TRNSMT 2026 was off to a soggy start. For hours last Friday, the rain came down in soaking sheets. It seemed like every supermarket and pound shop from one end of Argyle Street to the other was sold out of plastic rain ponchos.

Inside, girls with rain-streaked tan dripping into their boots squelch through puddles, giggling. Sparse clusters of plastic-draped revellers cluster around the stages in the downpour.

By 6pm, the festival’s fortunes changed, and the sun came out, but the masses never seemed to show. Glasgow Green, with its daily capacity of 50,000, felt sparse.

On the bright side, no crowds meant no queues. It took no time at all to be served at the bar, but the giddiness wore off after spending £9.50 on a pint of San Miguel. Well, £7.50 for the Spanish lager and a non-refundable £2 for the hard plastic cup it was sloshing around in. The environmentalist and the penny pincher within me clash over the twin passions for being sustainable and feeling like a victim of the extraction economy.

TRNSMT 2026 (Image: Robert Perry)

DF Concerts announced the lineup for this year’s TRNSMT in early November 2025, with headliners Richard Ashcroft, Kasabian, and Lewis Capaldi confirmed for June 19-21. Tickets were released shortly after: £79.50 for one day, £150 for two, and £229.50 for the entire weekend (face value pricing). In January, five months before the festival, DF released a “limited time” two-day (Friday/Saturday) ticket for £99, described as “an unbeatable price”. By early June, deal website itison was offering the same Friday-Saturday ticket for £65, less than the face value of a single-day ticket. A Saturday-Sunday ticket was on sale for £95.

When the lineup was first announced, the reception was lukewarm, with Lewis Capaldi and Kasabian both returning as headliners. No named women have ever headlined the festival since its inception nine years ago, and DF has faced repeated criticism about its men-with-guitars line-ups. In 2019, festival director Geoff Ellis told the BBC: “It will be a while until there's a 50/50 balance. That's definitely several years ahead for any major festival to achieve because there's far, far less female artists. We need to get more females picking up guitars, forming bands, playing in bands."

TRNSMT 2026 (Image: Robert Perry)

Scotland’s festival crisis deepens as eight events cancel or 'pause' in 2026

Scotland’s festival crisis deepens as eight events cancel or 'pause' in........

© Herald Scotland