Live Music in Sligo

The Sligo live music scene

Start with the theatre, because in Sligo the theatre is the scene. The Hawks Well on Lower Knox Street in Sligo town has the fullest concert calendar in the north-west, nearly all of it ticketed and priced, which makes it one of the easiest venues in the country to plan around. Prices are modest by national standards, mostly between €12 and €26 with the bigger trad and folk names a little higher: the programme mixes concert trad from players like Matt Molloy and Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, singer-songwriters of the Duke Special kind, tribute nights, a Christmas singalong and a January family show, with Friday, Saturday and Sunday 8pm starts the norm.

The free end of the scene is one pub. Thomas Connolly on Markievicz Road, by the river in the town centre, keeps two weekly fixtures and sticks to them: a traditional seisiún every Friday at 10pm and a live acoustic session every Sunday at 9.30pm, both free. If you are in Sligo at the weekend and want music without a ticket, that is where to go, and the Friday session is the latest-starting regular night in the county.

The town's hotels fill in the ticketed middle ground. The Sligo Park Hotel runs a January and February series of Irish names and tribute shows, Mike Denver, The High Kings and the Joe Dolan tributes are typical, which makes it the busiest venue in the county in the quiet months. The Radisson Blu at Ballincar, on the Rosses Point road, books country and ballad names a few times a season at the dearer end, around €35 to €40. Knocknarea Arena on Ash Lane is the big-room option when a large tour comes through, Picture This among them. Lillie's on Bridge Street has the occasional cheap gig.

South Sligo is worth the drive. The Art Deco Theatre on Teeling Street in Ballymote often shares acts with the Hawks Well, so a trad or jazz name playing the town will play Ballymote the same week, usually at 8pm. Also in Ballymote, the Barrel House at The White Hag brewery puts on local bands around the holidays. On the coast, the Diamond Coast Hotel in Enniscrone books folk and country names of the Frances Black kind with 9pm starts, and the Church of Our Lady in Enniscrone hosts the occasional seated concert.

What is published is only part of the story. Strandhill's bars, the pubs of Gurteen and Tubbercurry in the south of the county, and the town's own west end all have sessions that are rarely advertised. For a county that gave Irish music Michael Coleman and still hosts a fiddle tradition in its south, that is an invitation to ask in the pubs rather than a silence, and the South Sligo Summer School in Tubbercurry in July is the week to do it.

The town itself is compact: the Hawks Well on Lower Knox Street, Thomas Connolly by the river and Lillie's on Bridge Street are a few minutes' walk apart, Knocknarea Arena is on the edge of town, and the Radisson at Ballincar is a short taxi out the Rosses Point road. A visitor staying in town will see almost everything the county publishes without a car.

Sligo's ticketed shows typically sit between €12 and €35, cheaper than most counties, and roughly a quarter of its gigs are free. Fridays and Saturdays carry about half the music, and the only regular late start is the Thomas Connolly Friday session. The year peaks hard in summer: June and August bring the Sligo Jazz Project week, the Fleadh-style sessions and the seaside season, and the Hawks Well carries the winter.

Sligo venues worth knowing

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

Traditional sessions in Sligo

Thomas Connolly on Markievicz Road in Sligo town runs a free traditional seisiún every Friday at 10pm and a free acoustic session every Sunday at 9.30pm, and they are the only regular published sessions in the county. For traditional concerts, the Hawks Well books the bigger trad names a few times a season and the Art Deco Theatre in Ballymote often shares them. South Sligo's session pubs in Gurteen and Tubbercurry run unadvertised sessions, busiest during the summer school in July.

Live music in Sligo: common questions