19 Best Performing Arts Venues in Glasgow, Scotland

Continually expanding, this music festival is held throughout the second half of January in venues across the city. Musicians from Scotland, Ireland, and other countries celebrate Celtic music, both traditional and contemporary. There are a series of hands-on workshops and a popular late-night club at the Royal Concert Hall.

An independent operation, the three-screen Glasgow Film Theatre shows the best new releases, documentaries, and classic films. It has several programs for young people and hosts the annual Glasgow Film Festival.

In a former church, Glasgow's hugely successful lunchtime theater series called "A Play, a Pie, and a Pint" (and you do get all three) showcases new writing from Scotland and elsewhere. Doors open at 12:15 pm and shows begin at 1 pm Monday through Saturday. Performances sell out quickly, particularly late in the week, so book well in advance on the website.

A unique spectacle, Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre is the brainchild of Eduard Bersudsky, who came to Glasgow from Russia in 1989 to continue making the mechanical sculptures that are his stock in trade. They are witty and sometimes disturbing, perhaps because they are constructed from scrap materials. They move in a kind of ballet to haunting, specially composed music punctuated by a light show. The shows are 45 or 70 minutes.

This highly successful literary festival brings together writers from Scotland and the world to discuss their work and exchange ideas. It is held in the Mitchell Library and other venues over one week in July.

One of the top music venues in the Merchant City, the stone-fronted City Halls hosts orchestral, jazz, and folk concerts.

For five days in late June, Glasgow hosts jazz musicians from around the world in venues throughout the city, though mainly in the City Centre.

The 2,500-seat Glasgow Royal Concert Hall is the venue for a wide range of concerts, from classical to pop. It also hosts the very popular late-night club during the annual Celtic Connections music festival.

This popular, compact cinema has two screens and extremely comfortable leather seats (some of them big enough for two). It's part of a small complex in the always busy Ashton Lane, immediately behind the subway station, that also includes bars, cafés, and restaurants.

Dramas, variety shows, and musicals are staged at the King's Theatre, open since 1904. It hosts many touring productions of musicals from London's West End. Check ticket websites to see what's on.

This traditional variety theater hosts family-friendly entertainment, some plays, the occasional hypnotist, and concerts, most with a very strong Glasgow flavor.

An important venue for music and drama, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland hosts regular concerts by well-known performers, as well as by its own students. The lunchtime concert series is popular.

As well as a library, the Scottish Music Centre serves as the main ticket office for all music events at venues like the Royal Concert Hall and for annual events like the Glasgow Jazz Festival.

The 3,000-seat riverside SEC is known as the Armadillo for its distinctive, curved design by Norman Foster. It hosts large-scale pop concerts and other events.

This dramatic addition to the banks of the Clyde is a 12,000-seat arena under a silver dome. Built for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, it has proved enormously popular as a music and event venue.

Glasgow is home to the Scottish Opera and Scottish Ballet and plays hosts to a range of events throughout the year by visiting dance and theater companies.

Tickets for theatrical performances can be purchased at theater box offices or online through Ticketmaster.

Come here for contemporary theater from Scotland and around the world; there are three performance spaces. The theater often plays host to works from young Scottish playwrights, and is unafraid to showcase work with provocative and contemporary themes.

This vibrant contemporary arts center, housed in a converted Edwardian warehouse, is home base for diverse groups producing film, photography, paintings, and prints. It contains the Russian Cultural Centre and the Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre, as well as the Glasgow Print Studio, a well-established outlet for Glasgow artists; Street Level Photoworks, which aims at making photography more accessible; and the Transmission Gallery, a key exhibition space supporting nonconceptual art in the city.