Glasgow Cathedral Festival guide: 17–20 September

BE beehiveweb.co.uk editorial team 2026-08-14 19:23 3 min read

Glasgow Cathedral Festival returns to Glasgow Cathedral, Castle Street, from Thursday 17 to Sunday 20 September. The anniversary programme begins at 8pm on Thursday and combines live music, participatory art, silent cinema, talks and tours inside the city’s oldest building.

Booking is open. Prices vary by event, while most of the informal anniversary talks are free. The festival is open to the general public and will particularly suit audiences interested in classical and experimental music, Glasgow’s history, cathedral architecture or cinema with live accompaniment.

Creative Scotland News confirmed the dates, programme and access arrangements when the 10th anniversary season was unveiled on 14 August. This year’s theme, “Rooted in Discovery”, connects the building’s history with newly commissioned and contemporary work.

Six performances across four days

The opening commission, Echoes in Stone and Brass, places RSNO Principal Trombone Dávur Juul Magnussen alongside the Choir of Glasgow Cathedral and brass players from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Drawing on improvised brass traditions from the Faroe Islands, the promenade performance follows a musical path from the buried Molendinar Burn and Glasgow’s industrial past towards an imagined future.

Friday’s Lullaby—Sonic Cradle invites audience members to contribute lullabies, songs and family memories. Artists Supriya Nagarajan and Duncan Chapman bring those contributions into a soundscape combining South Indian Carnatic music, electronics and environmental sound.

Later that evening, Scottish Ensemble and singers from the National Youth Choir of Scotland present Bach and Blood. The programme moves from J.S. Bach’s Chaconne and Arvo Pärt’s Greater Antiphons to David Fennessy’s Blood, which combines ancient chants with strings.

Silent cinema meets the cathedral organ

Saturday’s screening of the 1923 film The Hunchback of Notre Dame continues the festival’s silent-cinema strand. Organist Richard Hills will improvise the soundtrack live on Glasgow Cathedral’s 147-year-old pipe organ, bringing the film’s Gothic setting into direct conversation with the surrounding architecture.

Sunday takes a quieter direction. Eternal Song, curated by soprano Rose Stachniewska and pianist Dylan Perez, spans a thousand years of musical mysticism through works by Bach, Olivier Messiaen and Josephine Foster. Swedish composer and musical artist Ellen Arkbro then closes the festival with Sculptures, an immersive organ work built from slowly changing harmonies.

Ten talks mark the anniversary year

The performance programme is accompanied by 10 Talks for 10 Years, developed with Glasgow Life, Historic Environment Scotland, St Mungo Museum and Soul Food Sisters. Most of these informal events are free and cover conservation, local history, food, culture and community.

Talks and tours offer another way to explore how the cathedral fits into Glasgow’s story, although the complete schedule will be published as individual programme details are released.

Booking, prices and accessibility

Glasgow Cathedral Festival is operated by the Society of Friends of Glasgow Cathedral, a charitable and non-religious organisation responsible for supporting the building’s preservation and artistic activity.

Booking is now open, with prices varying between events. All performances are accessible, and the festival provides reduced-price wheelchair seating with a free companion ticket. Requests for BSL interpretation and a programme-reading service are welcomed, with additional arrangements made where possible for talks and tours. The remaining 10 Talks for 10 Years programme will be released separately.

Source: Creative Scotland News

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Source check How this guide was checked

Dates, performance times, booking status and accessibility information were checked against the festival announcement published by Creative Scotland News.

Checks

• Confirmed the festival runs from 17 to 20 September 2026 at Glasgow Cathedral.
• Matched all six performance titles with their published dates and times.
• Checked that booking is open and that prices vary by event.
• Checked the stated wheelchair seating, companion ticket, BSL and programme-reading arrange...

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Creative Scotland News

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Glasgow, Scotland

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2026-08-14 19:23

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Dávur Juul MagnussenRichard HillsEllen Arkbro

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