What's On in Glasgow

Trad Friday Sessions @ Blackfriars — There are few better ways to begin a Friday evening than slipping into Blackfriars on Bell Street for some live traditional music, and this long-running session is as warm and welcoming as it gets. Expect fiddles, flutes, and the kind of easy camaraderie that makes strangers feel like regulars. Doors open at 4:00pm, and with pricing to check on the website, it's worth a look before you commit to anything else tonight.

GCF: Event 2 / Manasamitra: Lullaby-Sonic Cradle — Part of the Glasgow Cathedral Festival, Manasamitra bring their spellbinding Lullaby-Sonic Cradle to one of the most breathtaking spaces in the city at 5:30pm. This is music that wraps itself around you — expect layered, meditative sound that feels entirely different inside those ancient stone walls. At just £10, it is one of the most transportive things you can do with an hour on a September evening.

Dr Alimantado & Messenger Sound System — Roots reggae royalty comes to the Pearce Institute in Govan at 6:30pm, with the legendary Dr Alimantado stepping up alongside Messenger Sound System for a night of proper dancehall heritage. This is a rare chance to witness a genuine pioneer of Jamaican music in an intimate community venue with serious soul. Tickets are £20–£25 and this one will absolutely sell out, so move quickly.

GCF: Event 3 / Bach and Blood — Glasgow Cathedral plays host again at 7:00pm for what promises to be the most dramatically titled concert of the autumn — Bach and Blood sounds like a provocation, and inside a Gothic cathedral after dark, it almost certainly delivers on that promise. Expect the precision and emotional sweep of Bach colliding with something altogether more visceral, in a setting that gives classical music back its power to unsettle. Tickets are £12.

Nightvision presents Funk Tribu // Glasgow — If you are looking for the centrepiece of Glasgow's late-night scene on this particular Friday, SWG3 is where it is happening, with Nightvision bringing Funk Tribu to the main room from 10:00pm. This is a booking with genuine international pedigree, set inside one of the most exciting club spaces in the country. Tickets run from £21–£36, and the dancefloor will be absolutely heaving by midnight.

Musicals Mass Karaoke (Glasgow) — Starting at 11:00pm at G2 (The Garage Glasgow), this is the most gloriously unhinged way to end a Friday — a mass karaoke event built entirely around musicals, where the crowd becomes the cast and nobody is judging your Phantom of the Opera. It is silly, it is joyful, it is completely inclusive, and at £7–£9 it might just be the best value fun in the city tonight.