Words: Jess McKendrick (she/her) and Lucy Donoghue (she/her)
Bringing a diverse and exciting range of live music performances to Glasgow, Glasgow Barons is hosting the fourth Govan Music Festival from Wednesday 26th to Saturday 29th March. With the opening of the Govan-Partick bridge, this festival is a fantastic opportunity to bring communities together, to share their love of music and showcase the fantastic local talent of Govan.
The Glasgow Barons is a Glasgow charity which aims to ‘build hope, resilience, teamwork, listening and communication through music in Govan’. The Glasgow Barons promotes music as a way to nurture community, by utilising local venues and keeping events such as the Govan Music Festival at a low cost. This years’ festival offers a dynamic array of performers that everyone will be sure to enjoy.
We spoke with Paul MacAlindin, Artistic Direcor of The Glasgow Barons, to see what we can expect from Govan Music Festival 2025.
What’s in store this year at The Govan Music Festival?
Scottish indie artists Becci Wallace and Ant Thomaz debut their up front and personal new albums. Three dazzling soloists perform Bach’s Orchestral Suite no.2, Aileen Sweeney’s accordion concerto, Winter and Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. 180 children perform a mass school choirs gathering. The Four Barons String Quartet gives the UK premiere of Gabriela Smith’s radical new “Carrot Revolution”, alongside Ravel’s String Quartet. Our asylum seeking and refugee Musicians in Exile perform alongside the fire and passion of TuFlamenco dance troupe. Five local singer-songwriters debut new songs celebrating The Clyde. FREED UP, Scotland’s leading sober events producer, celebrate their first birthday with Scottish hip hop, The Ronains and dancing the night away with Zander Nation. Red Bull will be consumed in vast quantities.
Is there an event you are particularly excited for?
I am thrilled to be working with three brilliant soloists in our orchestral concert on the 27th, Matthew Higham, principal flute of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Neil Sutcliffe, accordionist from The Bubblyjock Collective and David Juritz, violinist of The London Tango Quintet. This is a dinner of one dessert after another, and I’m going to stand there as a conductor and try not to be bowled over by their stellar performances.
This is the fourth year of the Govan Music Festival. What impact do you feel the festival has on the community?
We get folk off their tech and out the front door to meet up as diverse audiences, making and sharing music they wouldn’t otherwise enjoy. That raises aspirations and enthusiasm for life. We’re about bigging up local talent and local venues, and every year, I see more and more offshoots from that, as the whole community builds confidence in their own musical adventures.
What does the festival mean for the artists performing?
For me as the lead artist and local resident, it means effecting a positive shift in the deeply engrained culture of deprivation. I think everyone loves being part of a festival like no other, shaped by Govan’s spaces and people, all incredibly affordable and easy to get to.
To see more about the festival, and book tickets for the events, visit the website:
https://www.glasgowbarons.com/govan-music-festival-2025
