{{No footnotes, date=September 2011
The Merchant City Festival is a major cultural festival taking place in
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...
's
Merchant City
The Merchant City, a new name introduced through urban renewal by the Scottish Development Agency and the city council in the 1980s is one part of the metropolitan central area of Glasgow. It commences at George Square and goes eastwards reachin ...
area.
Attracting more than 55,000 people, the four-day Festival presents the cream of
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...
’s theatre, music, visual arts, comedy, dance, film, fashion and food scene.
The Festival presents opera singers in the courtyards and squares performing alongside cutting-edge live art, street theatre, iconoclastic comedy and music from every genre in the bars and on the street. It also has a quirky short film programme that places films in estate agents, hairdressers and tattoo parlours. Many of the events are free of charge.
The Merchant City Festival has attracted an extensive range of supporters and contributors from festival directors to national organisations such as
Scottish Opera
Scottish Opera is the national opera company of Scotland, and one of the five national performing arts companies of Scotland. Founded in 1962 and based in Glasgow, it is the largest performing arts organisation in Scotland.
History
Scottish ...
,
Scottish Ballet
Scottish Ballet is the national ballet company of Scotland and one of the five leading ballet companies of the United Kingdom, alongside the Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and Northern Ballet. Founded in 1969, ...
and
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (BBC SSO) is a Scottish broadcasting symphony orchestra based in Glasgow. One of five full-time orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation ( BBC), it is the oldest full-time professional r ...
.
A ‘festival of festivals’, it has worked with established festivals such as New Moves International, the
Glasgow International Comedy Festival
Glasgow International Comedy Festival is a comedy festival in Glasgow, Scotland. The comedy festival started in 2002 and is held annually in March in venues across the city. The festival is supported financially by Glasgow City Council and sinc ...
Big in Falkirk
Big in Falkirk was a festival of the arts held in Falkirk, Scotland, from 2000 to 2009.
Since its inception in 2000, the award-winning (Scottish Thistle Award Events & Festivals 2005) free weekend event was one of the largest cultural events in S ...
and Glasgay! An international context is provided by the Directors’ Choice programme that provides a remarkable range of street artists selected from festival directors throughout
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
.
The 2008 Merchant City Festival was held in September.
The Merchant City Festival is produced by UZ Events in partnership with Glasgow City Marketing Bureau.
Celtic Music Radio broadcast live from the 2008 festival on 1530kHz and on the internet, from an
Outside Broadcast
Outside broadcasting (OB) is the electronic field production (EFP) of television or radio programmes (typically to cover television news and sports television events) from a mobile remote broadcast television studio. Professional video ca ...