Weekend takes place from 20-22 September 2013. For full details of events and timings visit llawn.org.

"As a collection it is very hard to define as it leaps from topic to topic and all over the place geographically," she said.

"I am really interested in the issue of empathy which is why so many of my poems delve into what happens after a big event, like a nuclear explosion, and attempt to acknowledge it in some way.

"I think that's what ties the personal and the less personal and the historical and the contemporary together."

Historical figures that feature include the 13th century Mongolian warrior Genghis Khan and the American aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart, while historical events including the trial of The Pendle Witches, the onset of The Renaissance and the discovery of the Belvedere Apollo are revisited through Jemma's verse in intriguing ways.

She said: "With Amelia Earhart I was writing at a time when they thought they had found her remains. I found her so interesting because she is a public figure, and there is such fascination surrounding her disappearance over the Pacific, yet she was really very isolated in what she was doing."

The Genghis Khan connection is altogether more strange. A few years ago National Geographic revealed that 17.5m people in the world are direct line descendants of Genghis Khan. Jemma's aunt went to get tested and found she had the gene, which sparked a temporary obsession for Jemma.

Currently in the final stages of completing her PhD, Jemma is juggling the book launch with her post teaching literature and creative writing at Aberystwyth University, and working on a new collection.

She admits scooping the prestigious Terry Hetherington Award for young writers in 2011 has helped her career immensely, and thanks the team behind the award in acknowledgements to The Shape of the Forest.

She said: "I'm immensely grateful to them and it means so much to me as a writer just starting out because it has made me much more visible.

"I'm currently researching a new book based on a collection I have started of antique nude photographs where I am trying to reconstruct the women in the pictures and imagine what they would be saying if they could speak.

"I'm loving the research for the collection, although I started out calling it le dishabille, which means 'the undressed' in French, but I'm finding out lots of the photos actually come from other countries so I may have to rethink that!"

Jo Furber, Swansea Council's Literature Officer, said: "Jemma's new collection has been described as haunting, distinctive and sensual.

"It certainly is a sophisticated debut that offers a powerful survey of life and human experience."

The reading at Swansea's Dylan Thomas Centre takes place at 7.30pm on Thursday 27 June. Jemma will also appear at The Cellar Bards in Cardigan on 26 July.

For more details about Jemma's work read her blog at jemmakingpoet.wordpress.com.

I've witnessed many musical heroes such as Neil Young, Sonic Youth, Pulp and Roxy Music grace the large angular stages. More importantly, bands who are definitely not household names in the UK, but have more of a cult following seem to be elevated at these events on huge stages – I can't believe sometimes the size of the crowds for acts like Coco Rosie, Camera Obscura, Girls, Japandroids, Mathew E White and so on.

Primavera was pretty essential booking again this year with a nostalgic line-up of all my early musical discoveries. Yes, the current vogue for '90s bands was the sound of my school days, and my first musical purchases – you know how much that means!

From Blur to My Bloody Valentine, The Breeders to The Jesus and Mary Chain, I wasn't just stepping into the Spanish sun to enjoy the music; I was also taking a trip down memory lane. I didn't really own these memories fully the first time, as I never saw any of them live (apart from Blur), I just knew their records inside out. This was going to be quite a personal festival for me.

As well as these bands, Primavera is a festival that feels like it melts around the Barcelona streets. Each time I've been, art house, minimalist hotels, and pool gardens charm me at unofficial opening parties. The cities parks thrive with leftover sounds on the last day, wiping away post-festival blues in an instant.

The city's skycrapers, sculptures, beaches, and metros are my day and night; the music just a wonderful soundtrack. It struck me this year that, like eating al fresco, hearing music out loud, in the sun, in a large community makes the music taste brighter and fresher.

Over the years, I've got to know a little secret about Primavera too, the early evening shows at a mammoth theatre, called the Auditori, are not to be missed. The dark chasm, and reverential hush that greet the artists doing special sets create quite an atmosphere.

It was here that I saw Dexys this year and caught up with Ethan Johns for a chat after his show. You can hear that interview on the Radio Wales show website from last Saturday, where he discusses the new Tom Jones & Laura Marling records, as well as his Welsh roots.

Other interviews on the show include Savages, Mathew E White, Evans the Death, and a few tipsters from UK and Spain: Shell Zenner, Santi Garci and Craig Sgraggerton. Listen again all this week.

Other highlights from the festival include the distinct voice of Sean Nicholas Savage, the renewed vigour of The Jesus and Mary Chain, the fire and brimstone of Nick Cave, and the ridiculous heaving crowd for Daughter.

I boogied to Jackmaster, sang my heart out to The Breeders doing Last Splash anniversary tour, and even threw a few hip hop moves to the Wu Tang Clan - although I think half the Clan forgot to turn up!

Its also good to try and catch some international bands while at the festival, and Lisbon band Paus were a mind bending experience, and one of the best sets of the weekend. If you like some prog have a little listen. Their live set was something to behold. Captivating!

I've more European jaunts lined up for the summer, and plenty of Welsh festivals to shout about too – let me know if you'd like me to talk up any in particular on the BBC Radio Wales show in our new feature Festival Watch. Till then, let's hope the sun keeps shinning and the music keeps inspiring.

It will feature two music stages with Welsh musicians playing a mixture of rock, blues, folk, country and indie-pop, as well as entertainers from the NoFit State circus company, cookery master classes, sport workshops, drama and literature sessions and arts and crafts stalls.

Then throughout the following week there will be a programme of Welsh language activities taking place across the city, ranging from comedy, live music and history tours to Welsh learners events and nursery activities.

Highlights include an evening of Welsh language short plays with Dirty Protest at The Porter, a comedy evening at Chapter, a Bragdy'r Beirdd Poetry Evening at the Rockin' Chair and a Cwpwrdd Nansi Folk Gig and Jamming Session.

I spoke to Llinos Williams from Menter Caerdydd, which established Tafwyl, about the thinking behind the festival.

She said: "Tafwyl is all about celebrating the Welsh language, but it isn't just a festival for Welsh speakers. It's great for Welsh learners and it's the best opportunity around to experience the Welsh language for the very first time.

"Our aim is to promote and expand the use of the Welsh language on a community basis, ensuring that the language becomes a central part of life.

"It's very important that people understand that Welsh isn't just a classroom language, but very much a vibrant, lively and everyday language.

"There really is something for everyone, with activities for the whole family, from live music and entertainment to cookery demonstrations and tasting sessions, sport workshops, drama and literature sessions and arts and crafts stalls."

Among those appearing at the Tafwyl fair are Welsh rock legend Geraint Jarman, Welsh football manager Chris Coleman, Huw Chiswell, Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog, Swnami, Heather Jones and Colorama.

There will also be football, rugby, golf, athletics and biking sessions, with Cardiff Blues and the FAW as well as a hands on science exhibition run by Techniquest and Cardiff University, trapeze lessons, African drumming classes and a chance to have a go on a pottery wheel.

Visit the Tafwyl website tafwyl.org for full details on the Tafwyl Festival and the week-long events.

The Welsh Mountain Zoo was opened by founder Robert Jackson on 18 May 1963. Sadly, Jackson died just six years after the opening of the zoo in a fishing accident.

His widow, Margaret Jackson, and their three sons took over the running of the zoo before the charity the Zoological Society of Wales (now the National Zoological Society of Wales) was set up in 1983 and took over the zoo's operation. It became the National Zoo of Wales in 2008, but is still commonly known as the Welsh Mountain Zoo.

The zoological director at the zoo is Nick Jackson, one of Robert and Margaret's sons. He explained how the zoo came into being.

He said: "Robert Jackson had been looking for a site to build a zoo since the late 1940s. Through the 1950s he ran small seasonal animal attractions, usually aquariums and what he called 'mini-zoos', in various seaside resorts around the UK. One of these was the Aquarium and Children's Zoo in Eirias Park.

"From this connection with the town, the council knew of his interest in finding a zoo site and in 1960 approached him to look at the Flagstaff Estate. He loved it, and construction of the zoo started in November 1962 and carried on through the worst winter weather in living memory. The zoo opened on 18 May 1963."

The zoo attracts around 140,000 visitors a year and has developed over the decades to introduce many new species. The lion enclosure was completed in 1967 while the penguin pool opened in 1975, otters were introduced in 1987 and the zoo began a red squirrel breeding project in 1989.

Chimpanzee World opened in 1990, meerkats became residents in 2010 and last year the lemurs got a new walk-through enclosure, called Lemur Lookout.

Jennifer McDonald at the Welsh Mountain Zoo told me: "When the zoo first opened it had just 100 animals, now it houses more than 600 animals from over 100 different species. The zoo is home to many rare and endangered species from Britain and around the world including snow leopards, chimpanzees and red pandas."

Events taking place to mark the zoo's half century include the birthday weekend celebration this Saturday and Sunday, a Love Your Zoo week from 25 May to 2 June and later in the year Shriek Week, to coincide with Halloween.

Development work is ongoing at the tourist attraction to keep visitors and animals alike entertained.

Jennifer added: "Currently, work is progressing to provide a modern new exhibit for the red pandas and Asian otters – two of the zoo's most popular residents."

For more information on the zoo visit the website, welshmountainzoo.org.

Various venues in the city centre are hosting events, with some aimed at older children and teenagers, as well as evening lectures, workshops and 30 family sessions.

But alongside the public events, the festival has been running an outreach programme in 16 schools, involving 2,500 pupils from Cardiff and south Wales.

Welsh writers including Elen Caldecott, Eurig Salisbury, Huw Aaron, Jasper Fforde, Ceri Wyn Jones, Dan Anthony, Gwennan Evans, Aneirin Karadog and Simon Rees have visited schools and worked with children at National Museum Cardiff and St Fagans in workshops in storyboarding, scriptwriting, poetry and prose.

The result of this work is featured in an exhibition which opened on Wednesday at The Cardiff Story and runs until 7 Apri. There will also be school events throughout the festival in both English and Welsh.

I caught up with one of the organisers, Helen Dunning, for whom the festival is the result of several years' hard work and planning.

She said: "The whole plan of the festival is to make reading fun and encourage parents to engage in it alongside their children. The message is: you don't have to like highbrow literature to get involved in reading.

"We're hoping guests like Cressida Cowell and Martin Brown will appeal to children who have seen How to Train Your Dragon or Horrible Histories on television and might not know about the books.

"All tickets are priced between £2.50 and £3.50 to keep it affordable and there are also free events like a treasure hunt and a Where's Wally hunt as well as craft sessions and street entertainers.

"We really want Cardiff to feel like a festival city while the event is on, with all the events in walking distance, so there are some at the castle, the city hall, the library, the museum and the university."

Highlights across the week include Writing The Detectives with Young Bond author Charlie Higson, and Young Sherlock author Andrew Lane; Young People's Laureate for Wales Catherine Fisher covering her new fantasy series; exploring the science fiction of Doctor Who with author Mark Brake and rap artist Jon Chase; as well as a range of Welsh language contributions from the likes of Dewi Pws, Angharad Tomos and Bethan Gwanas.

Young visitors can also take on the Cardiff Zombie Walk, hear from expert Tintinologist Michael Farr, Bardd Plant Cymru (Children's Poet Laureate) Eurig Salisbury and S4C’s TV stars Stwns and discover how Martin Brown draws 'Horrible' in teaching youngsters history.

Older children can learn about the fantastical characters of the bestselling Edge Chronicles in a session with storytellers Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell which involves live drawing of cartoons.

For teenagers there is a chance to meet fiction author Lucy Christopher as she is interviewed by the Festival's Young Critics, a team of budding writers who will be reviewing and writing about the events across the weekend.

And Peter Hunt, who is Professor Emeritus in Children's Literature at Cardiff University, is also giving a talk on why children's books should be read and studied by adults, as he takes the audience on a tour through classics including Alice, Treasure Island, The Wind in the Willows and The Secret Garden.

The full programme is available on cardiffchildrenslitfest.com and tickets are on sale for all events through Ticketline UK on 02920 230 130. You can follow the festival on Twitter @CDFKidsLitFest.