The sun sets on the Moon

At the end of a week that's been an utter shitshow personally speaking, a final kick in the teeth: the announcement that the Moon, Cardiff's best grassroots venue and a very regular haunt of mine, has closed its doors with immediate effect.

The lack of any prior warning has made the news all the harder to take - as has the fact that this has unfolded so soon after the triumphalist rhetoric surrounding the inaugural Cardiff Music City Festival. The Moon's demise bears sad testimony to Lloyd Griffith's comment that "the idea that everything is rosy is absurd", and leaves the likes of Wales Online reporting on the closure of yet another grassroots venue a matter of weeks after offering "nine reasons why Cardiff Music City Festival hits all the right notes". Let's see if anyone from Cardiff Council or the Music City machine deigns to comment on the developments, as they didn't with Carnedd shortly before the festival kicked off.

The venue's statement is spot on: an expression of gratitude, a warm celebration of everything that's been achieved, the magical moments and memories created; but also an honest reflection on the multitude of challenges that have brought about the closure, from the cost-of-living crisis to business rate hikes and VAT on ticket sales. There's also a plea for levies on arena ticket prices (an initiative that, thankfully, does at least seem to be gathering momentum), and an emphasis that emergency funding is no substitute for "constant support".

Questions will quite rightly be asked of Cardiff Council, and local politicians. The truth is, though, that many of these factors lie outside their control - but within the power of a Labour government that is at least saying the right things about the arts. Will they walk the walk, though? What is needed is not "a sticking plaster" but serious surgery.

But back to the Moon. It was (that past tense really hurts...) everything that a grassroots music venue should be: rough and ready, endearingly scuzzy and chaotic, eccentric in layout, toilets a health and safety nightmare, a genuine community hub, staffed by a perpetually cheery bunch, enthusiastic supporters of everything from local artists finding their feet and building a reputation to acts visiting from afar and delighting in connecting with a roomful of strangers.

The Cosmic Carnage nights/all-dayers there were particularly good fun, Rich Collins given licence to book bills stacked with ear-bothering acts and punters paying very little if at all, resulting in a packed, lairy Moon going off. The perfect symbiosis of artists, audience, promoter and venue.

As absolutely gutted as I am, I'll end on a slightly more positive and less elegiac note by simply quoting some sage words from the Moon's statement: "Womanby Street is losing a vital part of its live music heart, but we firmly believe that Cardiff is getting exciting again and has so much potential, so much to offer. Please don't think the answer is simply to replace us quickly and hike up the number of small venues. We don't need too many small venues all doing the same thing, we need great quality venues that are supported, celebrated, protected and USED. Venues that create legacies, bringing people together for years to come, full to the brim with events and audiences, a wide spectrum of genres and events, affordable, accessible and inclusive."

Amen to that. Rest in noise, the Moon.