Trad Trails for Celtic Connections

In between raiding the mince pies and making inroads on the whisky, Glasgow Music City Tours spent much of the festive period polishing our stories for our Trad Trail walking tours, which we are running as part of Celtic Connections in 2016. Our first tour is today, and our initial scheduled tours have now sold out.

In view of that we have added another tour on Thursday 21 January, but tickets are going very fast, so get one while you still can at the Celtic Connections box office .

Glasgow’s vibrant folk culture

Focusing on Glasgow’s trad, roots and folk scene, the two hour tours share tales of the songwriters and storytellers who have shaped the city’s vibrant folk culture.

As well as going behind the scenes at Celtic Connections, we wonder what Robert Burns would have made of his old Glasgow haunt becoming a Marks and Sparks and we hear the echo of ship rivets being hammered in as we ponder the links between Glasgow’s folk scene and its industrial heritage.

In between, there are tales of Humblebums, outlaw bikers and jeely pieces, and we have compiled a playlist for you which reflects some of the stories and artists that we mention.

We know that no-one expects to top up their tan in January in Glasgow so the tours have been designed to take in plenty of indoor stops.

Even so, we strongly advise that you wrap up warm, wear thick socks and don’t be too surprised if there is the odd spot or two of rain.

Of course, there will be the opportunity to warm your hands on a cup of coffee. Or something stronger.

Unless we eat them all first, there may also be a finger or two of Walkers Shortbread to sustain us on our journey.

Over the next couple of weeks we will have some guest blogs from artists participating in Celtic Connections, so watch this space!

Amazing support

We didn’t expect the tours to be so popular. We would have laid on more if thought that they would have sold out.

A large part of that success has been down to the all the amazing help and enthusiasm shown us by Celtic Connections, the Scottish Music Centre, Britannia Panopticon, Glasgow City Life, The Clutha , The Scotia, Thom O’Donnell and Pernod Ricard.

Thank you everybody!

Our scheduled tours will be on hold during January. Normal service will be resumed on Friday 5th February when our first Merchant City Music – Past and Present tour will get underway.