Credit: Georgina Hayes
Editor-in-Chief
Glasgow is becoming a premier festival venue
If you’ve just moved to Glasgow, then you’re in for one hell of a gig scene – no matter your music taste. Other than London, Glasgow is pretty much the only UK city you can guarantee that musicians from across the world will make sure they play when on tour. Glasgow boasts a huge diversity of iconic music venues, from small intimate gig spots like King Tut’s to huge arenas like the SSE Hydro, to famous all-standing rock venues like The Barrowland Ballroom to the indie dive-bars and local musician haunts like Nice N Sleazys.
There’s something for everyone in Glasgow, and if your favourite band or artist is touring, they’ll almost certainly play here somewhere. In the last few years I’ve seen gigs ranging from Beyoncé at Hampden Park to Cigarettes After Sex at the QMU to Marina and the Diamonds at the O2 ABC to Sum 41 at The Barrowland Ballroom.
But Glasgow has another trick up its musical monopoly sleeve: it’s also a premier summer music festival location. Trekking to either Reading or Leeds in order to see some of your favourite big bands in a festival setting – and having to camp in a field for a weekend and spend loads of money you don’t have in the process – isn’t exactly desirable or practical when you live in Scotland.
Luckily for Glasgow, you needn’t bother making that long and expensive trip, because we’ve got summer music festivals on our doorstep that easily rival Reading and Leeds: for two weekends between June and July, Glasgow Green hosts TRNSMT Festival. Announced almost as soon as T in the Park discontinued and only in its second year, TRNSMT has already boasted some of the following major artists: Radiohead, Kasabian, Biffy Clyro, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Belle and Sebastian, Rag’n’Bone Man, Twin Atlantic, George Ezra, Blossoms, Stereophonics, Liam Gallagher, The Killers, Arctic Monkeys, CHVRCHES, Wolf Alice, Queen and Adam Lambert, and Courteeners. Beyond the main stage, TRNSMT also includes a King Tut’s stage where you can watch some of your favourite smaller bands perform, such as The Sherlocks, Fatherson and Nina Nesbett.
Almost as soon as TRNSMT ended, Glasgow Summer Sessions then began. This festival was hosted at Bellahouston Park, and artists performing at the event included Kings of Leon, The Wombats, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Twin Atlantic, Kendrick Lamar, and N.E.R.D.
Having been to gigs in Glasgow, whether they be big, small or festivals at Bellahouston Park, I can guarantee that there’s no gig crowd quite like Glasgow. So if you’re moving to Glasgow and worried about leaving the comfortable concert confines of areas near London, don’t fret – everything you could ever want will always come to Glasgow.
