Celtic Connections 2025: much-loved festival to warm up winter nights in Glasgow

Celtic Connections returns to Glasgow with an ambitious programme boasting a wide range of musical genres. The world’s leading folk, roots and world music festival will take place from Thursday 16 January to Sunday 2 February.

Around 1,200 musicians and 110,000 visitors will come to Glasgow for the festival, enhancing Glasgow’s status as a UNESCO City of Music. The event will welcome artists from around 20 countries around the world, including Australia, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, France, Italy, Nigeria, Spain, Wales, Ireland and the Republic of the Congo. Of course, the programme also features homegrown talent from Scotland, other parts of the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Iconic music venues across Glasgow such as The Old Fruitmarket, Barrowland Ballroom, SWG3, Saint Luke’s and Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum will all be hosting events. The 32nd edition of the festival will also make history when Peat & Diesel become the first band ever to play at the Emirates Arena in the city’s east end.

The festival is almost five times bigger than when it began in 1994. Since then, Celtic Connections has continued to push the envelope of artistic programming. The event has built an international reputation for world-renowned music, exciting new performances, unique showcases and one-off collaborations.

From emerging talent to award-winning artists, and from acoustic, traditional, Americana and orchestral to indie, jazz, blues and experimental, there truly is something for everyone to enjoy at Celtic Connections. Once again, the very best in music from around the world will be welcomed to the line-up.

The powerful jazz and soul singer-songwriter Lady Blackbird will make her Celtic Connections debut. She will perform tracks from her latest album, Slang Spirituals, which spans genres from gospel to folk. There is also a chance to see sensational Sufi singer Abi Sampa, who fronts the captivating Orchestral Qawwali Project. They uniquely combine Sufi poetry, Indian classical dance and orchestral arrangements.

N'famady Kouyaté

Ibibio Sound Machine will showcase their clash of African and electronic elements. The outfit, fronted by London-born Nigerian singer Eno Williams, is inspired by the golden era of West African funk and disco, and modern post-punk and electro. They will perform with Welsh/Guinean master musician N’famady Kouyaté, who blends his West African musical heritage with Western musical influences.

The Zawose Queens (photo: Michael Mbwambo)

The spirit and fire of East African music will also be on display when The Zawose Queens play the festival. Pendo and Leah Zawose showcase the fluid polyrhythms and rapturous polyphonic singing of the Gogo (aka Wagogo) people of the Dodoma region of central Tanzania. Their performance will incorporate traditional instruments including the chizeze fiddle, illimba thumb piano and ngoma drums.

Femi Kuti (photo: The Loba)

Femi Kuti & The Positive Force will bring their iconic live show to Scotland. The eldest son of Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, Femi will showcase his jubilant energy and distinctive voice to a Glasgow audience. And there will also be an opportunity to experience Jupiter & Okwess’ critically acclaimed and animated Afro-funk jams.

Tunisian singer-songwriter EMEL will perform songs from her newest album, MRA, meaning ‘woman’ in Arabic. She combines African trap, batucada, Arabic reggaeton, hip-hop and drum’n’bass rub with vibrant melodies and empowering lyrics sung in five languages and three dialects.

Aziza Brahim will bring her blend of traditional and modern world music to Glasgow. She was born and raised in the Saharawi refugee camps, and the music she makes reflects both their sorrow and their hope. Opening for this show is the revered indie-folk act The Tapir Project, direct from India, with their hypnotic contemporary tribal groove and stories of India’s rivers, cramped-up life, lost values and the universal search for the self.

Celtic Connections has a reputation for delivering show-stopping collaborations, and this year’s programme promises more memorable performances. World-renowned Senegalese griot Ablaye Cissoko is pairing with French diatonic accordion player Cyrille Brotto for a special performance. They’ll be joined by Triptic, a new project exploring a shared love of world folk music, bringing together three members of the highly-rated Moishe’s Bagel: Greg Lawson, Phil Alexander and Mario Caribé.

Another new collaboration for 2025 sees Celtic Connections team up with We Are Here Scotland – an organisation which aims to amplify the voices of Black people and people of colour in creative spaces. A showcase of Scottish Musicians of Colour will feature artists including Iranian musician Aref Ghorbani, cellist and poet Simone Seales and musician and artist Miwa Nagato-Apthorp.

A night of intercultural collaboration between Scotland and Latin America is in store when Scottish fiddle player and composer Catriona Price showcases her new work Routes to Roots. She will be joined by Argentinian band El Guapo, who are making their first European festival appearance, and other guests.

Frigg

Finnish band Frigg present their extraordinary mix of Scandi folk and traditional tunes in a unique collaboration with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. They will also join fellow Finnish group Tsuumi Sound System for what is sure to be an unforgettable concert.

The Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices will join the festival for a one-off performance of their Voices and Strings programme. The 70-year-old all-female choral folk group will collaborate with the esteemed composer and director Georgi Andreev and musicians from the Bulgarian ensemble Quarto Quartet.

The outstanding GRIT Orchestra will perform a special show commemorating 20 years since the passing of influential Scottish musician Martyn Bennett. The group is led by composer and conductor Greg Lawson and brings together over 80 of Scotland’s leading folk, jazz and classical musicians.

Also new for 2025 is The Blues Hour, which will showcase the talents of Jon Muq, a singer-songwriter born in Uganda and now living in Austin, Texas. Muq’s experiences as a child in Uganda and as a man in America give him a unique perspective on the world he’s addressing.

In a rare live performance, composer and arranger John Metcalfe will perform material from his innovative and inspiring album Tree. The music reflects an imagined 24-hour cycle in the life of a tree, experienced by observing the ever-shifting interplay of light, colour and sound.

Visit www.celticconnections.com for more information about the programme and tickets.