Live Music in Galway

The Galway live music scene

Start with the sessions, because in Galway they are the main event. The Crane Bar on Sea Road, over the river in the West End, has a free traditional session every night at 9.30pm, and that single fact tells you most of what you need to know about the city. O'Connor's Famous Pub out in Salthill does the same with a split start, 7.30pm from Monday to Thursday and 9.30pm from Friday to Sunday. An Púcán on Forster Street, behind Eyre Square, runs a 6pm trad session most evenings and later live bands from 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays. Monroe's Tavern on Dominick Street Upper adds a free Friday-afternoon session from 4.30pm on top of its nightly 9pm live music. Then there are the two pubs that simply put a band on at 9pm every night, free: the Kings Head on its main stage and M. Fitzgerald's, which leans acoustic, folk and modern Irish. Between those six, Galway city has free music on every night of the year.

That is why the numbers look the way they do. Roughly three gigs in four in the county are free, and only a small minority carry a ticket price at all. Where they do, most sit between €15 and €30, with a small pub concert at the bottom end and the Leisureland names at the top. Rock and folk run neck and neck as the leading flavours, with pop and country well behind, and nearly all of it is in the city itself. The county beyond, Ballinasloe, Loughrea, Woodford, Barna, Gort and Kinvara, has venues with the odd show, so this is a city guide with a county attached.

Róisín Dubh on Dominick Street Upper is the ticketed heart of the West End and the room most touring bands play. It often runs two shows on one night, an early gig and a later one, so read the start times. It has hosted Foy Vance, And So I Watch You From Afar and The Frank and Walters alongside a steady diet of tribute acts and new Irish bands, and most tickets fall in the €12 to €30 range. Monroe's Tavern across the street is its louder neighbour, mixing free nightly music with ticketed one-offs: names like Daoirí Farrell, The Beat and Project Smok turn up there, and the majority of its nights cost nothing.

For seated concerts, head out to Salthill or in to Courthouse Square. Leisureland on Rockbarton Road carries the bigger-name bracket, from Glen Hansard and Paul Brady to The High Kings. The Town Hall Theatre runs a short seated concert strand each winter alongside its drama programme, the kind of room where Ralph McTell, Andy Irvine or Phil Coulter play, and the Black Box on Dyke Road takes the heritage rock tours. 13 on the Green, on Eyre Square, is worth knowing for its standing midweek residencies at 9pm, and the Loft at Seven runs a Latin social night midweek.

Geography is simple. The West End, across the Wolfe Tone Bridge, holds the Crane Bar, Róisín Dubh and Monroe's within two minutes of each other, and you can hear a session, a touring band and a tribute act in one evening without crossing back. The Latin Quarter and Eyre Square side has the Kings Head, Fitzgerald's, An Púcán and 13 on the Green. Salthill has O'Connor's and Leisureland. Nothing in the city centre is more than a 20-minute walk from anything else.

Two practical notes. Late starts are rare: An Púcán's weekend bands and the second show at Róisín Dubh are about the only things that begin after 10pm, so Galway's music is mostly done by midnight even if the pubs are not. And because the nightly session pubs flatten the week out, the weekend is less of a peak here than anywhere else; a Tuesday in Galway is as good as a Saturday in most counties. The calendar is fullest from June to October, when the Arts Festival, the races and the film fleadh bring extra programming, and the Town Hall and Leisureland fill the winter with seated shows.

The free nights are not all anonymous, either. Monroe's names its acts, and a typical month there has a better folk and roots line-up than many ticketed rooms manage. The Crane Bar's occasional ticketed concerts sit upstairs on Friday nights above the usual session, and the Kings Head's bands are the easiest walk-in option for a group that wants to dance.

Galway venues worth knowing

A short, opinionated list of where to go in Galway and why. Open any venue for its full upcoming calendar.

Traditional sessions in Galway

Galway has more nightly sessions than any other city. The Crane Bar on Sea Road runs a free trad session every night at 9.30pm. O'Connor's Famous Pub in Salthill has one every night too, at 7.30pm Monday to Thursday and 9.30pm Friday to Sunday. An Púcán on Forster Street starts its sessions at 6pm most evenings, Monroe's Tavern adds a Friday-afternoon session from 4.30pm, and the Kings Head and M. Fitzgerald's each put on a free band at 9pm every night, Fitzgerald's leaning acoustic and folk. All of these are walk-in and free.

Live music in Galway: common questions