Govan Music Festival
The festival with a social conscience and a big heart, organised by Govan’s regeneration orchestra The Glasgow Barons, returns for its fifth year from Sunday 22nd to Saturday 28th March!
About Govan Music Festival
The story of Govan’s shipbuilding heritage and celebrations of Glasgow’s modern-day multiculturalism are among the focuses for this year’s Govan Music Festival, as the 2026 programme is unveiled.
The diverse, affordable event, which saw its highest ever attendances last year, will take over venues in the southwest of the city including Glasgow’s Grand Old Opry, Edmiston House, and Govan and Linthouse Parish Church.
2026 will see a new mini musical, The Great Govan Sea Voyage, devised and performed by pupils from Riverside Primary School for the first time. Co-created with theatre director John Binnie and composer Karen MacIver, the performance is the culmination of years of work by the Glasgow Barons to help Govan schools rebuild their choirs.
School children have been working with the creative team since September to tell the story of shipbuilding in Govan, and the people who left for a new life abroad, through song.
The festival will also present its first ever Bhangra event, headlined by one of the UK's longest running and most influential Bhangra bands, DCS.
In a celebration of Govan and Glasgow’s rich diversity, the night will also welcome support from Rootless, a new Roma-Indian band whose performance explores their shared musical heritage and roots, and Edinburgh Indian dance troupe Cosmic Dance.
A classical concert from the Glasgow Barons Orchestra, The Auld Alliance, will pay tribute to both Scottish and French culture, with a new commission by Scottish composer Richard Greer, alongside music by Ibert, Damase and MacMillan. Soloists will include Portuguese harpist Teresa Romão and Irish flautist Catriona Ryan.
Audiences are invited to sling on their dancing shoes for a World of Ceilidh night at Glasgow’s Grand Ole Opry, which will see award-winning Musicians in Exile group team up with Ceithir Ceilidh Band, comprising University of Glasgow alumni, alongside current students, for an evening of foot-stomping tunes.
Elsewhere across the programme, recovery community event Freed Up Friday returns with local singer-songwriters including Hunter and McMustard and Hawaii Fivo, and the Four Barons String Quartet will perform Schubert’s Death and the Maiden at Govan and Linthouse Parish Church.
The quartet will also play at schools during the festival, having helped more than 700 Govan pupils learn violin, viola and cello through Glasgow City Council’s Baby Strings programme. Finally, the festival’s Govan Schools Concert will bring together singing talent from all seven of Govan’s schools for a family-friendly showcase.
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