2026 Arts Preview: The year ahead in folk & jazz
The Scottish folk and jazz scenes are thriving, reflected in a packed calendar of events for 2026, writes Jim Gilchrist
The first Blairgowrie Festival weekend in 1966 was a momentous one for Scotland’s folk scene, giving rise to the Traditional Music and Song Association of Scotland – the TMSA – which has since developed into a widespread community-based organisation to “promote, present and preserve” Scotland’s rich folk music heritage. The organisation’s 60th anniversary will be marked on 17 January at Glasgow’s Celtic Connections, that behemoth of a roots-based festival the scale of which would have been inconceivable during the TMSA’s formative years. The 60th anniversary concert, at the City Halls, will be hosted by two renowned figures on the traditional scene, Sheena Wellington and Margaret Bennett, and will feature such seasoned voices as Iona Fyfe, Aileen Carr, Arthur Watson and many others.
The scope of Celtic Connections itself is, of course, vast, running from 15 January to 1 February with some 300 acts across 25 venues. It kicks off with a “World Connections” cross-cultural spectacular at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, and goes on to feature such high-profile performers as American songsters Emmylou Harris and Lucinda Williams and Malian singing star Rokia Koné, as well as myriad other performers from Scotland, Ireland and beyond. Spanning folk, jazz, indie rock and orchestral the festival can also blend genres, such as a “Beyond the Tradition” event which sees the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra collaborate with Karine Polwart, Kris Drever, Emily Smith and Lori Watson.
Celtic Connections also celebrates another anniversary – the 25th of the North Atlantic Fiddle Convention, on 16 January with Mary Frances Leahy and the Catriona Macdonald & Annbjørg Lien Band, among others. The convention itself, meanwhile, will gather in Aberdeen on 24-28 June in a heady string-driven transatlantic cultural exchange.
More hands across the Atlantic on 6-8 March as the North Atlantic Song Convention gathers at Edinburgh’s Scottish Storytelling Centre, under the aegis of the Traditional Music Forum of Scotland (while the Storytelling Centre comes into its own from 21-23 October, hosting the Scottish International Storytelling Festival).
Also telling an epic tale is the acclaimed show Metagama: An Atlantic Odyssey, marking the centenary of mass emigration from the Hebrides to Canada on the vessels Metagama, Marloch and Canada during the 1920s, which will tour the Highlands from 17-26 March.
May maintains its status as a month burgeoning with folk festivals, beginning with one of Scotland’s longest-running, Girvan (1-3 May) marking its 51st iteration, while May Day also sees the start of Edinburgh’s Tradfest until the 11th. Early Tradfest confirmations are Gaelic singer Kim Carnie, The Furrow Collective and the furious fiddles of Session A9.
It’s back to essential grass-roots with Fifesing from 16-17 May, as traditional singers from Scotland, Ireland and England gather in Falkland and Freuchie, while the merry month also sees two famously sleep-depriving island hooleys – the Shetland (30 April-3 May) and Orkney (21-24 May) folk festivals.
Elsewhere, Edinburgh International Harp Festival fills George Watson’s College from 10-14 April with harps of all styles and nationalities, ranging from American-Swiss jazz harpist Park Stickney to Welsh-Irish trad-classical fusion duo Catrin Finch and Aoife Ní Bhriain.
And in Stornoway, the big blue tent blossoming on Lews Castle Green from 15-18 July can only mean the Hebcelt festival with early billed guests including the Saw Doctors, Siobhan Miller Band and the Peatbog Faeries. July opens, however, with the characterful East Neuk Festival (1-5), its chamber music in kirk and hall laced with such exotic strains as Syrian oud virtuoso Rihab Asar in collaboration with violinist Donald Grant and cellist Su-a Lee, and the powerful Turkish band Kolektif. The festival also celebrates that Scots-baroque son of Crail, James Oswald, music publisher and composer to George III, with a concert featuring harpist Karen Marshalsay, violinist Kathryn Nicoll and Fife-based singer Chris Miles.
On the jazz front, Edinburgh’s indefatigableJazz Bar continues its nightly programmes, while, also in the capital, Whighams’ Sunday jazz sessions get the new year underway with JazzMain on 15 January, local jazz-funk guitarist Aki Remally the following month and vocalist Fiona Ross in March.
The jazz festival calendar opens with Aberdeen (12-22 March) currently arranging alternative venues following the sudden closure of the legendary Blue Lamp, but featuring European acts including Polish singer Paulina Przybysz and Austria’s nu-jazz and hip-hop fusioneers Synesthetic4. Home-grown talent includes the folk and gypsy jazz fusion of Celtic Django Project.
The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra greets the spring by revisiting its exuberant Pop! Rock! Soul! programme with vibraphone virtuoso Joe Locke, joined by vocalist Tommy Blaize for their inventive way with material ranging from Stevie Wonder to Led Zeppelin, at Glasgow’s RCS Stevenson Hall on 6 March, Usher Hall, Edinburgh on the 7th and Aberdeen Music Hall on the 8th. The big band goes on to present Two Gils & a Bill: Gil Goldstein celebrates the music of Gil Evans and Bill Evans, on 30 April in Glasgow Concert Hall’s New Auditorium, 1 May at the Usher Hall and 2nd at Dundee Rep Theatre.
The long-running Glasgow Jazz Festival returns on 10-14 June for its 40th anniversary, though yet to be programmed. The ten-day Edinburgh International Jazz and Blues Festival, meanwhile, runs from 17-26 July and is still to announce its bill, except that perennial favourite Jools Holland will return to the Usher Hall. Also planned is an evening celebrating the late and much missed pianist Brian Kellock and the festival is arranging its first ever international commission, with Polish saxophonist Maciej Obara selecting Scottish musicians with whom to perform at the St Bride’s Centre on the opening night.
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