Merchant City Festival ‘26

Part of the Glasgow 2026 Festival.

This year's Merchant City Festival was the biggest in its history - 113,000 people across two weekends, more than 450 acts and performers, and a programme that spilled across the Old Fruitmarket, Candleriggs Square, Merchant Square and The Briggait as part of the Glasgow 2026 Festival.

I covered both weekends for Glasgow Life. The programme had everything - live music, street theatre, dance, circus performances, food markets, family ceilidhs. My favourite part was probably the carnival - loud, chaotic, joyful, and exactly the kind of thing that's almost impossible to photograph badly.

I knew there were far right protests happening at Glasgow Green that first weekend - pretty much within a walking distance from the festival sites. Yet you wouldn't have known it standing in the Merchant City. The atmosphere was open, diverse and completely relaxed. People of all backgrounds, all ages, just getting on with enjoying themselves. Glasgow at its best, really.