KT Tunstall and Pictish Trail are among the homegrown talents who will appear at this year’s Celtic Connections festival.
The January event will also, as ever, welcome a host of talents spanning genres and continents, with American songwriter Lyle Lovett and Grammy winner Madison Cunningham among the other headliners for the event’s 2025 edition.
Tying in with Glasgow 850 – a programme of events marking the city’s 850th birthday – the opening concert on January 16 will feature “unique collaborations from well-kent faces, emerging stars of the future, surprise guests and commissioned performances and film”.
In all around 300 events are scheduled for the 18-day festival, featuring more than 1,200 acts from 20 countries, bringing together “international icons with emerging acts to create career-defining performances and never-seen-before collaborations”.
Among the other attractions running until Sunday February 2, Roddy Hart’s Roaming Roots Revue returns with Icons Vol. 1. Backed by a 60-piece orchestra of students from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Roddy’s own house band Roddy Hart and the Lonesome Fire, this year’s show at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall will welcome Yola, Villagers, Nadine Shah, Hamish Hawk, Ed Harcourt, Jill Jackson, Withered Hand & Kathryn Williams, and Phil Campbell as they celebrate greats like Elton John, The Beatles and Bowie.
Other Celtic Connections 2025 programme highlights include:
Jazz and soul singer-songwriter Lady Blackbird; Scots Singer of the Year Beth Malcolm – showcasing her forthcoming new album with a headline show at Barony Hall – and Sufi singer Abi Sampa, who fronts the Orchestral Qawwali Project.
Karine Polwart has a headline show at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall for the very first time in her 25-year career as she musters a 300-strong choir made up of choral singers from across Scotland. And Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis will undertake her first orchestral commission at the festival with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and her Scots-Irish quartet Allt which, alongside her, features Zoë Conway, Éamon Doorley and John McIntyre.
Western Isles phenomenon Peat and Diesel will play their biggest ever show and make history as the first band ever to play at the Emirates Arena in the city’s east end, while a Barrowland show for Glaswegian indie legends The Bluebells will be their first ever outing at the festival.
Folk band Breabach will perform a specially -commissioned show with the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra (SNJO), which will also host a night entitled Nu-Age Sounds: PLANET WORLD at The Old Fruitmarket, showcasing up and coming Scottish jazz acts including Mercury Prize nominated pianist Fergus McCreadie and jazz singer Kitti.
SAY Award shortlisted jazz act corto.alto will play the Barrowland Ballroom, along with Bemz, Pippa Blundell, Becky Sikasa and JSPHYNX.
And maintaining Celtic Connections’ reputation for bringing the World to Scotland, Ibibio Sound Machine will play the Tramway, and Femi Kuti – eldest son of afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti – performs at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall with The Positive Force.
Scottish folk four-piece Malinky will stage a special 25th anniversary concert, with a host of special guests lovingly performing their extensive back catalogue of material, which importantly carries the flame of tradition, cherishing folk songs, ballads and stories and the lessons they convey.
And Finnish folk band Frigg engineer a unique collaboration with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, ilewh Jim Sutherland’s multi-award-winning score When Fish Begin to Crawl will be performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in a celebration of the Flow Country’s recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. And rising Glasgow trad scene stars TRIP perform a headline show with extended line-up in The Old Fruitmarket, as well as featuring in the acclaimed show Moving Cloud at The Theatre Royal, alongside Scottish Dance Theatre and special guest Brìghde Chaimbeul.
Gaelic music, language and culture will be at the forefront of celebrations for Ceòlas @ 30 as one of Scotland’s most prestigious national Gaelic organisations celebrates its 30th summer school on the island of South Uist. This crossover night of Gaelic song and Hebridean music and piping will light up The Old Fruitmarket on the festival’s final weekend.
American folk-roots pop singer-songwriter Josh Rouse celebrates the 10th birthday of his famous album Nashville, Bluegrass sensations Hawktail appear for the first time at the festival, and Lake Street Dive fly in from Boston to share their avant-garde Americana sound with Celtic Connections fans. Transatlantic Sessions celebrates 30 years since the first TV episode aired, with its familiar irresistible foray into the roots of Americana music with an all-star house band, led by Aly Bain andJerry Douglas, and featuring guest vocalists Loudon Wainwright III, Julie Fowlis, Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams and Ireland’s Niall McCabe.
This year will also see the launch of a new under-26s pass, giving young music fans an opportunity to access rolling discounts on a mix of shows and ensuring the magic of the festival continues to be accessible to as wide a range of audiences as possible.
The programme can be viewed in full and tickets purchased at www.celticconnections.com.
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