Hands Up for Trad are inviting bands to send in a demo to take part in The Battle of the Folk Bands 2027 competition to be held at Glasgow’s Celtic Connections Festival on Saturday January 30th 2027 at 1pm.
If you are in a band or have an idea for a band that you haven’t tried out yet this could be for you! We want musicians to take a chance and make a band that you might never have thought of! Your band can have as many as 5 members and as little as 3. it can be a song band or instrumental or a mixture of the two. You don’t need to have performed any gigs yet. All you have to do is upload 2 demo mp3s (no bigger than 4MBs each) and a brief resume using the form below. MAKE SURE YOU LABEL YOUR MP3S PROPERLY. These will be listened to by a selected panel of musicians who are looking for musicality and originality and the 4 best entries will get through to perform at battle of the folk bands at Celtic Connections on January 30TH 2026. 1 winner will be chosen at the concert. If you are having trouble uploading MP3s – don’t worry. Fill in the form and email Hands Up for Trad.
The prizes are: performances at Celtic Connections and one day recording at GloWorm Recording in Glasgow.
Deadline for submissions is Sunday 11th October 2026. Bands will be informed on the week of 9th November if they have made it through to Battle of The Folk Bands Final. The finals are on 30th January 2026 at 1pm as part of Celtic Connections festival.