Celtic Connections 2027: build a Glasgow weekend around the music you want to hear

A violin made from the floorboards of an explorer’s former home is a fairly persuasive reason to read beyond the headline names. At Celtic Connections, a programme description can tell you much more than the genre label: where a piece began, what an artist is trying for the first time, or why this particular combination of musicians is sharing a stage.

The Glasgow festival runs 14–31 January 2027. For an opening-weekend visit, choose one performance you particularly want to hear, then add something that offers a different experience. There is little point flying across the world to turn three nights of music into a frantic exercise in ticking boxes. The five examples below come from the official programme checked on 21 October 2026. Each has its own date, venue and admission arrangements.

From the Floorboards brings Georgia Shackleton and guitarist Aaren Bennett to The Tall Ship at Riverside on Friday 15 January at 7.30 pm. Shackleton’s violin was made from floorboards salvaged from Ernest Shackleton’s former Edinburgh home. The programme joins songs associated with polar expeditions to her own writing about oceans and marine life, giving the instrument’s history a role in the music rather than leaving it as an interesting footnote. From the Floorboards programme.

This is the choice for someone drawn to songwriting, historical connections and a smaller instrumental partnership. There is one geographical detail worth getting straight: the album was recorded aboard Discovery in Dundee, but this performance is at Glasgow’s Tall Ship. A nautical theme is not a reason to board the wrong vessel.

New Voices: Andrew Waite, at 1 pm on Sunday 17 January, takes a different route. His accordion-led Tunes From the Subconscious expands ideas developed through years of performing into an ensemble with strings, drums, guitar, banjo and piano. The programme names influences ranging from Scottish and Irish traditional tunes to jazz, bluegrass, classical music and pop-funk. Choose it for the chance to hear how a composer gives ideas developed around one instrument a larger musical setting. Andrew Waite’s New Voices programme.

The early-afternoon start also gives this choice a different place in a weekend. You can make Sunday’s main event a seated commission rather than assume every worthwhile festival discovery must happen after midnight.

For a large orchestral and choral collaboration, A.R. Rahman, Rushil Ranjan and Abi Sampa perform at Glasgow International Arena on Saturday 16 January at 7.30 pm. The programme centres on Rangreza, written for Sampa, orchestra and chorus, alongside selections from Rahman’s repertoire. This is a specific collaboration, not simply an arena-sized version of the other concerts. Choose it if the combination of those artists and musical forces is what brings you to Glasgow. Rahman, Ranjan and Sampa programme.

All dates are in 2027. The four non-club events require under-16s to be accompanied by an adult. The listed paid prices include the booking fee; they do not establish that every seat band remains available. The official event pages are the booking starting points, including the Festival Club and Danny Kyle Open Stage.

For an adult travelling with a 15-year-old, take the club out of the plan. Its 18+ rule is the deciding factor, even if the teenager is quite capable of staying awake longer than the adult. The accompanied concerts offer other choices; that admission permission does not itself create a child discount.

The Festival Club does not announce its bill before the night. That is part of the purchase: an adults-only, standing late session for people happy to discover what happens. For the Friday example, the venue is The Art School, 20 Scott Street, not the Royal Concert Hall. Buy it because an unknown bill appeals to you, rather than treating it as a cheaper route to a particular famous performer. Festival Club details.

The Danny Kyle Open Stage offers a different sort of discovery through emerging folk and roots artists. Its Saturday listing is free, but explicitly requires a ticket. On 21 October, the page said booking information was coming soon and referred to tickets on the day, without explaining how to collect or reserve one. Use a named, ticketed concert as your trip’s anchor; leave the Open Stage as an optional addition until that release is published. The place to obtain the eventual instructions is its official event page, rather than an assumption that “free” means you can walk straight in. Open Stage ticket notice.

Do not use the table’s start times as evidence that two shows can be combined. The listings checked here do not give the end times needed to plan a Floorboards-to-club transfer or a Saturday showcase-to-arena double bill. Pick the performance you would be most disappointed to miss and protect it first.

For two adults choosing Friday’s Floorboards concert and Sunday’s New Voices commission, the published ticket calculation is:

2 × £20.16 + 2 × £17.18 = £74.68.

The festival says its advertised prices already include the 12% booking fee, even though that component appears separately on the receipt. Do not add another 12% to the subtotal. Its general booking page lists £1.50 per online transaction, so one order at that charge adds up to £76.18; two separate orders add up to £77.68. Those are calculations using the published prices and transaction charge, without transport, accommodation or food. How Celtic Connections booking charges work.

New Voices says its advertised price includes the £1.50 restoration charge, so the calculation above does not add it again. A general notice lower on the page says it may be added; check the actual basket before paying. The online transaction charge is separate. New Voices price information.

If you are under 26, New Roots membership costs £1 and offers up to 50% off selected events until 31 January 2027. It provides one discounted ticket per event for the member, not a discount for an older companion. The event must appear in the festival’s eligible selection, with the member logged into their Glasgow Life Tickets account. No membership saving is included in our two-show calculation, because a specific discount for those performances has not been established. New Roots terms and eligible-show link.

Keep the show name, room and date together when saving tickets. The Royal Concert Hall’s Exhibition Hall and Strathclyde Suite are different destinations within the same building, while the Tall Ship, Art School and arena are separate venues. A musical surprise can be enjoyable; discovering you have navigated to another concert is less promising.

Download the issued tickets before setting out, with the show name and room visible. If you need mobile data for venue changes, directions and messages across the weekend, our UK eSIM range is one option for the wider trip. A saved ticket means opening it at the door does not depend on a live connection.

Leave some space around the concerts you have chosen. The point of the weekend is to hear the music, not to spend every interval negotiating with your calendar.