The Reeling 2023: New summertime Scottish music festival set to launch in Glasgow this year - featuring Iona Fyfe, Skerryvore, and more

A huge new Scottish music festival has been announced, set to take place this summer in Glasgow’s Southside.

Called ‘The Reeling’ the festival will celebrate traditional (and not so traditional) Scottish music in Rouken Glen Park Saturday June 10 and and Sunday June 11 2023, for what will be the biggest single weekend of traditional music in the Central Belt.

The Reeling is the brainchild of Glasgow-based music promoter Michael Pellegrotti, who is one of the co-directors behind the incredibly successful Skye Live Festival. This new 5,000-capacity festival in Glasgow’s south side, which will be a ‘celebration of Scottish culture, creativity and community’ hopes to deliver a festival focused on sustainability, a fair working environment for event staff, and committing to a ‘gender-balanced line up’.

With the word ‘reeling’ derived from much-loved Scottish dances and tunes, the aptly named festival is guaranteed to be an almighty knees-up, both on and off the stage, thanks to the likes of Scottish favourites Skerryvore, who will close the festival on Sunday night, and the Peatbog Fairies, who will close the festival on Saturday.

The opening day also sees a raft of Scottish talent grace the outdoor stage including Folk Band of the Year Breabach,Gaelic supergroup Dàimh, trad four-piece Fras, highly sought-after folk act RURA, Gaelic vocal harmony trio Sian, the groundbreaking and genre-defying trio Talisk and electro-trad duo Valtos.

On Sunday Skerryvorewill be joined by a cast of much-loved acts in the form of Scotland’s most celebrated fiddle band Blazin’ Fiddles, Hebrides powerhouse Eabhal, Stornoway electro-Celtic band Face The West, energetic trad act Heron Valley, festival favourites Hò-Rò, Scots singer Iona Fyfe, and beloved folk singer Siobhan Miller.

As well as a performance-packed outdoor main stage, the tree-lined Rouken Glen Park site will be home to some unique dining experiences and other activities that will make The Reeling a truly memorable summer day out for music fans of all ages.

The Reeling Festival Director Michael Pellegrotti said: “Despite being home to so many fantastic roots musicians, Glasgow has been longing for a summertime celebration of Scottish traditional and folk music. We believe it’s time to change that – The Reeling is just the event that the city has been crying out for.

“Our aim with The Reeling is to foster a feeling of community and creativity in everything we do. We want to create a unique wee escape in the heart of Glasgow and deliver an event that allows everyone to get together, have a great time outdoors in the summer and soak up music from some of our favourite Scottish artists. It’s also incredibly important to us that we support Scotland’s indigenous languages with a strong presence of Scots and Gaelic.

“I’m proud to have an incredibly talented and experienced team behind the scenes who will help make this the very best festival to attend. We can’t wait to welcome trad and Scottish music fans from across Glasgow and beyond for a right good reel at Rouken Glen this June.”

The Reeling will take place at Rouken Glen Park on Saturday June 10 and Sunday June 11.

Both day and weekend tickets will be available via an exclusive pre-sale to The Reeling mailing list subscribers from 9am on Friday February 10, with tickets on general sale from 9am on Saturday February 11.