The Glasgow Govanhill Festival and Carnival brought together 8000 attendees for a celebration of creativity, community, and activism in its ninth year.
Thousands Attend Glasgow Govanhill Festival and Carnival
The annual 'anti-racism' festival has drawn to a close with 8000 people attending. They gathered at over 50 events in 23 venues and outdoor spaces across ten days in Glasgow's Southside.
The festival, which is now in its ninth year, continues to grow following its initial inception as a joyful response to racist attacks that took place in 2017. 35 artists took part in the finale of the festival on Sunday, as Govanhill Street Music Festival set up five stages along Victoria Road, Westmoreland Street, and the Cooperage.
Maz and the Phantasms, Diljeet Kaur Bhachu, Aleena, Decades of Dub, Girobabies, and Randa Jarrar were just some of the highlights from line-ups arranged by Love Music Hate Racism, Duende, Snack Magazine, and Cargo Signs. On Friday and Saturday, Govanhill Book Festival brought Nicola Sturgeon, Chris McQueer, Peter Mohan, Shane Johnstone, Martin O'Connor, Dareen Tartour, Mohamed Mousa (Gaza Poets Society), and Randa Jarrar to a packed auditorium where topics spanned Scottish politics, incel culture, poetry, and Palestine.
81 languages are spoken within the Govanhill area, and the festival shared Irish, Gaelic, Jewish, Roma, Palestinian, American, East and South-East Asian, Caribbean, and Ethiopian cultural moments, all rooted in a sense of creativity, neighbourhood, and activism.
Running through the festival programme was this celebration of activists and activism. From Mary Barbour, Cathy McCormack, Glasgow's Women on Strike, Glasgow's Anti-Racist History, Welcome to the Fringe: Palestine, and the hundreds of people who marched in the parade, the festival foregrounds those who stand up to injustice, fight against inequality, and support their neighbours.
- Organised by Govanhill Baths Community Trust, this year's festival unfolded as the Baths undergo major renovation, transforming into a Wellbeing Centre, shaped by over two decades of community action since the 2001 occupation of the site following Glasgow City Council's decision to close the Baths - this became the longest-running occupation of a public building in British history.
- Simone Stewart, Arts & Heritage Manager, said: 'This year's festival was a powerful reminder of what happens when creativity and community come together with purpose.
- In a neighbourhood shaped by resistance and solidarity, we celebrated the voices, cultures, and stories that make Govanhill what it is.'
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Published on 13 August 2025 by UKFG
